Online donations for DEC Sudan appeal reach £1 million
Howard Lake | 22 July 2004 | News
Over £1 million has been donated online to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Sudan appeal since it launched three days ago.
This is the fastest online giving response to any DEC appeal. As with other emergency appeals, including those run by the DEC, online donations are significantly higher than telephone and postal donations. According to the DEC, online donations “are averaging 20% above those made by phone”. The appeal is now on track to reach a total of £15 million.
The DEC’s Web site started handling online donations “within seconds” of the TV appeals on 20 July 2004 by Natasha Kaplinsky, Michael Buerk and Joanna Lumley highlighting the plight of Sudanese people forced to flee their home due to violence in Darfur.
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Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the Disaster said: “The DEC has been very lucky that organisations including Secure Trading and Streamline Merchant Services have donated their services for free, which ensures that 100% of every online donation goes directly to the appeal.”
The Sudan appeal has broken all previous DEC records for online donations, and follows a growing trend in online charitable giving to its appeals. Over the last three years the DEC has seen the number of online donors increase by 130% and the value of online donations increase by 174%.
The appeal raised £2.5 million in total on the first night alone, after launching at 6.30pm. Around 4,000 telephone lines were available for callers to make credit/debit card donations, and the total average donation was £44.
This afternoon the appeal received a donation of £1 million from an anonymous donor, the first time the DEC has ever received a donation of this size.
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.