# Sport Relief raises £3.4 million through text donations

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/04/12/sport-relief-raises-34m-through-text-donations/
- Published: 2010-04-12T15:12:58+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Sport Relief last month raised £3.4 million of its £31.6 million total from text
donations. The charity accepted mobile donations of £1, £5 and, for the first time,
£10. Mobile network operators waived their usual fees to ensure the full value of
each donation reached Sport Relief. The donations were handled by Mobile Interactive
Technology’s (MIT) MIDAS platform.**

The first of the text donation services opened on 29 January 2010 and the £1, £5
and £10 services have been utilised for various fundraising activities for Sport
Relief.

For example, ‘The BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride’ raised £700,000 in £1
and £5 mobile donations. The event saw celebrities including David Walliams, Miranda
Hart and Davina McCall cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats in just under 82 hours.‘
The Thomson Sport Relief Water Ski Challenge’, which saw Christine Bleakley water-
ski across the English Channel, raised over £900,000 in £5 text donations. Eddie
Izzard raised over £1.1 million in £5 text donations in response to running 43 marathons
in 51 days around the UK.

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The £10 donation option was used on the night of TV only, when the public were invited
to text YES to 70010. All SMS donation services closed at midnight on 31 March.

Caroline Lien, Operations Director, Sport Relief, said: “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 
[MIT](http://www.migcan.com)’s Client Services and Operations team for their help
and dedication throughout the campaign.”

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.

www.sportrelief.com/text

 * **[Orange cuts text donation charges to charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/05/18/orange-cuts-text-donation-charges-charities/)**(
   18 May 2010)
 * **[SANE introduces text donation service](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/05/21/sane-introduces-text-donation-service/)**(
   21 May 2010)
 * **[Nearly 90% of a text donation now reaches charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/05/24/nearly-90-text-donation-now-reaches-charities/)**(
   24 May 2010)