Macmillan Cancer Support offers virtual coffee in support of fundraising event

Howard Lake | 26 September 2007 | Blogs

Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity behind one of the UK’s largest fundraising events – The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning – is really getting into the Community Fundraising 2.0 spirit this year, with “virtual” coffees being shared through email, Facebook, and even in Second Life.
The email approach is a fun way to spread the word about the event, enabling you to send your friend a virtual coffee which is then drunk at an animated microsite – complete with slurping. Requests for small donations are made throughout, including extras if you want to send a virtual biscuit or muffin with the coffee. Having dispatched the virtual beverage you then get the opportunity to share the whole virtual coffee experience through a link on your Facebook profile.
If that’s not virtual enough for you, then on the day of the event – this Friday 28th September – you can drop-in to the charity’s new Second Life Macmillan cancer information centre to take part in a Second Life fundraising auction or just to throw a few Linden Dollars (the SL currency) into the giant coffee cups around the place. After the event Macmillan intends to continue using the centre as a source of information and support for any Second Life users affected by cancer, as well as offering a retail area where visitors can purchase real life Macmillan merchandise.
All-in-all, a great example of a charity using a mix of online channels in an innovative, fun and engaging way to help involve more people with their event. Apparently nearly two million people took part last year, raising over £6.7m ($13.5m) – so here’s hoping all of this virtual activity pays-off in real income growth terms after Friday.

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.