Leave a legacy

..support generation after generation..

..in perpetuity

‘Pass it on’

We celebrated our 75th anniversary throughout 2021 and it was not only a time to look back over our achievements and those who have supported us to deliver our work, but also a time to look to the future and plan how we can develop and grow our offering to our members.

Almshouses are usually created as a result of a bequest and social activism, with the original benefactor keen to support those in housing need and poverty, in perpetuity.

Almshouse charities are pivotal within local communities and support generation after generation of local people in housing need.

Our plan to support our members to build thousands of new almshouses in the next 10 years across the country is achievable – with your help. We are seeing the almshouse movement getting more attention in The House of Lords, The House of Commons, the Church of England’s ‘Coming Home’ report on tackling the housing crisis, and highlighted in a number of recent White Papers on Social Housing. These are exciting times! But we need to do more!

Our Founding Secretary, Leonard Hackett, generously left The Almshouse Association offices in Wokingham and the legacy of The Leonard Hackett Memorial Trust, which has been supporting struggling charities over the years and continues to do so today.

Across the country many of our members are looking to do more too. They want to build, refurbish and improve their almshouses. The almshouse movement is growing and becoming a significant part of the response to the affordable housing crisis across the country with 36,000 people living in almshouses today. However, many smaller member charities are struggling to maintain their almshouses to provide quality housing for their residents. We need to support these members to ‘future proof’ their almshouses for their local communities for generations to come.

The Almshouse Association Christmas Fund derives its origin from a generous legacy left to the Association over 65 years ago by Major Allnatt, a successful businessman and philanthropist who worked closely with and supported our founding General Secretary, Leonard Hackett. It was important to Major Allnatt that his gift remained a secret until his death, many years ago now, but his legacy lives on in the form of a gift to every almshouse resident over 90 every Christmas.

We have joined forces with ‘Remember a Charity’ who are actively working to encourage more people to leave a gift in their will. They give advice on will writing and we are proud to be one of the 200+ charities they are working with to ‘act today to make a difference tomorrow’. Please click in the link below to find out more

If you would like to discuss ways in which you could support The Almshouse Association by leaving a gift in your will, please call Nick Phillips CEO on 01344 452922 or email nickphillips@almshouses.org

Did you know?

The Almshouse Association receives no government funding and relies totally on the subscriptions of member charities, legacies, donations and the goodwill of others to continue its work.

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