Help for Heroes site sees surge in donations following soldier’s murder
Howard Lake | 23 May 2013 | News
Help for Heroes has received a surge in donations following the murder yesterday of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich. The donations follow the report that the soldier was wearing one of the charity’s t-shirts.
Help for Heroes‘ website “crashed within hours of the killing beneath the weight of the heightened interest” according to The Daily Telegraph, and is today operating in a cut-down version, with a single holding page expressing the charity’s sadness at the soldier’s death.
The page stated “Thousands of people have visited our website wishing to donate or to buy H4H T-Shirts in an extraordinary demonstration of support and defiance of terrorism”. It listed ways in which people could do so, and asked for patience as it worked to respond to the reaction.
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Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan joined others calling for people to show solidarity by buying and wearing Help for Heroes’ t-shirts.
Let’s get it trending…#HelpforHeroeshonourday.May 22nd…All wear Help for Heroes T shirts to work… RT please
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 22, 2013
Similar increases in donations have followed other widely reported deaths, for example of celebrities or charity runners at events.
Photo: weddingsinkent on Flickr.com
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.