National Trust launches first ever charity version of Monopoly

Howard Lake | 29 September 2009 | Blogs

The National Trust has launched its very own Monopoly set with a novel twist that gives players the opportunity to “own” stately piles, beaches, a light house, a mill from the Industrial Revolution and Sir Winston Churchill’s family home. It’s the first ever charity version of the game to be created and goes on sale from Thursday 1 October at a price of £25.

This is quite a brilliant fundraising and awareness raising idea but I wonder if they’ve also updated the rules regarding “The Bank” to take account of recent failures, investment in toxic loans, unjustifiable bonuses and a failure to lend out government bail-out funds?

The traditional Monopoly Bank rules state:
“It [The Bank] sells and auctions properties and hands out the proper Title Deed cards when purchased by a player, it also sells houses and hotels to the players and loans money when required on mortgages.

The Bank “never goes broke.” If the Bank runs out of money, the Banker may issue as much as needed by writing on any ordinary paper.” (Ah, so that’s where the idea for quantitative easing came from!)

Indeed, I wonder if 2010 will see the likes of Shelter or Agesomething launching a credit crunch version of the game with the opportunity to buy and sell job-lots of repossessions or maybe acquire a string of care homes, complete with planning permission to be turned into spa complexes and hotels?

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-news/w-latest_news/w-news-new-monopoly-set.htm

Whatever, it’s been a while since I’ve played Monopoly, not least because the last time I did it signalled one the longest sulks in history and the end of several childhood friendships.

That being so I’m going to buy one but I’ll bagsie now that I’m not going to be the Banker!

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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.