# Millennium millions?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/07/06/millennium-millions/
- Published: 1998-07-06T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The Year 2000 might bring technological mayhem to the unprepared, but it is also
a once-in-a-lifetime fundraising opportunity. Or is it? UK Fundraising looks at 
millennium fundraising appeals.**

How did fundraisers view the new Millennium? Some saw it as a valuable opportunity
to launch an appeal, an appropriate occasion to look forward to a better future 
in which the charity’s cause might be fulfilled. Others saw it as a bandwagon which
was best avoided, since too many other organisations were trying to capitalise on
it.

Did your charity use the Millennium to fundraise? Were you using the Internet in
some way to do so? UK Fundraising asked for examples of innovative Millennium-related
fundraising activities to list here. We did not plan to list every fundraising event
or appeal that happened to be taking place in 2000. Instead we hope you would share
some innovative ideas with fellow fundraisers.

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In February 1998 [ICFM](http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/)‘s Public Affairs
Committee announced a “Millennium Diary” which would set out key fundraising events
for charities throughout the UK. You could submit a listing by marking your communication“
Millennium Diary”.

### Millennium fundraising campaigns

 * One of the more practical methods of celebrating the Millennium change was to
   sign up for the [Children’s Promise](http://www.marks-and-spencer.co.uk/promise/).
   Endorsed by the government in 1998, the Promise involved agreeing to donate the
   value of your salary for the last hour of the last day of 1999. The Promise campaign
   was widely promoted with full-page colour advertisements in various national 
   newspapers on New Year’s Eve 1998.
 * The World Wildlife Fund’s [500 Days to Change the World](http://www.worldwildlife.org/500day)
   invited Internet users around the world to take part in its 500 Day Countdown
   Tour, a four-day, four-city journey across America that aimed to engage the public
   in conservation for the 21st century. To thank users for their commitment to 
   the environment, the site offered a free WWF screensaver, Living Planet Pledge
   certificate, electronic postcard, and online message wall.
 * [House Our Youth 2000](http://www.hoy2000.org.uk/) – NCH Action for Children’s
   goal is to abolish youth homelessness by 2002, “consigning the problem of youth
   homelessness to the twentieth century.”
 * [Earth Legacies](http://www.millennia.org/) – the Millennium Foundation of Canada
   claimed to be the “first organisation in the world dedicated solely to the creation
   of legacies to mark the year 2000.” It aimed to encourage people to mark the 
   Millennium by leaving charitable bequests in their will to help fund environmental
   charities.
 * The Times newspaper launched its Millennium Appeal to raise funds to rebuild 
   St Ethelburga’s, the City of London medieval church which was nearly destroyed
   by the IRA bomb in 1993. Launched on 30 June by the Right Rev Richard Chartres,
   Bishop of London, the appeal will fund the new St Ethelburga Centre for Reconciliation
   and Peace.
   This seemed to be the first national newspaper fundraising appeal 
   with the Millennium tag. (5/7/1999)
 * Local newspapers also launched newspaper fundraising appeals The [Community Foundation of Greater Manchester](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/07/06/millennium-millions/N.******@********et.com)
   launched a Millennium appeal in association with the Manchester Evening News.
   The Helping Hand appeal was launched in late May 1999. The idea was create a 
   million pound legacy for Manchester, with the money raised being placed into 
   an endowment fund. The Duke of Westminster agreed to match any amount raised.(
   9/7/1999)
 * [First Cheque 2000](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/07/06/millennium-millions/../news/9907/firstcheque.html)
   recommended that you “make your first cheque of the new Millennium perform wonders”(
   9/7/1999) 
 * ITV’s Year of Promise launched on 17 October 1999 and encouraged viewers to make
   a promise to make a difference to society in the new Millennium. It could involve
   fundraising: TV celebrity Carol Vorderman pledged to raise £300,000 for children’s
   hospital charity Express Link Up. Read UK Fundraising’s [report](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/07/06/millennium-millions/../monthly/1999/9910.html#promise).(
   17/10/1999)
 * [[British Gas-sponsored [Beacon Millennium](http://www.beacon-millennium.org.uk/) was a 
   plan to light beacons across the country on the night of 31st December and encourage
   local charity fundraising as part of the event. It was promoting five charities
   in particular, the British Paralympic Association, Help the Aged, The Cancer 
   Research Campaign, UNICEF (UK) and WWF- UK, but participants could fundraise 
   for any charity they wished.

![Beacon Millennium logo](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/1998/07/beaconmillennium.
gif)

Beacon Millennium

 * Greenwich Meridian 2000 were offering charities the chance to own “a piece of
   time” back in 1997. Charities could own one of the “Countdown Days” which were
   available at £3,500. Purchasers got to hold a Millennium celebration at the Old
   Royal Observatory. It is not clear if any charities signed up.

### ⏎ **Planning ahead**

Who first started taking practical steps to plan for a Millennium fundraising appeal?
We’re not too sure, but we list plausible claimants.

 * Andrew Rainsford of St Asaph Diocesan Stewardship Committee, Wrexham, wrote in
   March 1997 to _ICFM Update_ about his Millennium idea:
   “One of the Council of
   Management came across an artist who had come up with the idea of a “Millennium
   Calendar”. Our council member decided to buy a day – and then gave it to the 
   Charity… This … leaves us with an idea for a day in a calendar which is not happening?
   Does anyone know of a calendar which is happening?”

### ⏎ Avoiding the Millennium appeal

If everyone else was using the Millennium as a convenient fundraising tag, then 
should you have joined in and competed? Tony Elischer of [Burnett Consulting](http://www.burnettassociates.com/)
thought not. At the end of 1997 he proposed that fundraisers use the 24-month countdown
to the new Millennium “to change the way we currently do things and to eliminate
much of the tired run of the mill approaches that still exist in the sector.” He
therefore introduced his campaign to “Abolish factory fundraising”. In short, he
advocated that we “encourage people to recognise mass production fundraising and
to stop it.”

As for Millennium-related fundraising, Elischer said in May 1998 that “if you haven’t
already booked your place in the race and designed your car, don’t start now”. At
the same time, “if you are not using the Millennium to be offensive, you need a 
defensive strategy” to cope with the effect of all the other Millennium appeals.

_Source: ELISCHER, A.  Abolish Factory Fundraising, Professional Fundraising, December
1997, p.16
Source: ELISCHER, A.  The Millennium Bug, Professional Fundraising, May
1998, p.38

### ⏎ **After the Millennium**

The aftermath of the Millennium offered a major fundraising opportunity to some 
shrewed charities. Two enterprising US charities asked all those who stored food
and supplies in anticipation of social breakdown due to the Y2K “bug” to donate 
them to charity. Second Harvest launched the [Y Go 2 Waste](http://www.secondharvest.org/aboutash/y2k.html)
campaign, which ran from 15th January to 15th February 2000, and [Americares](http://www.americares.org/)
sought donated goods too. (21/1/2000)