High profile in-memory fundraising

This week (end March 2023), the sad and shocking news about Paul O’Grady was shared. My timeline has been full of love for him as well as funny stories and clips of his work. He was an ambassador and supporter of many charities including Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Here’s how these charities responded to the news.

This post is intended as a prompt to help charities think about how they would respond if there was bad news about one of their ambassadors or high-profile supporters.

Battersea

Paul’s support of Battersea was very high profile thanks to the TV series ‘For the Love of Dogs’ which ran for many series. He himself adopted many rescue dogs from them.

Very quickly, Battersea tweeted a statement with a lovely photo and set this as their pinned tweet. They sent two other tweets throughout the day about Paul and responded to some comments. They paused all other comms. They shared the same messages on Facebook and their other channels.

By lunchtime, they had cleared their homepage and filled it with a statement.

This connected to a full page with a longer statement which linked to a donate platform. So far (at the time of publishing this post, the day after the news was released) this has generated £64k in donations, with most people giving £10 or £20.

When news like this breaks, people want to do something positive. Battersea have made it really easy for this to happen. The tribute fund includes a space to add a comment.

Other responses

Other charities he was an ambassador for shared tributes in their news sections but many didn’t feature the story on their homepages or include links to donate:

• StreetVet
• Save The Children

Some just released a short statement on social media:

• Cruelty Free
• SPANA
• PDSA
• Wildlife SOS

How would your charity respond?

It’s a good idea to talk about this, to plan ahead so you don’t have to make decisions or risk doing nothing because it is easier.

When a high-profile person dies, there is often a great out-pouring of feeling for them. It doesn’t always last very long so you have to move quickly. People generally want to do something positive and will want to read that other people are feeling like them. The Battersea response above is textbook.

Various factors may influence your response including how prominent and positive the relationship was. You may have a relationship with their family which has to be taken into consideration. You may feel another charity has a bigger right to fundraise in their memory. Or your ambassador may have expressed wishes about what they want you to do in this situation.

For some charities, a statement may feel enough. For others when the ambassador or supporter has lived their lives with the values of the charity, you owe it to them to use the opportunity.

See also

Look back at the in-memory fundraising when the Queen died.

What do you think?

Have you done this planning in your organisation?

Update

In almost a week, £211k was donated to the Battersea fund. They continued sharing memories of Paul including this story which got 10k likes.

This BBC news story talks about Battersea being overwhelmed by the response. The replies to this tweet are an interesting insight into public opinion. There’s lots of support, a few negative comments about staff pay at large charities, suggestions from a few that people should support their local dogs home and one person saying it was a bit forward of Battersea to set this up.

Sky News and ITV News both tweeted the same story but with fewer comments, all positive.

Final update

Nearly four weeks later (26 April), the fund stands at almost £295k.

In-memory fundraising for the Queen

Here are the charities who have built donation sites for people wishing to donate to them in memory of the Queen. All had the Queen as their patron.

Great Ormond Street Hospital charity

British Red Cross

Royal Voluntary Service have set up a Much Loved page.

See also:

• Cruse have a garden of rememberance dedication page
• Erskine, a veterans charity have a Facebook fundraiser.
• RAF Benevolent Fund have a dedication page
• Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have a book of condolence
• RSPB have a dedication page.

Other activity:

• JustGiving made a page listing 20 charities the Queen was patron of and linking to their websites.
• Worcester County Council shared instructions for local flower tributes and donations. It directs donations to the Queen’s Commemoration Fund, managed by Worcestershire Community Foundation. This was the only example of a council directing donations as an alternative to flowers that I found.
• The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust has had a flurry of in-memory donations on JustGiving.
• Food not flowers – a JustGiving site raising money for the Trussell Trust.

Comment

This is not fundraising or being opportunistic. It’s about making it easy for people who wish to give money as a mark of respect.

I have seen hundreds of messages on social media from people complaining about the volume of flowers (and all the plastic) but not knowing what to do instead. Some people have shared the list of the charities the Queen was patron of but it’s not user-friendly for donors looking for a cause to support.

I am also seeing people talking about how leaving flowers is meaningful for them. Thousands of people will join The Queue this week. People need different ways to connect and feel part of this significant event.

Others of course will want no part of it.

Getting the balance right is hard. Big events have been cancelled like the Hackney Carnival and Macmillan’s Mighty Hike while others like the Great North Run continued. We’ve seen organisations like Center Parcs and British Cycling dealing with a backlash this week. Pausing comms and fundraising during this time may, for many, feel like a safer, more respectful option.

But, in-memory giving is now firmly part of our culture. Asking for a donation instead of flowers at a funeral is common. As are tribute funds where people can come together to share memories, photos and make a donation to a chosen cause. When someone sets their affairs in order, they may specify which charity they wish a tribute fund to be linked to.

It is perhaps surprising that more charities the Queen was patron of, haven’t built this in to their statements following the Queen’s death. For example, look at Age UK, Dogs Trust, Leonard Cheshire, RSPCA, RNIB and Diabetes UK. I looked at the websites of 50 or so of the charities she was patron of. All had changed their homepages. Some changed to black livery, most included photos, statements and stories from their archive. Only GOSH, British Red Cross and Royal Voluntary Service had donation pages. Maybe people are donating to the others anyway?

It’s a shame that the instructions about mourning (published the day after the Queen’s death was announced), priorised flowers over tributes, therefore setting this as the norm. If donations had been given a more prominent promotion (as they were with Prince Philip), it would have made it easier for charities to present this option.

On day four, a request was made to at least stop the volume of toy Paddingtons and marmalade sandwiches.

The three examples above, make it easy for people to donate. It is a suggestion (here’s GOSH’s “We recognise that some people may wish to commemorate the Queen by making a donation in her memory.“) rather than an ask. I haven’t found any examples on social media where charities are asking for in-memory donations or promoting this. It’s all being done quietly, sensitively and respectfully.

Update

Tens of thousands of pounds raised in memory of Queen Elizabeth II – Civil Society