Legacy laughter links

Howard Lake | 8 November 1999 | News

• Tagged with:
• archive-1999

Probate analysts Smee and Ford’s quirky humour could generate a Web site with a cult following. UK Fundraising takes a trip around the deadlier Web sites and suggests some links.

Hearing Tom Ford of probate analysts Smee and Ford speaking at a seminar last week, UK Fundraising was reminded of the company’s quirky sense of humour at its ‘Burke and Hare’ legacy roadshow. Given the Web’s reputation for quirky and downright odd resources, UK Fundraising would like to suggest the following additions to the Smee and Ford Web site:

• Alcor – cryogenics might mean you get the last laugh, if you are successfully thawed out and resurrected. But then will you or your new companions remember what the joke was?
• Caskets – show your urning power with a top of the range casket
• Celestis – I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. Blast your bodily remains into the eternity of space.
• Deathclock – find out how long you’ve got until you kick the bucket
• Desktop lawyer – get your Will drawn up online. While you’re there you can sort out your divorce and other legal matters.
• Final curtain – do it your way and design your own tomb
• Imminent domain – share your obituary thoughts with the world
• Living Wills – not an oxymoron, but a valuable tool for many wishing to state how they are cared for
• The Loved Ones – “a long lasting and professional virtual memorial facility”, and its British
• Near Death – close shaves with the life (or death) beyond the veil
• Urn Seller – not an Eric Morcombe one-liner, but a chance to buy your funerary cask
• Worldwide Cemetery – a virtual solution to the lack of space in graveyards

Your URL could also follow you to the grave, if you so choose. The Forever Cemetery in Hollywood and the San Jose Oak Hill Memorial Park wish to “fill in the dash between the date of birth and the date of death with a dot com”, according to the San Jose Mercury News. This URL will link to text, video, sound and other recorded effects of the deceased. How about that as a benefit for a major donor? Online acknowledgement of their gift in perpetuum.

Does your charity use humour on its legacy fundraising Web pages? (Not that we’re suggesting you add any of the above to your page!)

Sources: The Net, December 1999, p.27; Interface, The Times, 29 November 1999, p.15

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.