A Summer of Giving Back
The 2.6 Challenge to Save the UK’s Charities
Turning disappointment into donations
21 April 2020
In our pre-pandemic life, many of us were full of anticipation for 2020’s sports and cultural events. So many great moments have had to be cancelled or postponed: Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary, Euro 2020, Tokyo’s Summer Olympics, Eurovision Song Contest, Wimbledon, the remainder of the Premier League season, countless tours of bands and artists... the list goes on.
Despite the disappointment of so many missed moments, there is nonetheless an opportunity to turn what could be a ‘summer of CANCELLED’ into a ‘summer of GIVING’.
Some of that money that many of us would have spent on (often) over-priced stadium food, booking fees, festival outfits, last minute transportation (those late night cab rides that our budgets could have done without!) presents instead a chance to help the organisations tackling the crisis and helping the people most impacted by it.
The importance of mass events to charities
Many of those cancelled events don’t just leave a hole in our summer diaries - but will also leave a catastrophic gap in the income of our treasured charity sector too. The top 25 mass participation sports events in the UK raise more than £150 million for charities every year. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, thousands of charities have had to reduce or stop services at a time when vulnerable members of society need them most. Some charities are already struggling to survive the next few months.
But by coming together, we can help. Sunday, April 26 was meant to be the day the London Marathon was run - the world’s biggest one day annual fundraising event, which raised £66.4 million for charities in 2019.