Red Nose Day’s First Trip Left of the Atlantic Yields $21 Million

You may have been wondering why people were walking around with red clown noses a few weeks ago. If you weren’t aware, it was the first Red Nose Day here in the U.S.

The fundraiser started in England in 1988 to raise funds to fight global childhood poverty. The event is marked by celebrity endorsements and a telethon on the BBC.

NBC Universal and Comic Relief (the umbrella organization for Red Nose Day,) have partnered to bring the campaign to this side of the pond.

NBC aired a three-hour telethon on May 21 hosted by talk show host Seth Meyers. The show featured big name comedians, actors and musicians. It also had some very powerful vignettes – check out this Jack Black piece and funny videos like the Game of Thrones musical that went viral.

Walgreens partnered with the event, and sold red noses in stores across the country. The retailer also had red-nose sponsored products and enabled consumers to simply donate in store. The sales brought in $7.5 million, surpassing Walgreens’ goal of raising $5 million.

All told, the inaugural year of the American Red Nose Day raised $21 million. Comparatively, the British event raised $120 million in 2015, their thirteenth year.

Half of what was raised will go to help children in the U.S, while the other fifty percent will be used to aid children in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Ninety percent of funds will go directly to grants for nonprofit organizations. All of the recipients of the Red Nose Fund have been pre-selected.

Recipients include:

Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Serves nearly 4 million kids in rural and urban communities, schools, public housing, Native communities and military bases. Youth centers provide holistic services for youth including healthy meals, leadership activities, academic support and college and career prep.

charity: water
charity: water is a non-profit organization on a mission to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations go directly to fund water projects. The organization covers their administrative costs through private donations.

Children’s Health Fund
Founded in 1987 by singer/songwriter Paul Simon and pediatrician/advocate Irwin Redlener, M.D., Children’s Health Fund is the nation’s leading pediatric provider of mobile-based health care for homeless and low-income children and their families. Children’s Health Fund has a fleet of 50 mobile medical, dental and mental health clinics serving hundreds of locations in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

Feeding America
Feeding America is a nationwide network of 200 food banks in the United States. Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security, educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to protecting people’s health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries. In its 2016-20 program, Gavi looks to immunize an additional 300 million children and increase to 50% from 5% the number of children who receive all 11 vaccines recommended by World Health Organization.

The Global Fund
The Global Fund is an organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.

LIFT
LIFT is an organization that seeks holistic solutions to fight poverty. LIFT operates eight centers in six cities – Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. – where advocates help members find jobs, housing, or education for themselves or their children.

National Council of La Raza
Established in 1968, NCLR is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. NCLR partners with nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations across the country, and helps children and families have access to quality education, employment, healthcare and housing.

National Urban League
The National Urban League is an historic civil rights and advocacy organization dedicated to economic empowerment in African American and other underserved urban communities. Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League impacts and improves the lives of more than 2 million young people and adults annually through direct service programs, which are implemented locally by 94 Urban League affiliates, serving 300 communities in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

Oxfam America
Oxfam America is a global organization working to alleviate poverty, hunger, and injustice.

Save the Children
Save the Children is an international non-governmental organization that promotes children’s rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries.

United Way
United Way is a network of nearly 1,800 community-based United Ways in 41 countries and territories. The organization focuses on education, income and health. United Way Worldwide will distribute a portion of the money raised through Red Nose Day specifically to local United Ways addressing the basic needs of poverty in local communities across the United States.

Judith Fenlon is the money and business editor for The Chronicle of Social Change

Written By Chronicle Of Social Change

Red Nose Day’s First Trip Left of the Atlantic Yields $21 Million was originally published @ The Chronicle of Social Change and has been syndicated with permission.