Why have a tribute fund scheme?

Raising funds and holding events provides bereaved people with valuable opportunities to remember a loved one, and offers great benefits to your charity.

Tribute funds provide a real tangible benefit to both the charity and the supporter; the supporter’s motivation is that they have lost someone, while the fundraiser’s role is to find out how the charity can help the supporter to remember their loved one.

The charity can give bereaved supporters something to help them - a tribute fund is a place to remember, an opportunity to tell the story of the person who has died and to create something positive out of something sad.

The supporter can honour the life of their loved one in a positive way - by getting involved in events and raising funds in their memory, all to support the charity.

Tribute funds are a great fundraising tool for the charity, offering lots of ongoing opportunities to connect with and build relationships with their supporters. Charities can light a candle on a fund when it is initially set-up and then also recognise key dates such as anniversaries, by sending a virtual gift.

Some key tribute fund numbers:

• The average one-off tribute fund donation is £45
• The average tribute fund fundraising amount is over £2,000
• These figures depend on a variety of factors and will vary within a particular scheme, with the opportunity for up to ten per cent of tributes to be raising more than £10,000 and sometimes much more.
• In 2020 there has been a sudden, large increase in donations, with online donations up over 100% on 2019 levels.
• There has also been a significant increase in the memorialisation aspect of tribute funds, for example, a doubling of candles and messages of condolence added.
• There is likely to be an increase in memorial and commemorative events on tribute sites throughout 2021, as more and more people have become accustomed to online memorialisation
• Supporters who create tribute funds tend to be very likely future legacy givers, so it is important to create and build on-going in memory relationships.
• The above numbers can vary widely between organisations, largely due to the amount of internal resources and promotion invested in the scheme.

(Figures calculated by MuchLoved, September 2020)