While a recent storyline on Succession is going very badly for the financial future of Nicholas Braun‘s Cousin Greg, in the real world, it’s sparked a windfall for Greenpeace, which is seeing a surge of donations thanks to the HBO series. As revealed in the fifth episode of the currently airing third season, Greg’s grandfather Ewan Roy (James Cromwell) made the harsh, yet environmentally friendly decision to deprive his grandson of his inheritance and, instead, give the funds to Greenpeace.
The plot point was a crushing blow to Greg, who is hilariously attempting to sue the charity organization, but remarkably, it caused a surge in Succession viewers trying to find out how they can leave the environmental group a portion of their estates. Via The Guardian:
Greenpeace UK’s head of donors and legacies, John Hutchin, says the Emmy award-winning HBO series has brought an important but rarely discussed subject to the fore. “It’s incredible the amount of interest we’ve seen off the back of this storyline,” he says. “Our planet needs protecting now more than ever, and the gifts that people leave to us in their wills really are vital to funding our campaigns.”
Greenpeace UK gets around a sixth of its income from gifts left in wills. This year it expects to receive about £5.5m.
According to the organization, more than 22,000 people “have accessed online advice about making donations in their wills to Greenpeace,” which is a ten-fold increase to what Greenpeace normally sees on its site. Of course, the situation sucks for Cousin Greg, but as Succession‘s cutthroat characters likes to say, it’s just another case of “no real person involved.”
(Via The Guardian)