# 5 great charity April Fools 2016

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/04/01/5-great-charity-april-fools-2016/
- Published: 2016-04-01T23:34:21+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Who doesn’t love an April Fools’ gag? This year saw some [great fundraising ideas](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/06/effective-fundraising-ideas-for-charities-in-2017/)
across a range of media from a number of charities, which largely aimed to grab 
people’s attention, and then redirect it towards a real issue or challenge. **

Here are five that caught our eye, raising awareness of everything from events to
health matters, and animal conservation.

#### 1) 󠀁[WWF UK](http://www.wwf.org.uk/)󠁿

WWF launched an April 1^(st) campaign, asking people to adopt a unicorn, stating
that demand for their beautiful horns and loss of their rainbow-spangled habitat
has led to a catastrophic fall in unicorn numbers, to the point where unicorns now
exist only in our imaginations. When that grabbed people’s attention, the charity
pointed out that the real animals with horns that need protecting are rhinos, and
asked people to adopt one of them instead.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

> Will you help protect a mystical creature? Please adopt a unicorn today: [https://t.co/3RPUqlluJe](https://t.co/3RPUqlluJe)
> [pic.twitter.com/X6L9IszNWu](https://t.co/X6L9IszNWu)
> — WWF UK (@wwf_uk) [April 1, 2016](https://twitter.com/wwf_uk/status/715796064159342592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

#### 2) 󠀁[British Heart Foundation](https://www.bhf.org.uk/)󠁿

The British Heart Foundation really has teamed up with Jaffa oranges but it tricked
us all by announcing that to celebrate the new partnership, Jaffa had developed 
the new All-Red orange, which was, well, red, and was selling it in Tesco stores.

> You caught us! All Reds aren’t real – but heart disease is. Help us fight back:
> [https://t.co/3bp5Q9QWaF](https://t.co/3bp5Q9QWaF) [#AprilFools](https://twitter.com/hashtag/AprilFools?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [pic.twitter.com/cMRbUOFGxD](https://t.co/cMRbUOFGxD)
> — British Heart Foundation (@TheBHF) [April 1, 2016](https://twitter.com/TheBHF/status/715858115347030017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

#### 3) 󠀁[NSPCC](https://www.nspcc.org.uk/)󠁿

The NSPCC added a twist to its real [Gherkin Challenge](https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/events/the-gherkin-challenge),
which takes place on 19^(th) June and challenges people to walk or run the 38 floors
to the top, by asking people to time how fast they could eat a jar of gherkins. 
How many people fell for that, then?

> Love gherkins? You’ll love the new eating challenge added to this year’s [#GherkinChallenge](https://twitter.com/hashtag/GherkinChallenge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)!
> [https://t.co/dB7CL2gO0I](https://t.co/dB7CL2gO0I) [pic.twitter.com/xcpuTZg28y](https://t.co/xcpuTZg28y)
> — NSPCC (@NSPCC) [April 1, 2016](https://twitter.com/NSPCC/status/715840406999736320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

#### 4) 󠀁[Coppafeel](https://coppafeel.org/)󠁿

Coppafeel rather entertainingly told everyone that it had received planning permission
to build a giant boob on the roof of its headquarters, and then encouraged people
who fell for their April Fool to remember to check their own boobs regularly.

https://twitter.com/CoppaFeelPeople/status/715849397452537857

#### 5) 󠀁[Macmillian Cancer Support](http://www.macmillan.org.uk/)󠁿

With its pretend launch of #FlamingoFriday, Macmillan managed to get a lot of people
standing on one leg for April Fool’s Day by challenging them to tweet a photo of
themselves standing on one leg for the chance to be the face of a new challenge 
event. Quite a lot of people seemed to fall for it too.

> Fancy being the face of our new challenge event? Send us your best flamingo impression
> using [#FlamingoFriday](https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlamingoFriday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> to win! [pic.twitter.com/dFvJZ2RCPN](https://t.co/dFvJZ2RCPN)
> — Macmillan Cancer Support (@macmillancancer) [April 1, 2016](https://twitter.com/macmillancancer/status/715803422310551552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader-
2x.gif)