3rd U.S. Red Nose Day Makes Big Bet on Facebook Fundraising Tools

The American spinoff of Red Nose Day, the popular British fundraising telethon, is making a big fundraising push on small screens. A major focus of this year’s campaign is driving online donations through Facebook’s giving tools.

During the hourlong NBC special on Thursday night, celebrities will shine a spotlight on childhood poverty at home and abroad — and make appeals to donate.

Leading up to the television special and continuing afterward, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match up to $1 million in donations made to Red Nose Day in the United States using Facebook’s charitable-giving tools.

Everyone who sets up a Red Nose Day fundraising event on Facebook, adds a donate button to a Facebook Live video or post, or donates to Red Nose Day on the event’s Facebook page through June 15 is eligible to have the value of their contribution doubled.

“It’s a really grass-roots, bottom-up approach to try and get as many people involved as possible,” said Janet Scardino, CEO of the nonprofit Comic Relief, which runs the Red Nose Day campaign.

It’s also an effort to turn social media “likes” into dollars. “Across the sector we’re all struggling with how we take that digital engagement behavior and make it natural for people to give online,” Ms. Scardino said.

Comic Relief will distribute donations from its Red Nose Day fund to charities including Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Charity: Water, Covenant House, Feeding America, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, the National Council of La Raza, Save the Children, and others. Half of the money raised will support domestic programs, the other half programs abroad.

Proceeds from the sales of the event’s signature red clown noses, sold at Walgreens stores, also go toward the fund.

The U.S. Red Nose Day special raised more than $60 million for nonprofits in its first two years combined. By comparison, the 2015 event in Britain raised more than $101 million dollars.

Famous Faces

This year’s U.S. telethon, hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick, will feature celebrities like Ben Affleck and Jack Black educating viewers about the programs supported by Red Nose Day and making donation appeals. The actor Paul Rudd, for example, will travel to rural Maine, which is still struggling with a weak economy, to show why donations are needed to keep kids there safe and healthy.

The network is also integrating the Red Nose Day theme into special programming earlier in the evening. For example, a special episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls will feature Julia Roberts traveling to an overcrowded Nairobi hospital to raise awareness about children suffering from illnesses, most of which are preventable with low-cost vaccines.

The cast of the movie Love Actually and other famous faces will be raising money on Facebook and highlighting other efforts to generate support around the country.

Besides Facebook, the organizers are also trying out YouTube donate buttons and working with celebrities and other “influencers” to put a spotlight on the campaign and poverty-related issues.

Correction: Comic Relief will distribute donations from its Red Nose Day fund to an unspecified number of charities, not just eight, as we said in a previous version of this article. Also, this article has been corrected to say that the NBC special is on Thursday, not Wednesday.