Revolut partners with RTÉ on Late Late Toy Show charity appeal

App’s customers can use its donations feature to contribute this year

Ryan Tubridy on the 2020 edition of The Late Late Toy Show: the hugely watched programme will launch its second charity appeal this Friday. Photograph: Andres Poveda
Ryan Tubridy on the 2020 edition of The Late Late Toy Show: the hugely watched programme will launch its second charity appeal this Friday. Photograph: Andres Poveda

Revolut has partnered with RTÉ to raise funds for children's charities on this year's Late Late Toy Show charity appeal, joining payments platform Stripe for the initiative.

Some 15 million Revolut users across the European Economic Area and the UK will be able to make instant contributions to the Toy Show appeal through digital payments group’s app using its donations feature.

The first RTÉ Toy Show appeal in November 2020 raised more than €6.6 million for children’s charities.

The volume of donations was so high that Stripe temporarily appeared to struggle to process all the money coming in, prompting the company's co-founder Patrick Collison to tweet that the Stripe team had "just 5x'd the capacity" for the appeal. Mr Collison then said he and his brother John would personally donate €100,000.

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The addition of a Revolut option for donations for this year’s appeal, which will be launched during the Toy Show this Friday, is likely to broaden the range of potential donors.

The app has 1.5 million users in the Republic and Irish customers will be sent a dedicated message on Friday night asking them to donate.

Revolut said all the money donated by its users would go directly to the appeal and that it would not levy any fees or charges.

Popularity

RTÉ's Late Late Toy Show, presented by Ryan Tubridy, is typically the most-watched programme of the year on Irish television and is likely to be so again this year.

Last year's edition was watched by more than 1.7 million people, with 1.5 million estimated to have tuned in to the festive extravaganza live on the night, according to Nielsen research on behalf of ratings body TAM Ireland.

For the appeal, RTÉ works with The Community Foundation for Ireland, which distributes grants to children's charities on its behalf.

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics