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Donate to SOM

Donate to The Society of Occupational Medicine

As a registered Charity, SOM welcomes donations that help our charitable purpose – this supports activities such as our response to Covid-19 and development of evidence and toolkits to improve workplace health. To donate via bank transfer email finance@som.org.uk with details of the donation.

Your bank will provide you with a receipt as proof of payment. Please send us an email to finance@som.org.uk, stating the date that you transferred your donation. This will help us keep track of your transfer and we can then let you know and thank you once we have received it. Do state if you are a UK taxpayer as we can then claim gift aid.

Support to research - the Professor Tar-Ching Aw research memorial fund

With the consent of the family, SOM welcomes donations for occupational health research in the UK and globally. All funds will go to a restricted fund for this purpose and SOM will use an independent expert group to advise on use of funds.

Leaving a gift to the SOM in your Will

A gift in your will enhances our capacity to make a real difference to workplace and occupational health. It is an ideal way of ensuring SOM’s work continues in the long term. Any gift left to a charitable organisation is free of Inheritance Tax.

Because the SOM’s strategic priorities change over time, we prefer legacies to be left for the general purposes of the SOM; allowing us to adapt to the changing needs of the profession. Alternatively, bequests can occur to the wider areas of research, education, and international activities or for enhancement of existing endowments such as the Golden Jubilee fund.

If you do wish to leave a gift for a particular area of our work, please consider expressing this as a preference, rather than a condition. The SOM will do everything it can to honour that preference. Please contact us if you have a specific purpose in mind for your gift. This will ensure that the use of your bequest meets your wishes whilst supporting the aims of the SOM.

Wills: How to do it

We recommend that you make your will in consultation with a solicitor or other professional advisor who is expressly qualified to make wills. A gift may take the form of a:

  • pecuniary legacy – a gift of a specified sum of money.
  • residual legacy – a gift of all or part of the remainder of your estate after legacies and charges have been met.
  • reversionary legacy – a gift of an asset, such as a house or a fund that can be enjoyed by a chosen beneficiary during his or her lifetime before reverting to the SOM.

If you already have a will, adding a codicil allows you to make changes without having to rewrite the entire document.

Wills: Suggested wording

The following are examples of what you need to write in your will (we recommend that you draft your will in consultation with a qualified solicitor):

For pecuniary or specific legacies:
‘I give to The Society of Occupational Medicine (Registered Charity Number 1184142 England and Wales, and SC049793, Scotland) a pecuniary / specific legacy free of all taxes of £XX for its charitable purposes, and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other authorised officer will be a sufficient discharge to my executor/s.’

For residuary legacies:
‘I give to The Society of Occupational Medicine (Registered Charity Number 1184142 England and Wales, and SC049793, Scotland) the whole (or a X% share) of my residuary estate for its charitable purposes, and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other authorised officer will be sufficient discharge to my executor/s.’

Reversionary legacies should be drafted in consultation with a solicitor.

Updating your will

If you have already made a will and the only change you want to make is to include a bequest to the SOM, you can do so by completing a codicil. The codicil can be completed at any time and becomes a legal document when signed in the presence of two adult witnesses (not relatives). We recommend you speak to your solicitor or other qualified professional about making such changes.

Let us know

Please tell us if you have decided to leave a bequest so that we can thank you and keep you up to date about our work. Any information you provide will be treated in strict confidence and will be not legally binding. However, we respect your privacy and know that it’s a deeply personal decision; so, there is no pressure to notify us and you can remain anonymous if you prefer to do so.