UK's largest cross charity campaign promotes leaving a legacy
Howard Lake | 12 September 2011 | News
Over 140 charities are promoting the third annual Remember A Charity Week, which runs from 12 to 18 September, to encourage people to leave gifts to charity in their wills.
Remember A Charity Week is the UK’s largest cross charity campaign and is being supported by celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Michael Parkinson, Fern Britton and Richard Wilson.
Legendary British stuntman Rocky Taylor will attempt to break a Guinness World Record by jumping a spinning BMW at speed through the largest sheet of breakaway glass ever smashed by a car at the O2 Arena, London. The stunt will be broadcast live on Remember A Charity’s Facebook page. “Nobody knows the importance of writing a will more than a stuntman who puts their life on the line every day”, says Remember A Charity Week director Rob Cope.
The world record attempt follows on from Rocky’s stunt for the campaign in August where he successfully recreated a stunt from the film Death Wish 3 in 1985 that nearly put an end to his career.
Charitable donations in wills raise nearly £2 billion each year, “the equivalent of over 20 Comic Reliefs” according to the campaign organisers. The potential to raise more is considerable: although 74% of people regularly support a charity in their lifetime only 7% of those who have written a will include a gift to charity.
Remember A Charity week will this year also have a noticeable high street presence, with hundreds of charity shops, including Age UK, Barnardo’s, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK supporting the week through window displays.
Celebrity supporters of member charities will put their names to an open letter to newspapers across the country, encouraging more people to leave gifts to charity in their wills.
www.rememberacharity.org.uk
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.