TV quiz winner's giveaway acts as catalyst to giving
Howard Lake | 17 March 2007 | News
65K GO MAD GIVEAWAY CREATES NEW CATALYST FOR CARING
CHARITY Go MAD Giveaway
16 Mar 2007 – 09:58
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:: PR Newswire, London, March 16. This press release is transmitted on
behalf of Go MAD Research & Consulting Group.
LEICESTER, England, March 16 /PRNewswire/ — A thinking guru who won
GBP65,000 on ITV1’s primetime quiz show Poker Face and vowed to give all
of the cash away has struck a chord with the UK public who want to feel
good by helping others.
Andy Gilbert, 43, scooped the money on March 3 2007. He approached
the quiz using the thinking skills he employs to coach business
executives in his role as founder and managing director of Go MAD
Research & Consulting Group. The Go MAD (R)Thinking system has been used
by tens of thousands of people worldwide over the last ten years to help
them to achieve greater success including business improvement, sporting
performance, health and fitness, education, financial security and
career development.
Says Gilbert: “Reaching third place and realising I could not win I
switched from my original tactics as I suddenly remembered the Channel 4
Show ‘The Secret Millionaire.’ My whole passion is about helping people
to make a difference so I thought to myself, what would be the biggest
difference I could make with the money? Wouldn’t it be a fun way to
spend it to benefit others? I initially suggested giving 1,000 people
GBP65.00 each for them to then give to a person for whom this seemingly
small amount could actually make a positive difference.
“Within days it became apparent that this idea has captured people’s
imagination as we were inundated with suggestions for recipients of the
money. For example the manager of a mental health care trust wants to
take her 12 patients to the seaside and provide them with fish and
chips.
“It seems that people want to connect with others. This is true of
corporations too and we have had hundreds of offers from other
businesses for them to also donate GBP65 to someone deserving. They
think it is a great way to engage their employees to feel good about
themselves and the company. My imagination has been fired by this and I
would like to put out a challenge to all UK businesses to make a
difference in the lives of others by giving away multiples of GBP65, via
their own employees, to make a difference to others. In this way I think
that the total amount given away will be many times my original
GBP65,000 winnings”.
Gilbert plans to give the money away on or before ‘Make a Difference
Day’ on October 27 as this is a day about helping others and in keeping
with his company name and the philosophy of Go MAD (Make a Difference).
He has set up an e-mail address for individuals or companies eager to be
involved to contact him on at 65*****@go***********.com and plans to
start a blog on www.gomadthinking.com to document how the campaign
unfolds.
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.