Sport Relief 2010 has so far raised a ground breaking £31.6 million, with £3.4 million generated during this year’s campaign via £1, £5 and £10 mobile donations. This year’s Sport Relief campaign is the first time Comic Relief has used a £10 text donation mechanic. All text donations made by the public have benefitted from 100% out payments thanks to mobile network operators waiving their usual fees.
All the money donated will be spent by Comic Relief to transform lives – both here in the UK and across some of the world’s poorest countries.
‘The BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride’ which saw various celebrities including David Walliams, Miranda Hart and Davina McCall cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats in just under 82 hours generated £700,000 via £1 and £5 mobile donations
‘The Thomson Sport Relief Water Ski Challenge’, which saw Christine Bleakley water ski across the English Channel raised over £900k in £5 text donations from viewers of The One Show
‘Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man’ documented Eddie Izzard’s staggering run of 43 marathons in 51 days around the UK. £5 text donations from viewers of the documentary on BBC 3 and a repeat on BBC 1 raised over £1.1m
Caroline Lien, Operations Director, Sport Relief, said “I would like to say a massive thank you to the mobile industry and HM Treasury for their continued support. Mobile has proven to be an extremely popular channel for us as it appeals to a wide audience demographic, and enables an instant donation at various price points. I’d also like to thank Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT) Client Services and Operations teams for their help and dedication throughout the campaign.”
Rob Weisz, commercial director, Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT) said, “We’re delighted to have contributed towards the success of Sport Relief 2010. There is a huge appetite and growing demand from charities to diversify their donation mechanics and mobile delivers a quick, simple and in a trusted mechanic to enable just that and at various price points, the £10 mechanic being a first for Comic Relief.”
Comic Relief will be able to claim at least 25% extra from the Government on top of all of the donations made by text up to 31 July 2010 for all those who texted to donate and signed up to Gift Aid online. For more information visit https://www.sportrelief.com/text
The first of the text donation services opened on 29th January and the £1, £5 and £10 services have been utilised for various fundraising activities for Sport Relief. All services closed at midnight on Wednesday 31st March.
Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT) is part of global integrated mobile and digital communications business Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) – www.migcan.com
