# Don’t worry… be happy

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/10/17/don039t-worrybe-happy/
- Published: 2008-10-17T11:21:51+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**I would like to claim this as all my own work, but it isn’t. However, my anonymous
contributor makes what I think are some extremeIy good points for those in the fundraising
world currently biting nails in anticipation of the collapse of global economies.
Certainly, better than I could, so please read on.**

“I believe this would be a good time for a beer”. So said Franklin D Roosevelt on
ending prohibition in the USA, his first action on becoming President in 1933. And
America cheered. For the country had endured four years of Depression that began
with the great bank crash in 1929 and led to unprecedented levels of unemployment,
insolvency, absolute poverty, homelessness and hopelessness.

Already there are signs that the financial turmoil of the last few weeks is hitting
the real economy. And the Icelandic affair has shown just how badly charities might
be affected by it all.

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So what can fundraisers do to try and weather the storm? Well, a look back at the
1930s might spark a few ideas. Despite – or perhaps because – it was the worst of
times, whenever people had a bit of money to spare, they sought hope, escapism, 
fun and inspiration. The game of bingo as we know it today was invented in the 1930s
in the US with over 10,000 games being played weekly by 1934.

The 1930s also marked the beginning of the golden age of Hollywood – the most popular
films of the decade were either escapist (_Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_), screwball
comedies (_Bringing up Baby_), stories of triumph over adversity (_King Kong_), 
of hope and aspiration (_Mr Smith goes to Washington_) or hugely overblown epics(
_Gone with the Wind_).

![His Master's Voice - record sleeve. Photo: Pixabay](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2026/09/his-masters-voice-record-pixabay.jpg)

Music and dance entertained many through the 1930s depression

And here too in the UK people found their escape routes – football terraces were
overflowing with nearly 150,000 cramming into Hampden stadium to watch Scotland 
v England, still the highest ever attendance in Europe. The football pools too flourished.
Dance halls sprang up in every town with new dances like the Jitterbug and the mambo
becoming fast favourites – dances that were exciting, exotic and energetic.

And while times have changed, there is no doubt in the dark months ahead, that people
everywhere will be looking for similar escape routes from their daily doom and gloom.
In the 1930s, people craved escapism, cheap and cheerful fun, and the chance to 
change their fortunes. And they will do so again.

Fundraisers looking for ways of maintaining income could do worse than emulate the
entertainment industry of the 1930s and consider ways of encouraging people to keep
on giving by offering them similar escape routes.

Time to put the fun back into fundraising?
 

## Fundraising in hard times

 * **[Love for fundraisers in a time of coronavirus](https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/03/12/love-for-fundraisers-in-a-time-of-coronavirus/)(
   12 March 2020)**
 * **[Recession may not be all bad news for fundraisers](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/10/14/recession-may-not-be-all-bad-news-fundraising/)(
   14 October 2008)**
 * **[Save the dot coms](https://fundraising.co.uk/2000/10/24/save-dotcoms/) (24
   October 2000)**