DEC Asian floods appeal income rises to £25 million
Howard Lake | 30 December 2004 | News
The BBC reports that the British public has donated £25 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Tsunami/Earthquake appeal since it was launched on 28 December.
The most recent emergency appeal by the DEC raised £34 million for work in the Darfur region of Sudan, but that took several months to achieve. The rapid response to the current appeal suggests that it is likely to break previous DEC records for income raised for a single appeal.
Many other fundraising activities are underway. The owners of The Daily Mail for instance will donate 5p from the cover price of each issue sold tomorrow: the money raised will be donated to charities working with children in the affected areas.
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The Guardian newspaper has broadened its Christmas charity appeal to allow readers to support directly the disaster recovery effort. One of its beneficiary charities this year is international aid and development agency Concern, which will channel donations raised for the disaster via the DEC. Online donations to this broadened appeal totalled £14,000 within a few hours, reports the newspaper.
Everton Football Club has set up a relief fund for victims of the disaster because one of their main sponsors is Beer Thai 1991, the brewer of Chang Beer. Chief executive Keith Wyness told evertonfc. com: “The reason we are doing this is because we are the only Premiership club with a sponsor in that part of the world.” The club is encouraging other Premiership football clubs to join in the fundraising.
Asian Radio station Sunrise Radio has also set up an appeal.
The third Castle Lager/MTN test match between South Africa and England, which start on Sunday in Cape Town on Sunday, will also be turned into a fundraising event. Signed test playing shirts from the two teams will be raffled, the United Cricket Board and Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd will make a donation, and match sponsors MTN will donate all funds generated from the use of the CSA Cricket Hotline number.
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.