Comic Relief ‘on the night’ telethon donations slump by almost a fifth since 2019

The total raised on the night by Comic Relief’s flagship Red Nose Day fundraiser has fallen by nearly a fifth since it was last held two years ago.

Last week’s live telethon raised £52,025,485 on the night, according to the charity, which stresses that more “money is still coming in.”

However, this year’s on the night fundraising figure is down 18.1% on the £63,548,668 raised when the event was last held, in 2019.



A fall in telethon donations during 2021 haad been predicted by the Phone-paid Services Authority last year in its annual market review for 2019/20.

It said that financial uncertainty among the public amid the Covid-19 health crisis is set to “impact households’ incomes towards the end of 2020/21”.

BBC Children in Need’s November 2020 telethon also saw a donations slump. Its appeal was £10m down on the previous event, with in-person fundraising activities on the day curtailed by social distancing guidelines.

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