Long-Term Partners

Comic Relief has had the incredible support of a range of partners – many of whom have been working with us for many, many years. They help to provide technical support, donation phone-lines, Red Noses, T-shirts and much, much more.

Some of our long term partners have even done fantastic work by funding specific projects. TK Maxx, for example, is currently helping to educate under-privileged children in Uganda, while Sainsbury’s Fair Development Fund is transforming the lives of small scale producers in Africa and the rest of the world.

To find out more about these types of projects, visit our funding partners section

Comic Relief without Sainsbury’s would be like Morecambe without Wise – unthinkable. Our brilliant partnership with Sainsbury’s has been going strong since 1999, and has raised over £58 million to date – an astonishing amount. Our commitment to working together has grown over the years, and both sides have gained a lot as a result.

For starters, it’s great for Comic Relief to be associated with a company as solid and trusted as Sainsbury’s, and they’re delighted to be the official partner of such a well-known and much-loved charity. Sainsbury’s raised a massive £11.4 million throughout Red Nose Day 2011 – the largest corporate cheque ever given to Comic Relief.

The wonderful employees at Sainsbury’s also do their bit by pulling out all the stops to fundraise. This gives them a brilliant way to work together, have fun and get customers involved – plus they also help to raise lots of much-needed cash for Comic Relief.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, Sainsbury’s has also worked with Comic Relief to set up its Fair Development Fund. Its aim is to transform the lives of small producers in Africa, and the rest of the world, by developing partnerships between small producers, producer groups, NGOs, donors and retailers.

It really does feel like Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s are a perfect match, and we’re sure we’ll continue to have a very long and successful future together.

“The partnership between Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief has grown over the years to the point where Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns have become part of Sainsbury’s way of life. Our customers and colleagues enjoy being part of a truly national event each year, and we’re incredibly proud that we’ve been able to help raise over £58 million for Comic Relief over the years, as we know it is being spent to make a real difference to the lives of countless people in the UK and in the world’s poorest countries. ”— Justin King, CEO, September 2011>

Without BT, Comic Relief would never have got off the ground.

For each and every campaign – right from the very first Red Nose Day back in 1988 – we’ve relied hugely on the incredible support BT provides. From the telephony infrastructure to the call centres, network management and thousands of hours of staff time to answer calls on the night – BT are the backbone of every telethon we’ve ever done.

It’s thanks to BT that Comic Relief is able to raise millions of pounds in pledges on Red Nose Day and the Sport Relief Weekend – and lives have been changed for the better as a result.

As if that wasn’t enough, BT is always looking at ways to give extra support to Comic Relief too.

For example, in 2003, they helped us launch the Red Nose Day campaign by lighting the BT Tower red whilst millions watched live on TV. They also made it possible for Lenny Henry to become the first ever comic voice of the Speaking Clock. Lenny then teamed up with Alistair McGowan in 2005 to greet callers to BT’s directory enquiry service 118 500. And in 2007, he turned up at BT Tower to show his support for all the brilliant volunteers who took more than 860,000 calls on the night.

BT has also been extremely generous to Comic Relief – like in 2007, when they donated money to us from the sale of their products.

As the headline sponsors of the BT Red Nose Climb in 2009, which saw Gary Barlow lead a team of celebrities up Mount Kilimanjaro, they brilliantly raised £373,768.

Following on from that success, BT went on to raise another £300,000 as headline sponsors of The BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride in 2010 – where David Walliams and six celebrities cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

Our partnership with BT has been our longest ever, and has been crucial to our fundraising success from day one. We hope to be working together for a long time to come.

TK Maxx have been an official Comic Relief partner since 2005 – and they’ve certainly packed an awful lot into that relatively short time, having raised an impressive £9.3 million to date.

Our partnership really came into its own in the Red Nose Day 2011 campaign, when TK Maxx raised over £3 million for Comic Relief. While the bulk of this came from selling more than 280,000 iconic Vivienne Westwood designed T-shirts, the brilliant TK Maxx staff also did their bit. They raised a spectacular £400,000 through their own fantastic fundraising feats and collected a staggering £610,000 in £1 donations at their tills. TK Maxx also joined up with Liberty Art fabrics to design and produce some fantastic limited edition shopper bags and scarves as part of the range for the campaign. They were a great success and are still available in TK Maxx stores until Christmas!

We’re really proud to have such a committed and dedicated partner as TK Maxx, and we know that together we can achieve great things.

This amazing charity has been selling the famous Red Nose since Comic Relief first began, over 25 years ago. Through its 700 shops across the UK, and its online shop, it has sold millions of Red Noses and other pieces of official merchandise. All of this due, in no small part, to the energy and enthusiasm of Oxfam’s shop managers and volunteers, who never fail to enter into the full spirit of Comic Relief with some brilliant fundraising events.

Oxfam is also one of the charities that receives grants from Comic Relief for a number of projects across Africa. One such project is the Mali Cotton Programme. One in three people in Mali depend on cotton production for their family income with 80% living on less than one dollar a day so cotton is a vital source of income for the poorest families.

The farmers need to get a better price for what they grow. The programme helps them to do this by improving the effectiveness of their cooperatives and, amongst other things, assisting with diversification into Fair Trade and organic cotton. With an increasing number of the farmers being women, it additionally focuses on increasing their empowerment in these cotton-producing areas.

Because of projects such as this, because of their support, and because of what Oxfam represents, we very much look forward to continuing our relationship with them in coming years.

We’re extremely excited to bring on board our new partner – British Airways. Together we’ve launched an exciting new partnership called Flying Start – which aims to help children living unimaginably tough lives both in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries.

It’s hoped that this partnership will bring in crucial year-round funding for Comic Relief through spare change and foreign currency collections on British Airways flights.

The staff at BA will also be getting together to help raise money for Comic Relief, and the company as a whole will take part in special fundraising activities in the run-up to our Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns.

Together we’ll be helping to transform the lives of vulnerable children across the world by giving them a flying start in life so they can look forward to a much brighter future.