Community News
Wimbledon drives charity coverage
20 July 2012

A bet placed more than a decade ago on Roger Federer winning his seventh Wimbledon title propelled Oxfam 20 places up the league table of charity coverage last month, according to the June Gorkana Charity Barometer.

In 2003 Nick Newlife made a wager of £1,520, at odds of 66/1, that the Swiss tennis star would win seven Wimbledon titles by 2019. Mr Newlife died in 2009 but left the betting slip to Oxfam in his will and Federer's defeat of Andy Murray in the Wimbledon men's final saw the charity collect a payout of £101,840.

The charity was also in the news after its director of UK poverty Chris Johns called for a rise in the minimum wage.

The combination of stories saw Oxfam jump from 24th place in the mainstream league table to fourth, attracting 2,713 pieces of coverage.

Making up the top five most-mentioned charities in mainstream media coverage were Cancer Research (3,862), the National Trust (3,264), Age UK (2,755) and the RNLI (2,651).

There was little movement however among the top five in social media. The British Red Cross topped the table with 70,170 mentions, followed by UNICEF (60,279), Greenpeace (54,051), PETA (36,246) and the RSPCA (33,560).

The NSPCC dominated children’s charity coverage, jumping 18 places in the mainstream table to seventh place (with 2,279 pieces of coverage). This was in a major part due to its comments on the Prime Minister's plans to criminalise forced marriages. Gorkana Group's Barometers allow organisations to benchmark themselves against competitors within their sector. Read more about the June report here.

For more information about a free sample, email getintouch@gorkana.com.