BT’s online sponsorship platform MyDonate has scored a coup in becoming the preferred fundraising website of the company which runs the Great Run and Great Swim series.

Nova International, which runs the mass participation sporting events which involve around 200,000 participants, has announced that MyDonate will be its fundraising partner for 2012.

The announcement of the partnership comes as BT reveals that MyDonate, which launched in spring, has thus far raised nearly £30m and signed up almost 2,000 charities. The deal with Nova International is likely to see this shift significantly in 2012, with the Nova events alone raising around £50m a year. MyDonate says that these donations would be worth £2.5m more had participants used their platform, which entails no set-up or administration fees for charities.

This means that the first and largest player in the online fundraising platform market, JustGiving, is now shouldered out of more of the major mass participation events in the UK, as Virgin Money Giving has had preferred fundraising platform status for the Virgin London Marathon for two years now.

Caroline Sheridan, director of corporate responsibility at BT, said: “We’re delighted to be the online fundraising partner for the Bupa Great Run and British Gas Great Swim Series to help boost charity fundraising next year.”