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Rising number of institutions have legacy officers to persuade alumni to donate. Olga Wojtas reports.
Bequests to the University of Edinburgh topped Pounds 4 million from some 30 legacies last year, and such donations are expected to make up 12 per cent of Edinburgh's ambitious Pounds 350 million fundraising campaign.
Among this year's bequests was one from Albert McKern, an Edinburgh graduate who left $11 million (Pounds 5.7 million) to be divided among the three universities where he had studied - Edinburgh, Sydney and Yale.
Dr McKern set up a medical practice in the 1930s in what was then Western Malaya. In the Second World War, he was captured by the Japanese and interned. But shortly before his death in a prisoner-of-war camp, he wrote a will stating that once his last family beneficiary died, his estate should be divided between the three universities. Last month, the institutions got an equal share of his $11 million legacy.
The sums may rarely be so substantial, but universities are becoming increasingly aware of the key role of legacies in fundraising.
A growing number of institutions have dedicated legacy officers, such as Edinburgh's Joanne Finnie who points out that the value of estates has risen dramatically in line with property values.
Small gifts are as important as large ones. Karen Hart, The Open University's legacy officer, said: "We have more than 20,000 alumni who are over the age of 70....