# Comic Relief raises £1.75 million+ online in six hours

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2001/03/18/comic-relief-raises-175m-online-six-hours/
- Published: 2001-03-18T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

On Friday night Comic Relief raised over £1.75 million in online donations within
six hours. This makes it the most successful online fundraising campaign to date,
outstripping the success even of the American Red Cross.
On Friday night Comic Relief
raised over £1.75 million in online donations within six hours. This makes it the
most successful online fundraising campaign to date, outstripping the success even
of the American Red Cross.

 

 

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By 21.40 the online total stood at £195,000, twice as much as had been raised at
the equivalent point of the telethon in 1999. By 23.20 the figure had increased 
to £250,000. At 01.05 Comic Relief announced that “the Comic Relief Web site has
taken more donations than ever before in Internet history.” At 01.15 they announced
that the site had received £1.75m, adding that “we are absolutely gobsmacked.” By
Sunday that figure had increased to £2 million, according to the BBC.

 

 

 

 

On the night about eight per cent of income was being received via the Web site.
This compares to five per cent in 1999. The Web site does of course generate income
received via other methods such as the telephone or posted donations.

 

 

 

 

Other online fundraising activities such as online auctions have also generated 
further Web-based income for the charity.

 

 

 

 

The site handled over 85,000 donations processed online on the night, together with
over 20 million page views. Throughout the event it was handling 200 donations a
minute on average. The surge came between 9.30 and 10.30pm with the site delivering
over 50Mbit/second. The crucial time was between 9.58pm and 10.01pm. During this
time 14,253 donations were processed, about 60 per second, worth over half a million
pounds.

 

 

 

 

In the week running up to the event the site received over 95 million page requests.

 

 

 

 

Read [Comic Relief set for record](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_1228000/1228385.stm)
at BBC News.

 

 

 

 

Read UK Fundraising’s hint on 9th March that Comic Relief would raise over £1m online
on the night.

 

 

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