Social Impact & Volunteering

Financial Times Seasonal Appeal Raises a Record Amount for Sightsavers Charity

Feb 6, 2012 9:00 AM ET

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) February 6, 2012 - The Financial Times 2011-2012 Seasonal Appeal has raised £3.34 million for international development charity Sightsavers, making it the most successful appeal since the initiative began in 2005.  The funds raised will support Sightsavers in delivering its vision of a world where no one is blind from avoidable causes and where visually impaired people participate equally in society. 

The appeal ran from November to the end of January, with coverage of the charity’s work in Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Kenya appearing in the FT throughout December.   Direct reader donations raised £2.5m with match funding. A photography auction at London’s Getty Images Gallery and an online auction of dinners with FT writers raised £165,408.  In addition, the charitable global workforce of Standard Chartered donated their last hour’s pay for 2011, bringing in a further £406,599 towards Sightsavers work.   Readers saw their appeal donations matched by Standard Chartered through its community investment programme, Seeing is Believing, whilst the UK Government also matched donations made by individuals in the UK pound for pound, in recognition of their generosity towards this cause.   For the full press release, visit FT.com.   About Sightsavers

  1. Sightsavers is a registered UK charity (Registered charity numbers 207544 and SC038110) that works in more than 30 developing countries to prevent blindness, restore sight and advocate for social inclusion and equal rights for people who are blind and visually impaired.  www.sightsavers.org

  2. There are 39 million blind people in the world; 80% of all blindness can be prevented or cured.

  3. In the six decades since its foundation, Sightsavers has:

-       Treated over 206.8 million people for blinding and potentially blinding conditions

-       Carried out over 7.1 million operations to restore sight

-       Trained almost 0.5 million primary eye care workers

-       Carried out rehabilitation training to 91,000 people

  About the Financial Times:
The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 601,269 (Deloitte assured, 3 October 2011 to 1 January 2012) and a combined print and online average daily readership of 2.1 million people worldwide (PwC assured, May 2011). FT.com has over 4.3 million registered users and 267,497 paying digital subscribers. The newspaper, printed at 22 print sites across the globe, has a global print circulation of 333,771 (ABC figures December 2011).     PEA20831