Aviva’s Twitter campaign raises £97,774 in 24 hours for Railway Children
Howard Lake | 25 February 2013 | News
The sum was reached following Aviva’s pledge to donate £1 every time the hashtag #1every5 was used on Saturday 23 February 2013. Railway Children estimate that one child runs away from home every five minutes in the UK.A one-day Twitter campaign by insurance company Aviva has generated £97,774 for Railway Children, the charity that helps children under 16 who have run away from home or are at risk of doing so.
The hashtag campaign tied in with Norwich City FC’s match against Everton. Club sponsor Aviva agreed for the second year running to let Norwich players wear the logo of Railway Children on their shirts during their Barclays Premier League match. Aviva invited fans to use Twitter to boost the total raised on match day.
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Every 5 minutes a child runs away from home in the UK
The original target was £18,000, based on the fact that last year the community game activity had raised £10,000.
But the campaign took off, helped by some tweets from Norwich City FC Director Stephen Fry, TV Presenter Jake Humphreys and comedian Ricky Gervais as well as NCFC footballers led by club captain Grant Holt.
Heather Smith, Marketing Director at Aviva Direct Insurance said: “We would like to thank all who showed their support for our charity partners Railway Children this weekend by tweeting the hashtag #1every5. This match offered us a fantastic opportunity for us to build on our year-round work with Railway Children, raising awareness and funds for the charity”.
Tweet #1every5 tomorrow and we’ll donate £1 to @railwaychildren.
— Aviva UK (@AvivaUK) February 22, 2013
@avivaplc great idea but you really need to let people know about £18k max or honour every £1 per tweet if this is exceeded. Best of luck.
— JTCHANGINGBUSINESS (@JTCHANGINGBIZ) February 23, 2013
Fantastic news! 97,774 #1every5 tweets on Sat, and @avivauk are donating £97,774! Well done all and a huge thank you! bit.ly/XAVynv
— Railway Children (@RailwayChildren) February 25, 2013
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.