Few philanthropic acts are as personally meaningful as donating in memory of someone you loved. For thousands of UK families touched by breast cancer every year, in-memoriam giving is a way of honouring a mother, sister, partner or friend, and of channelling grief into something tangible and forward-looking. This guide explains how donations in memory work, how to set one up, and how to ensure that your tribute does the most good possible.
What 'donate in memory' means in practice
Donating in memory simply means making a charitable gift in honour of someone who has died. In the breast cancer context, this typically means donating to a breast cancer charity in the name of a person who lived with or died from the disease. The donation can be a single gift, a regular monthly contribution, or a more structured fundraising effort organised in their memory.
Many funeral directors, in line with family wishes, offer a donation pathway in lieu of flowers. This has become an increasingly common practice in the UK and is often the moment when most in-memoriam donations are made.
Three common ways to donate in memory
There are three main approaches to in-memoriam giving, and they are not mutually exclusive.
- A funeral collection in lieu of flowers. The funeral director collects donations from mourners and forwards them to the chosen charity in the deceased's name.
- An online memorial fundraiser. Platforms such as MuchLoved, JustGiving and Givey allow you to create a dedicated tribute page that family and friends can contribute to over months or years.
- Direct in-memoriam donations to a chosen charity. You contact the charity directly and arrange for the gift to be made and acknowledged in your loved one's name.
Most UK breast cancer charities, including Breast Cancer Awareness, can accept any of these forms of donation and will provide acknowledgement in the form of a card or letter to the donating family.
What an in-memoriam donation funds
A tribute donation works in exactly the same way as any other charitable gift — the difference is the way the charity recognises the donor and the personal meaning attached to it. At Breast Cancer Awareness, in-memoriam donations are pooled into our general programme funding, supporting screening, diagnosis and treatment access for women in the world's poorest countries.
If you have a specific wish — for example, to fund a particular country's programme, or to dedicate a portion of fundraising to mobile screening clinics — most charities can accommodate this for larger gifts. Always discuss restrictions with the charity directly so that expectations are clear on both sides.
Setting up an online memorial fundraiser
Online tribute fundraisers have become the most common form of in-memoriam giving in the UK over the past decade. They allow family and friends to contribute over time, share memories and photographs, and continue the act of remembrance long after the funeral.
The process is typically simple: select a fundraising platform, choose a beneficiary charity, write a short tribute, upload photographs, and share the page with family, friends and colleagues. Many pages run for weeks or months and raise considerably more than would have been collected at a single funeral. Most platforms allow Gift Aid to be claimed automatically on each contribution from a UK taxpayer.
Tribute giving on milestones and anniversaries
In-memoriam giving is not limited to the immediate aftermath of a death. Many families set up annual donations on the anniversary of a loved one's birthday, or take part in fundraising challenges in their memory. Some make a regular monthly direct debit in a loved one's name, with the charity providing periodic updates on what the contributions have funded.
These ongoing forms of tribute giving are particularly meaningful for charities, because they create the kind of predictable, long-term income that allows multi-year planning of programmes overseas.
How to choose a charity for your tribute
If your loved one had strong personal feelings about a specific charity, that is usually the right choice. If they did not, the question is what kind of impact best honours their memory. Some families choose research-funding charities, hoping that their loved one's memory contributes to a future cure. Others choose patient-support charities to help others going through what their family member experienced. Many choose international access charities like Breast Cancer Awareness, so that women elsewhere have access to the kind of care their loved one received in the UK.
There is no wrong answer. The right charity is the one whose mission best matches your loved one's values — or, if you are honest, the one that feels right when you think of them.
What we do for tribute donors at Breast Cancer Awareness
When a tribute donation reaches us — whether through a funeral collection, an online fundraiser or a direct gift — we acknowledge it personally to the donating family with a card explaining what the gift will support. For larger memorial funds, we can provide tailored impact reports describing the specific programmes the contribution helped fund.
If you are considering setting up an in-memoriam fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness, our fundraising team would be honoured to help. We approach every conversation with the recognition that behind every tribute gift is a story of love and loss — and that respecting that story is the most important thing we do.
How to set up a memorial fund step by step
Setting up a tribute fund or memorial page is straightforward, and almost all UK breast cancer charities offer dedicated platforms or partner with services such as MuchLoved and JustGiving. The process generally takes around 15 minutes online.
- Choose the platform. Many charities, including Breast Cancer Awareness, host their own tribute pages. MuchLoved and JustGiving are independent platforms widely used in the UK that allow donations to flow to your chosen charity.
- Add your loved one's name, dates and a short biography. A photograph and a few lines about what mattered to them often increases donations significantly.
- Set a fundraising target if you wish. Specific goals (£1,000, £5,000) tend to motivate giving more than open-ended pages.
- Personalise the page with stories, music or messages that friends and family can add. The page becomes a living memorial as well as a fundraising tool.
- Share the link via WhatsApp, email or social media. A short personal note explaining why this charity was chosen consistently raises more than a generic share.
- Thank donors as gifts come in. A short personal acknowledgement matters and is what people remember.
Memorial donations at funerals: practical guidance
Asking for donations in lieu of flowers at a funeral is one of the most common ways UK families channel grief into action. Funeral directors are very used to facilitating this, and the process is well-established.
Most funeral directors will offer a collection box or envelope at the service, or set up a dedicated donation page through their funeral notices website (for example, Funeral Notices, Co-op Funeralcare or Dignity). The funds are then transferred to the chosen charity, often with Gift Aid claimed automatically where the donor has provided their details.
If you are choosing a charity for a funeral collection, two practical points are worth knowing. First, you can name more than one charity if your loved one's wishes spanned different causes — donations are then split according to the family's instructions. Second, you can ask the funeral director to coordinate directly with the chosen charity to ensure that the family receives a tailored thank-you and, where appropriate, an impact report on the total raised. Most major UK breast cancer charities, ours included, have dedicated tribute teams who handle this process with care.
Long-term memorial funds and anniversaries
Some families find that a single funeral collection or initial fundraiser is the right way to mark their loss. Others find that the tribute becomes part of how they continue to live with the loss — a fund that family and friends contribute to year after year, at birthdays, on the anniversary of the death, or around Breast Cancer Awareness Month each October.
There is no right or wrong way. What matters is that the family decides what feels appropriate at each stage. Charities should never pressure donors to keep giving; the choice to maintain a fund should always come from the family. If you decide a long-term tribute fund is right for you, our fundraising team is here to help — and our role is to make the process feel respectful, never transactional.
Above all, try not to feel rushed. Many families set up a tribute page in the immediate days after a death and then pause; others wait six months, a year, or longer until they feel ready. Both are entirely normal. The act of giving in someone's name is, fundamentally, an act of love — and there is no calendar that governs how love expresses itself. Whatever you decide, we hope the eventual gift, large or small, feels like a fitting reflection of the person you are remembering. That, much more than the amount raised, is what makes in-memoriam giving so meaningful for the families who choose it and so deeply valued by the charities that receive it.
