Major newspapers raised more than £6m through Christmas charity appeals last year, with some raising more money than the year before, while others raised less.
At £3.46m, the London Standard’s winter appeal A Place To Call Home raised the most of any newspaper last year and £1m more than the previous year, but was heavily supported by institutional donors.
The Guardian and Observer’s latest Christmas charity appeal also raised more year-on-year – over £1.73m, up from £1.42m in 2023.
Readers of the Times and Sunday Times raised £1.5m for charities in Christmas 2024, compared to £2.03m the year before.
Telegraph readers raised £486,000 for the newspaper’s chosen charities, down from over £527,000 the year before.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times charity Christmas appeal raised over £211,000 in donations for its Financial Literacy and Inclusion campaign.
Standard and Guardian raise higher totals
The London Standard again partnered with Comic Relief for its 2024 winter appeal, entitled A Place To Call Home, which raised £3.46m for charities supporting refugees and people experiencing homelessness.
The appeal by the newspaper, which changed its name from the Evening Standard as it moved to weekly publications last year, saw more than £127,000 generated by donations from the general public, a slight decrease on the previous year’s figures.
However, most of the money the newspaper received came through high-value donations from institutional funders including This Day Foundation, Comic Relief, the Julia Rausing Trust, Sainsbury’s, and the Barratt Foundation.
Celebrities including Olivia Colman, Jodie Whittaker, Big Zuu and Mawaan Rizwan publicly backed the appeal and encouraged the public to make donations.
Meanwhile, more than 15,800 Guardian and Observer readers gave £1.73m collectively, the highest sum raised by the newspapers’ annual appeal since 2016 to support victims of war and conflict.
It also marks the 10th successive year that Guardian and Observer readers have donated more than £1m.
The newspapers’ appeal this year was in support of three charities: Medecins Sans Frontieres and War Child, which perform frontline medical aid work in warzones, and Parallel Histories, which helps schools to teach sensitive and controversial histories to students.
Times and Telegraph see dips
The Times and the Sunday Times 2024 appeal was in aid of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation; James’ Place, and Hope and Homes for Children.
Readers raised around £1.5m for the charities, which is around £500,000 less than last year’s total of £2.03m.
Meanwhile, Telegraph readers donated over £486,000 this year in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund; the Teenage Cancer Trust; Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Humanity & Inclusion.
The total amount was £41,000 less than the previous year, when the appeal had raised over £527,000.
During the appeal’s annual charity phone-in day in December last year, which included TV personality Anneka Rice and a host of Telegraph writers including Allison Pearson and Charles Moore, readers raised more than £70,000 in 24 hours.
FT appeal extended by a week
The Financial Times’ 2024 Christmas appeal – run jointly by the newspaper’s Financial Literary and Inclusion Campaign and the youth charity Magic Breakfast – raised over £211,000 after its closing date was extended by a week.
The total included a significant £51,000 match-funded donation from the Rosetrees Trust.
The Trust had previously offered to match-fund donations to the appeal after it reached its baseline target of £100,000.
Other notable donors to the appeal included Morgan Stanley International, as well as “hundreds” of Financial Times readers.
