Remember Smile Train in your Will
Give the most powerful gift
How to Help
How a gift in your Will can help.
Smile Train believes that no child should grow up without a smile.
Your gift is central to our work because every three minutes, another baby is born with a cleft. By remembering us in your Will, you will transform lives, enabling smiles, speech therapy, nutrition support, and so much more. You will help us train our healthcare partners to reach as many children as they can in their own communities and share their skills and knowledge with the next generation of local medical professionals.
Many of our friends like to leave a gift in their Will to Smile Train. Together, we can create a world where every child with a cleft can thrive. Thank you for thinking about leaving a gift in your Will to Smile Train.
Leaving a gift in your Will to Smile Train is simple
By leaving a gift in your Will to Smile Train, you will support a cause that has been important in your life and transform the lives of children for generations to come. The three simplest types of gifts to leave in your Will are:
A percentage of your estate
This is a residuary gift. Once you have ensured you’ve looked after your loved ones, a small gift of 1% of your estate could completely transform the lives of children with clefts.
A specific cash sum
This is a pecuniary gift. A gift that feels comfortable for you will help us create smiles.
An item of value
This is a specific gift. An item such as property, jewellery, or art can make an exceptional difference to our work. Please get in touch with us; we would be pleased to learn more about your plans.
Once you have chosen the gift you would like to leave to Smile Train, simply contact your solicitor or other Will-writing professional and tell them the details of your gift.
They will need to know:
Our charity name: The Smile Train UK
Our registered address: 126 Fairlie Road, Slough, SL1 4PY.
Our registered charity number: 1114748
We respect your privacy, and there is no need to share any details with us. However, if you are happy to tell us you will be remembering Smile Train in your Will, then we would really like to say thank you and keep in touch with you about Smile Train’s work.
How your gift can make the future brighter for children with clefts
A gift in a Will is exceptional. When a wonderful supporter remembers Smile Train in this way, we know that they believe in the importance of enabling the highest-quality cleft care for all children, no matter where they were born.
- Your gift will help advance technology to improve cleft care globally
Smile Train uses the latest technology to bring cost-effective education to medical professionals across the globe and bridge the gap in access to lifesaving surgical tools.
- Your gift will help develop the skills of more surgeons
Smile Train is committed to developing the best training and making it freely available. For example, we have Cleft Leadership Centers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, each one championing excellence in advanced cleft surgery, care, and research.
- Your gift will bring smiles to the faces of children with clefts
Every penny you donate to Smile Train is used to its greatest potential, allowing us to help so many more children grow and thrive from all over the world. Thanks to a gift in your Will, children will be able to:- Eat without choking
- Speak clearly
- Go to school
- Find meaningful work
Our legacy promise
We understand that leaving a gift in your Will is a very significant decision. We know that family and friends come first, and any gift you leave to Smile Train is truly exceptional.
If you decide to share your decision with us, we would be delighted to hear from you. It gives us the chance to say ‘thank you’, but we realise that sometimes these gifts are very private.
We promise to:
- Answer any questions you may have quickly and honestly
- Respect your privacy
- Never put you under pressure to share the details of a gift you have chosen to leave to us
- Keep in touch with you according to your preferences
When in time we receive your wonderful gift, we promise to:
- Respect the wishes you have expressed in your Will
- Be sensitive to your family
- Be supportive and helpful to your chosen Executor(s)
- Promptly dedicate any gift that we receive to improving care for children with clefts.
- Share information about how your gift has helped with your nearest and dearest, if they so wish
Information for Executors
If you have arrived on this webpage because you are a relative or personal friend managing the estate of a loved one, please accept our heartfelt condolences for your loss. We realise that it is a very emotional and possibly rather stressful time for you.
We really appreciate the role you have taken on as Executor, and we are grateful to the wonderfully kind person who has chosen to remember Smile Train in their Will.
- I’m a new executor – where do I start?
- How do I know you’re the specific charity mentioned in the Will?
- What are your contact details for executors?
- When should I contact you?
- How do I pay you once I’m ready to make the distribution?
- How should I handle a pecuniary gift (a cash amount) to Smile Train UK?
- How should I handle a residuary gift (a percentage of the Estate)?
- How should I handle a gift of a specific item?
I’m a new executor – where do I start?
As an Executor, you have been trusted to arrange the affairs of a relative, friend, or client who has passed away. They must have held you in very high regard indeed.
If you have never been executor to a Will before now, there is plenty of advice to help you.
We recommend you visit the Citizen’s Advice website here.
The Public Records Office has a Wills and Probate Checklist that you may find helpful, which you can download here.
The Institute of Legacy Management has specific guidance for executors who are dealing with gifts left to charities. You will find a very helpful Guide for Executors and a Document Checklist for Executors here.
How do I know you’re the specific charity mentioned in the Will?
If you wish to confirm that we are indeed the charity named in the Will, you may find it helpful to visit our entry on the Charity Commission’s Register of Charities: Charity overview, THE SMILE TRAIN UK - 1114748, Register of Charities - The Charity Commission
What are your contact details for executors?
Email us at roanne-legacies@smiletrain.org
Call us on 0113-841 8105
When should I contact you?
It is helpful if you inform us as soon as you can if a gift has been left to us. Firstly, we can thank you for administering the Estate as Executor and ask you to share our very sincere thanks with other family members and friends. Any gift we receive will help us bring a smile to the face of another child with a cleft.
We can also make sure we remove the deceased’s name from our mailing lists to avoid any upset or distress to family who are dealing with post.
We realise it can take quite a long time to get all the Estate affairs in order once someone has passed away. We will be pleased to hear from you as matters progress, including when the Grant of Probate has been issued to you.
How do I pay you once I’m ready to make the distribution?
When you are ready to make distribution of this special gift to us, here is the information you will need:
(1) Payment by bank transfer:
Account name: The Smile Train UK
Account number: 60099740
Sort code: 40-11-60
Bank name: HSBC
Reference: please use “LEG / Surname of the person who has left us the gift in their Will”
Please notify us of the payment being made so that we can look out for its arrival, and please let us have your contact details so that we can confirm safe receipt and discharge of our legacy under the Will for your Executor records.
Please email us at roanne-legacies@smiletrain.org
Or call us on 0113-841 8105
(2) Payment by cheque:
Payee: The Smile Train UK
Postal address: 126 Fairlie Road, Slough, SL1 4PY
Please include a note of the name of the person who has left us the gift in their Will, and your contact details so that we can thank you and confirm safe receipt and discharge of our legacy under the Will for your Executor records.
How should I handle a pecuniary gift (a cash amount) to Smile Train UK?
We ask you to send us a copy of the Will clause that relates to the gift to Smile Train UK once probate has been granted, or when you are in a position to make payment of the gift. We request the Will clause so that we are able to demonstrate to our auditors where our entitlement to these funds comes from, and so that we can ensure we correctly honour any wishes the legator set out about how we should make use of their legacy.
When you are in a position to make the gift, please see the section above on how to make payment of a legacy gift.
How should I handle a residuary gift (a percentage of the Estate)?
When you begin the Estate administration, we ask that you send us a full copy of the Will and a Schedule of the Assets and Liabilities. There may be areas of administration that we can help with, so please don’t hesitate to contact us at the outset and keep in touch with us as the estate administration progresses. In particular, we can give information about our charity tax exemptions and situations we have come across previously in relation to sale of property or shares. If more than one charity has been remembered in the Will, it is quite usual for us to work together so that you don’t have to contact each charity individually at every step and we can keep correspondence and any questions to a minimum for you.
When you are in a position to make the gift, we ask that you send us a copy of the Executor’s statement of account. This is an account that allows the executor(s) to show all transactions that have occurred in the administration of the estate, and the amount payable to the charity.
Please see the section above on how to make the payment of this special legacy gift.
How should I handle a gift of a specific item?
Please get in touch with us to tell us the nature of the specific gift left to us. Please provide us with a copy of the Will clause that confirms our entitlement and any directions on how we should use the gift. We also ask for a copy of the valuation of the item that has been undertaken for probate purposes. In most circumstances, we will ask that you oversee the sale of the item on our behalf, but please do contact us first, because this may depend on the Will clause wording.
Interested in learning more?
We always recommend that you speak to your solicitor or Will-maker when you wish to make or update your Will, but we are here to help answer your questions.
Contact us
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about the lasting difference you’ll make by remembering Smile Train UK in your Will, please email uklegacies or call 0113 841 8105.
Download Willing Smiles
Our annual Willing Smiles newsletter shares lots of wonderful news about what Smile Train achieves thanks to people who have remembered us in their Will. Download your copy here.