Dolly Parton, the legendary country singer, unfortunately passed away on 25 August 2026 at the age of 80.
She was known the world over for her seminal music, but her philanthropic work also made headlines on a regular basis.
Perhaps her most enduring charitable project is the Imagination Library, which she founded in 1995 to provide free books to young children. According to the BBC, the programme has sent a staggering 332.4 million books to countries across the globe.
Of course, Parton had resources many people might struggle to match, with Reuters stating that her net worth in 2025 stood at $450 million.
Yet her charitable legacy also shows that making a meaningful difference doesn’t necessarily require seven-figure donations.
Whether you donate £20 a month, give investments, or leave money to charity in your will, you can support causes you care about in many ways.
Importantly, charitable giving can also form part of your wider financial plan, potentially helping you manage your tax liability, plan your estate, and use your wealth in a way that reflects your values.
Continue reading to discover ways to make giving more meaningful and tax-efficient.
Regular donations could help you support causes without affecting your other goals
You don’t necessarily need to make a significant one-off contribution for your charitable giving to add up.
Instead, you could choose an affordable amount and donate regularly through a standing order or direct debit.
For instance, £25 a month would amount to £300 over a year, and £3,000 over a decade, even before considering any Gift Aid the charity might be able to claim.
Regular donations could also make charitable giving easier to incorporate into your financial plan.
Rather than deciding how much to give on an ad hoc basis, you could treat donations in much the same way as other planned expenditure. This could help you support causes consistently while ensuring you still have enough to meet day-to-day costs and work towards long-term goals such as retirement.
A financial planner could use cashflow modelling – which, you should note, isn’t regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority – to show how different levels of regular giving might affect your wealth over the long run.
For example, you could model whether donating £100 or £250 a month throughout retirement would still leave enough to fund your dream lifestyle if you lived to 90 or experienced weaker-than-expected investment returns.
This could allow you to be generous with confidence, knowing your donations have been considered alongside your own financial security.
Gift Aid could increase your donation and offer valuable tax opportunities
Gift Aid essentially allows eligible charities to claim an additional 25p for every £1 you donate, provided you’ve paid enough Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax (CGT).
So, if you give £100, the charity could receive £125 without you contributing more.
You may also be able to claim additional-rate tax relief yourself if you pay Income Tax above the basic rate.
As an example, a 40% taxpayer making a £100 Gift Aid donation could claim £25 in additional tax relief.
This can make Gift Aid especially useful in your tax planning. Gift Aid donations reduce your “adjusted net income”, which HMRC uses for several tax calculations. For every £1 you donate, HMRC typically deducts £1.25 when working out this figure.
This could be valuable if your income is slightly above £100,000, at which point your Personal Allowance starts to reduce.
Depending on your exact circumstances, charitable donations might help you reclaim some of this allowance while supporting a cause that already matters to you.
Just note that calculating your exact relief can get complex. Still, a financial planner could help you understand how Gift Aid interacts with your income and pensions, ensuring your generosity is as efficient as possible.
Donating shares could help you support charity while managing Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax
If you own qualifying shares, land, or property that has increased significantly in value, giving the asset directly to charity could offer valuable tax benefits.
You can typically deduct the value of qualifying assets you donate from your taxable income for that year. Additionally, you usually won’t need to pay CGT on any increase in value when giving them directly to charity.
Imagine, for example, that you hold shares outside an ISA that have risen considerably in value.
Selling them yourself and then donating the proceeds could potentially crystallise a taxable capital gain.
Donating the qualifying shares directly may allow the charity to benefit while avoiding CGT on the disposal and potentially reducing your Income Tax bill.
This could come in handy when reviewing your portfolio. You might have investments that have grown to form a larger proportion of your portfolio than you originally intended.
If charitable giving is already one of your goals, donating qualifying shares could help you rebalance your portfolio while supporting a chosen cause and using available tax relief.
Of course, it might not be wise to make these decisions in isolation, and investing always carries risk. A financial planner could consider the donation alongside your long-term goals, risk tolerance, and income needs to determine whether this approach is appropriate.
Leaving money to charity in your will could reduce a future Inheritance Tax bill
You can also leave money or other assets to charity through your will, allowing you to support causes that matter to you after you’re gone.
Qualifying charitable donations are normally deducted from your estate before Inheritance Tax (IHT) is calculated.
Moreover, if you leave at least 10% of the value of your estate to charity, the rate of IHT applied to the remainder of your taxable estate could fall from 40% to 36%.
This could make charitable giving a vital consideration when thinking about the legacy you want to leave.
You may want most of your estate to pass to children or grandchildren while also supporting a charity you’ve been involved with through your life.
Careful planning could help you balance these two priorities and understand how different gifts might affect the amount your family inherit.
Your financial planner could work alongside a solicitor to model various options and ensure your estate plan reflects both your charitable wishes and the legacy you want to leave to loved ones.
Get in touch
We can use cashflow modelling and tax planning to explore how much you might comfortably give, the most appropriate way to do so, and how your decisions could affect your finances in the future.
To find out more, please contact us by email at info@investmentsense.co.uk or call 0115 933 8433.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate wills, tax and estate planning.
Levels, bases of and reliefs from taxation may be subject to change and their value depends on the individual circumstances of the investor.
