Topless pics raise funds online for MS Resource Centre
Howard Lake | 31 January 2004 | News
A woman with multiple sclerosis is raising funds for the Colchester-based MS Resource Centre by appearing topless on her Web site.
The desire to mix fundraising and nudity continues. After all the many nude fundraising calendars of late, one woman has gone a little further and set up a fundraising Web site which features pictures of her topless.
Victoria Blenkins has created the ‘Vix Pix – Tits Out for Multiple Sclerosis’ appeal Web site. Using the Justgiving.com online donations service, she has raised £2,500 so far, including Gift Aid, for the MS Resource Centre. She also accepts donations via Paypal.
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The idea for the Web site came after Ms Blenkins flashed her breasts in a pub for a £10 bet which she donated to the MS Society. The switch to benefiting the MS Resource Centre has brought not just money to the charity but also “more publicity around the world than anything else anyone has done for us before.”
According to Third Sector magazine, the charity had to modify its online promotion of the site after three of its fundraisers objected to the use of the word ‘tits’. Nevertheless, the charity still maintains a prominent link to the site on its Web site, with a suitable warning about the content.
Interestingly, the vast majority of online donors via the Justgiving pages have chosent to remain anonymous.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.