How a Gift in Your Will Creates a Lasting Legacy

Why It Matters

Legacy gifts convert personal gratitude into scalable educational opportunity, directly advancing social mobility and diversifying future talent pools.

Key Takeaways

• Scholarship lifted her from social housing to LSE success.
• Bequest in will funds future students lacking financial resources.
• Direct impact: she now leads at global bank, promotes social mobility.
• Personal gratitude drives alumni giving to sustain educational access.
• Legacy gifts can transform individual potential and broader socioeconomic diversity.

Summary

The video tells the story of a former LSE student who grew up in social housing, relied on state benefits, and attended a failing school before earning top A‑level grades and a degree in maths and economics at LSE. Her narrative illustrates how a scholarship funded by the university enabled her to study without the need for long‑hour jobs, turning a precarious financial situation into a launchpad for a career in global banking and social‑mobility advocacy.

Key insights emerge: the scholarship was a decisive factor in her academic success, her subsequent rise to a director role at a major bank, and her commitment to improving socioeconomic diversity through policy work. She attributes her professional achievements and current mentorship of young talent directly to the financial support she received.

She urges listeners to consider leaving a bequest in their wills, noting, “If you’re thinking about leaving a gift in your will, honestly the impact is transformational,” and emphasizes that such gifts “could be the key that unlocks somebody’s potential just as it did mine.” Her personal gratitude fuels a cycle of giving back to the institution that changed her life.

The broader implication is clear: alumni legacy gifts can create a self‑reinforcing pipeline of opportunity, expanding access for students from under‑represented backgrounds and strengthening the institution’s role in social mobility. For universities and donors alike, the story underscores how targeted philanthropy translates into measurable societal impact.

Original Description

Over 130 years ago, a legacy gift played an important part in LSE’s beginnings. Many more have followed suit and their gifts continue to support LSE and our students.

Former Peter Bence Scholar, Sian Pierce (BSc Maths with Economics 2016), reflects on the impact of a legacy gift on her life, while Barbara Brilliant (BSc Sociology 1957) explains why she is leaving LSE a gift in her Will.

Find out more about legacies at LSE: https://www.lse.ac.uk/supporting-lse/legacy-giving