Want to raise your charity's profile for free?

Fundraising | David Burrows | 21 Dec 2009

Want to raise your charity’s profile for free? Announce you are being abolished

Last week saw two stories getting a lot of PR coverage: the announcement of the possible abolition of cheques and the retirement of Terry Wogan from the Radio 2 breakfast show. Whilst Tel’s retirement was always going to be big news I am surprised at the huge amount of publicity around cheques. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that the whole thing was a publicity stunt by the Payments Council, who probably have no intention of abolishing anything.

We take things for granted until faced with the possibility that they won’t be there any more. Or as Joni Mitchell once sang, “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”.

So if you are a charity, facing a difficult 2010, why not announce that you are about to close down. Maybe, like cheques and Terry Wogan, your demise will spark a national outcry and outpouring of affection, and put you on the front cover of every newspaper. (And if it doesn’t, maybe you should close down!)

And so on to 2010. Now all we’ve got to do is to persuade the public that saving the planet is as important as saving cheques and Terry Wogan.

Who's Who: David Burrows

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Reduce reliance on cheques, charities told

Abolition of cheques cause concern to charities

Assume nothing - the death of cheques does not mean the end of cheque donors

Cheques to be abolished by 2018

Celina Ribeiro (64) Jonathon Grapsas (30) Michael Naidu (22) Adrian Beney (20) Andrew Scadding (20) Niki May Young (17) Jonathan Waddingham (15) Suzie Who (15) Vibeka Mair (14) Andrew Chaggar (14)

David Philpott (10) Tania Mason (8) David Burrows (8) Daniel Fletcher (8) Alistair McLean (7) Gareth Jones (6) Beth Yorath (6) Tom Eeles (5) Kirsty Weakley (5) Robert Ashton (5) Mark Astarita (4) Stephen Pidgeon (4) Rowena Lewis (4) Nick Cater (4) Alan Gosschalk (3) Tony Elischer (3) Jeremy Swain (3) Rob Dyson (3) Ingrid Marson (3) Adam Rothwell (2) Joe Saxton (2) Tris Lumley (2) John Tate (2) Garreth Spillane (2) Gordon Hunter (2) Chester Mojay-Sinclare (2) Allan Freeman (2) Lindsay Boswell (1) David Davison (1) Bill Lewis (1) Giles Pegram (1) Jo Swinhoe (1) Beth Breeze (1) Richard Radcliffe (1) Matthew Bowcock (1) Cathy Pharoah (1) Gordon Michie (1) Reuben Turner (1) Chris Ingram (1) Martin Farrell (1) Matt Goody (1) Ian MacQuillin (1) Jackie Mendoza (1) Max Du Bois (1) Alan Hawkes (1) Ken Burnett (1) Ian Allsop (1) Martin Brookes (1) Sara Llewellin (1) Rupert Tappin (1) Julia Unwin (1) Jessica Sklair (1) Scott Gray (1) Stephen Hammersley (1) Keith Collins (1) Liz Tait (1) Peter O'Hara (1) Debbie Attwood (1) Joanna Motion (1) Paul Marvell (1) Amanda McLean (1) Jason Suckley (1) Paul Amadi (1) June O'Sullivan (1) Dan Corry (1) Douglas Rouse (1) Jonathan Last (1) Paul Emery (1) Marcelle Speller (1) Nick Aldridge (1) Philip Spedding (1)

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