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.
We've raised an incredible £52,025,485 for #RedNoseDay so far, and the money is still coming in!
— Comic Relief (@comicrelief) March 20, 2021
A huge thank you to everyone for your support. pic.twitter.com/qntyOtKVPn
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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