Half of today's Red Nose Day donations expected to come from social network sites, says agency
Howard Lake | 18 March 2011 | News
Charity marketing agency DMS has estimated that half of the donations received by Comic Relief today on Red Nose Day will come from people using social networks. This view follows a study of 24,000 people undertaken by TGI, revealing that Comic Relief and Sport Relief are the top two charities of choice among those on social networking sites.
The research shows that 45% of donors to Comic Relief are users of social networks, a much higher proportion than any other UK charities, according to the research. The figure for Cancer Research UK is 34% and 24% for Christian Aid.
Comic Relief of course has been promoting a participative approach to fundraising for years, both online and offline. It has continued to secure record levels of fundraising income over the past two years, despite the financial hard times faced by many.
Steven Dodds, joint head of planning for DMS said: “It’s great to see charities really getting the general public involved. While I feel sure the backing of the BBC and its celebrities really helps, the key to Comic Relief’s success is its focus on one day of the year, building the excitement and inviting people to be part of it in some way.
“The Comic Relief brand is ingenious in the way that it is inherently open and social in nature, perfectly in tune with the broader cultural themes of the social networking age. It’s not a charity run by a select few that work there, but is owned by anyone that has ever been involved in a fundraising event – a theme that should lie at the heart of future fundraising.”
The TGI survey of 24,000 people looked at their involvement with charities including Oxfam, NSPCC, Action for Children, Shelter, RSPCA, and British Heart Foundation.
www.rednoseday.com
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.