Several charities selected by Celebrity Traitors contestants have seen small donations rises and engagement increases after being named when the final episode aired.
“Faithful” winners comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian “Bash” Croft won £41,500 each for their respective charities, Refugee Council and Choose Love.
Losing “traitor” and presenter Maya Jama then voluntarily donated £83,000 (matching the full prize pot) to her charity Action for Children.
Meanwhile, Ranganathan also donated to fellow faithful James Blunt’s charity Blue Marine Foundation, according to the singer, after voting him off in the final.
Choose Love, Friends of the Earth, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS), Reuben’s Retreat and Astriid have all seen small increases in donations since they were each revealed by the BBC as chosen charities of the contestants.
Many have also seen an increase in engagement online over the past 10 days and, as with last year’s show, some viewers urged the BBC to name the charities more prominently.
Meanwhile, the two winning celebrities reportedly received some backlash over their chosen charities, both of which support refugees. However, Ranganathan said “loads of people have come out in support” as well.
Donations rise
Nicola Graham, founder of Reuben’s Retreat, for whom actress Julie Hesmondhalgh was playing, told Civil Society: “There was certainly a noticeable spike in social media engagement and number of donations following the sharing across the weekend.
“However, beyond the fundraising impact, what means the most to us is the increased awareness it creates. Time and again, opportunities like this help families who may not have previously known about Reuben’s Retreat find us and access the support they need.
“For us, that’s perhaps the most valuable legacy of being associated with such a high-profile programme.”
CHAS fundraising campaigns manager Graham Steven said: “We’ve seen a small uplift in donations following Scottish actor Sharon Rooney revealing that CHAS was her charity of choice on Celebrity Traitors and we’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who chose to support CHAS.”
They added: “We’re incredibly grateful to Sharon for spotlighting us and connecting us to new donors.”
Actress Miranda Hart was playing for health charity Astriid. Their spokesperson said: “We have experienced an increase in individual donations, alongside increased traffic to our website, social media followers and people enquiring about our services.”
A spokesperson for Choose Love said: “We’re thrilled, and so grateful to Bash and his ongoing support for Choose Love and displaced people and in particular LGBTQI+ refugees and displaced people.
“There’s been increased interest in our work since his win which is great, and we’ve seen some small increase in donations over the weekend but nothing substantial.”
A spokesperson for Friends of the Earth said they saw “a bit of an increase” in cash donations last week, compared to the previous.
“It’s not hugely significant – and we’re not able to say for sure if it’s as a direct result of James Acaster playing for us,” they said.
“But at the same time, we had some good engagement with our social post thanking James for his support, and it’s been mentioned in various media articles.”
Engagement boost
However, not all charities have seen a noticeable rise in donations since the Traitors final.
A spokesperson for the Haemophilia Society, for which actor Ross Kemp was playing, said its fundraising remained steady last week but the publicity it received was “invaluable” nonetheless.
“We experienced a surge of engagement on social media, but I do not think this necessarily translated into donations,” they said.
“As a small charity supporting people with rare health conditions, most of our donations come from people directly impacted or who know someone who is – so this is perhaps to be expected.”
A GOSH charity spokesperson said: “We were incredibly grateful to Amol Rajan for choosing the Louis Dundas Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital as his charitable cause during his time on the Traitors.
“The series aired during the period we launched our Christmas fundraising appeal activity, alongside our existing active and diverse programme of fundraising activity.
“For this reason, we’re not able to attribute a donation uplift to the programme directly.”
A British Red Cross spokesperson said: “While we haven't seen a spike in donations we could attribute to the Traitors, we are grateful to Leigh-Anne Pinnock for choosing the British Red Cross as her charity in the Celebrity Traitors.
“She showed great resilience, becoming the last woman standing in the finale. Support from stars like Leigh-Anne helps us to raise visibility of our work and continue to support people in crisis both in the UK and around the world.”
A spokesperson for Longfield Community Hospice said it was difficult to measure the fundraising impact of the show as it has a separate appeal running.
“We do not believe we have received a significant increase in donations due to Richard E. Grant’s appearance on Traitors as this information was released by the BBC in a fairly low key way.
“However, we have seen a significant increase in media coverage and social media engagement for which we are incredibly grateful for Richard E. Grant’s involvement, helping to increase the profile of Longfield Community Hospice and what we do.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Alzheimer’s Society said it was too early to judge whether professor Hannah Fry playing for the charity had led to a fundraising boost.
A spokesperson for UNICEF UK, for which comedian Joanne McNally was playing, also said it had not seen “any notable fundraising impact”.
