Charity Vocabulary: Donations for tragic runner go viral

Words to do with ‘charity’ are highlighted throughout and then explained below the text.

The London Marathon last Sunday attracted it’s usual thousands of entrants who were running to raise money for charity. The London Marathon is famous for its fund-raising reputation. This year, the post race news was dominated by the tragic story of Claire Squires, who collapsed and died in the final mile of the race. The 30-year-old hairdresser’s chosen charity was The Samaritans, because her mother had volunteered with the charitable organisation for more than 20 years. As with many people who do things for charity these days, Claire had a page on the justgiving.com website, where supporters could pledge their donations online. On justgiving the standard statement asks people to “dig deep and donate now” and Claire’s personal message said “if everyone I know could donate £5.00 that would be a great help and change lives”. Before the marathon began, Claire had raised £500 in sponsorship, but since her story went viral, donations have been pouring in from all over the world. At the time of writing, there have been 57,952 donations and the total raised has been £659,286.50. Her devastated family have urged well-wishers to give what they can, so that her death can result in something positive. They said: “Don’t stop giving – just like her. It’s what she would have wanted.” In 2006, Sir Steve Redgrave (winner of five consecutive Olympic gold medals for rowing) set the Guinness World Record for money raised through a marathon by collecting £1.8 million in sponsorship. In 2011, Steve Chalke broke the record by raising £2.32 million.

Charity Vocabulary

raise money for charity
to get money from people, not for yourself, but to give to people who are in need of help in some way
fund-raising
the act of getting/obtaining money for charity
chosen charity
the particular organisation that you are hoping to collect money for
charitable organisation
a company that tries to help people
pledge their donations
to give money to a charity
dig deep
Saying ‘dig deep in your pockets’: meaning to reach down into the very bottom of your trouser pockets to get all the little coins that you forgot about
sponsorship
the money that someone promises to give to charity because somebody completes an activity i.e. When you run the marathon, I will give £10 to your charity (or “I will sponsor you £10”)
change lives
common phrase used when talking about charity: a little bit of money can make a big difference to people whose lives are less fortunate than yours
do things for charity
run a marathon, get sponsorship
donations
money that is given to charity

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