London Marathon raises over £60m for first time

13 Sep 2017 News

The 2017 London Marathon has raised over £60m for good causes, setting an eleventh straight world record for a single day charity fundraising event.

According to the organisers of the London Marathon, the 2017 iteration of the event raised a total of £61.5m for charity. In doing so, the marathon’s fundraising efforts set a world record for an annual single day charity fundraising event for the eleventh successive year.

The final figure represents the first time in its history that the London Marathon has raised more than £60m. In 2016, marathon runners raised £59.4m for good causes.

Since the event was founded in 1981, the London Marathon has now raised more than £890m in total for charity.

VMG raises over £25m, despite website issues

Virgin Money Giving runners and supporters raised in excess of £25m including gift aid for good causes. This despite the fact that the organisation’s website was experienced technical difficulties due to what the organisation described as “high demand”.

In response to criticism from fundraisers and charities regarding its website, Virgin Money Giving was forced to apologise. The organisation also pledged to “boost donations” by 10 per cent to runners on the site both on the day of, and the day following, the event.

A spokesman for Virgin Money Giving said: "Although some people had to try more than once to access the site, due to our temporary volume limits, our analysis shows that everyone who tried again was able to make a donation.

"As a result over £25 million including gift aid was raised through the 2017 event. The donation matching which we promised as a result of the issues contributed £200,000."

In April, digital fundraising platform JustGiving said its runners and supporters had raised some £22.9m for good causes. A JustGiving spokesman said at the time that figure represented a 3 per cent increase on the previous year.

A spokesman for JustGiving said that its runners and supporters raised a total of £23.5m, and said that over 1.4 million people visited the platform during the course of the marathon weekend.

Teenage Cancer Trust to be 2018 official charity partner

Hugh Brasher, event director at the London Marathon, said: “Every year, the Virgin Money London Marathon inspires thousands of runners to take on the challenge of running the famous 26.2 miles and to raise these incredible sums for charity. We salute every runner who has contributed to this amazing world record total of £61.5 million, a staggering sum from a one day event.

“Since 1981, the London Marathon has been an extraordinary force for good that has inspired profound social change. We are proud that this year’s event became the mental health marathon as Heads Together, the charity of the year, did so much to change the conversation on mental health. We are constantly working to grow the event and its positive impacts as society, health services and charities face ever-increasing pressure on their services and funding.

“The London Marathon Charitable Trust has enabled thousands more to get active through its funding of a huge range of recreational projects.”

In April, The Teenage Cancer Trust was announced as the official charity partner for the 2018 Virgin Money Marathon. The charity said it hoped to raise £1.5m for young people with cancer across the UK through the 2018 event. 

 

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