Robert Downey Jr online raffle raises $2m for UK children’s hospice
Howard Lake | 9 April 2015 | News
The online raffle featuring the prize of a movie premiere evening in Los Angeles with actor Robert Downey Jr has raised a record-breaking $2,048,605 gross for Julia’s House, the Dorset and Wiltshire-based children’s hospice.
This is the most successful fundraising campaign yet run on the ‘celebrity experience’ fundraising raffle site Omaze.
After campaign, merchandising and currency transaction charges have been deducted, the charity will receive between £950,000 and £1 million.
The Robert Downey Jr campaign on Omaze ran for a month, starting on 2 March.
UK Fundraising asked the charity’s CEO Martin Edwards about the campaign and why it was so successful. He said:
“Interestingly, although there was strong support from mainstream and entertainment media, almost all the marketing driving the sales was online, especially through Robert’s own Facebook page (24 million likes).
“His team posted regular updates and promotional messages, including ‘chance to win other goodies if you enter now’ type promotions, and a film about the Julia’s House children, in the last few days to maximize interest. You can still see these on his page”.Advertisement
Martin Edwards
He described the campaign as “brilliant and somewhat surreal”, adding that it was “great news for the new Wiltshire children’s hospice”.
Here was RDJ’s pitch at the beginning of the campaign:
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.