The 2014 London Marathon is on track to raise more than £53m for good causes and break the Guinness World Record for the charity fundraising at a single annual event for the eighth year running.

Virgin Money, which has sponsored the event since 2010, said around three-quarters of the 35,864 runners who crossed the finishing line were raising money for good causes.

The sponsors said the official fundraising total would be confirmed in September but it was likely to raise more than the £53m made in 2013.

It would bring the total raised by the event since 2010 to £250m.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, said: “Our aim has always been to help Virgin Money London Marathon runners smash the £250m fundraising target over five years and the volume of donations flooding in suggests we are in touching distance of that fantastic target.

“It was the London Marathon that inspired us to create our not-for-profit online fundraising service, Virgin Money Giving, which helps fundraisers maximise the amount of money that actually reaches the good cause they care about.”

The fundraising platform Virgin Money Giving said it was on course to beat the £18m raised through the site for last year’s marathon.

JustGiving said the day after the race that runners had raised £16.8m through its fundraising platform for more than 1,300 causes.

The figure was 11 per cent up on the same point last year. The total was expected to increase significantly as money continued to come in after the race, JustGiving said.

Cancer Research UK has been named the official charity of next year's marathon and hopes to raise £2.5m towards its work. 

A spokeswoman said the charity went through an application and pitch process before the final decision was made by a Virgin Money staff vote.