Comic Relief: Charity through Laughter

They say that laughter is the best medicine. It is also a great way to raise money for charity. One example of using comedy to help those in need is a British charity known as Comic Relief. It was founded as a response to the famine that swept through Ethiopia in 1985. Its founders are comedian Lenny Henry and comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis. The charity’s vision is to one day have a just world that is also poverty-free.

Comic Relief raises money for its projects through its biennial telethon, aptly named Red Nose Day, which is broadcast on its broadcast partner BBC. Another major fundraising project was born in 2002 when Comic Relief partnered up with BBC Sport and came up with Sport Relief. This event happens during even-ended years and alternates with Red Nose Day which is held on years that end with an odd number.

The organization has reached out to several big corporations for sponsorship. The money the sponsors give the organization goes to operating costs and other expenses. This way all the proceeds coming from their projects go directly to their beneficiaries. The charity’s major sponsors are BBC, British Airways, BT, and Sainsbury. They help by providing money or services to help the organization with its fund raising projects.

The success of Comic Relief and the Red Nose Day telethons has inspired other organizations in other countries to do the same. In the US, Bob Zmuda created Comic Relief USA which conducts irregularly dated telethons which are broadcast on HBO to raise funds to help the poor and homeless people in America. Other countries on the other hand, had adopted the symbolic Red Nose for charity projects with beneficiaries ranging from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) research to charities for children with serious and life threatening diseases.