Legacies provide a vital income stream to many charities, contributing £2 billion of charitable income to UK charities each year (Dobbs et al 2010). There is significant potential to increase this figure. Legacy Foresight (2007) estimate that, by 2050, the UK legacy market will be worth £5.2 billion a year, due largely to the demise of the babyboomer generation. Similarly, remarkably few individuals give at death, with only 8 per cent of people giving when they die, as opposed to the 80 per cent who give in life (Sargeant and Radcliffe 2007). Even a comparatively small increase in the percentage of those who give could provide valuable future income to non- profits: an increase from 8 to 12 per cent of decedents giving could provide an extra billion of charitable income a year (Dobbs et al 2010). However, despite the current importance of legacy income to charities and its future potential, legacy giving remains under-researched within the giving literature. There are, however, intriguing leads from the sociology, psychology and economics literatures around late-life planning and the process of identity maintenance and development in older age. This study uses a constructivist grounded theory approach to investigate two of these leads, the concepts of remembrance and generativity. The central question of this study is to investigate the concepts of remembrance and generativity to examine where leaving a charitable legacy fits within an individual's broader self concept and life narrative - their past, their present and their anticipated legacy (in its broadest sense). The data was acquired through depth interviews with people who had pledged a legacy to UK charity, Help the Aged. Three key influencers on legacy giving emerge from the interview data: social influence, the self and symbolic immortality. The research demonstrates the importance of external social influences, both on the will making process, and indeed, on the development of the individual throughout their life course. It also shows the importance of intrinsic motivators such as individual values and personal experiences which forge links with causes and charities throughout the life course. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the research indicates how a charitable legacy can enable the giver to create a sense of symbolic immortality by making a difference to the world they leave behind. These three key themes, alongside other results from the research process, are drawn together to create a model of the legacy giving decision. The study concludes with suggestions for practitioners and for future research.

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Cette thèse est consacrée à la question du don dans le milieu humanitaire, sous l'angle des donateurs particuliers rarement questionnés à ce sujet. Les ONG ont de plus en plus de visibilité et utilisent, entre autre, les émotions pour inciter aux dons. Cependant puisque le sujet du don est étudié (comme par l'anthropologue Marcel Mauss, principalement), il convient de s'appuyer sur les analyses correspondant à cette thématique, tout en s'intéressant à une ONG française de Solidarité Internationale (Aide et Action) dont le principal domaine d'intervention est l'éducation et qui a mis en place le parrainage. L'organisation intervient dans différents pays pour venir en aide à des personnes vulnérables, notamment des enfants, ce via différentes actions basées sur le développement à long terme. Dans ce travail, il s'agit surtout de comprendre pourquoi les donateurs particuliers de cette ONG, à la fois les donateurs hebdomadaires ou trimestriels et ceux dénommés «parrains», donnent de l'argent. Le terrain s'est effectué par le biais de deux questionnaires, un pour chaque type de donateur, où furent posées des questions concernant, particulièrement, la manière dont l'ONG communique auprès des donateurs, les incitant par-là à poursuivre leur investissement. Par la suite, des entretiens ont permis de renforcer les données apportées par les questionnaires. / This thesis is devoted to the issue of donation in the humanitarian sector, from the perspective of individual donors who are rarely questioned about this subject. NGOs are increasingly present in the public eye and use, among other strategies, emotions to incite people to donate. However, since the theme of the gift has been studied (for example, by the anthropologist Marcel Mauss, mainly), we should be based on the analysis related to this theme and also focus on a French NGO ("Aide et Action") whose main sphere of action relates to education and has established the sponsorship. The organization operates in different countries in order to help vulnerable people, including children, through various actions based on long-term development. In this work, it is mainly to understand why do individual donors of this NGO, both weekly and quarterly and those referred to as "sponsors", give money. The fieldwork has been carried out through two questionnaires, one for each type of donors, in which questions were asked, in particular, about how the NGO communicates with donors, prompting thereby to continue their investment. Subsequently, interviews have strengthened data provided by the questionnaires.