Comic Relief is Internet magazine's Site of the Month
Howard Lake | 1 April 1999 | News
Comic Relief’s record-breaking Web site is Site of the Month in Internet magazine.
Comic Relief’s remarkable success in online fundraising has been recognised by Internet magazine who have declared it Site of the Month.
This is the second campaign in which the charity itself has used the Web. The first Web site in 1995 was set up by a supporter rather than the charity. For the first time, the site is designed to run throughout the year, and not just for the duration of the campaign.
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Despite the BBC’s support the Red Nose Day site, which is the BBC’s element of the campaign and separate to the charity’s site, cannot be hosted by the BBC. So this role is taken by Beeb.com, the commercial element of the BBC’s online activities. Online donation handling services were set up by ICL, and included for the first time the ability to accept multiple currencies.
The Comic Relief site was created by agency iXL and they succeeded in securing corporate support from Microsoft, UUNET, and Compaq. Derek Scanlon, iXL’s commercial director, told Internet magazine that a similar-sized commercial project would have costed between £250,000 – £400,000!
Page impressions on the Comic Relief site started at around 10,000 a day and at the Beeb/Red Nose Day site they were averaging 50,000 a day.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.