This week, Lady Nicola Mendelsohn’s online fundraising drive for the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation through the Charity Extra platform raised in excess of £2.5 million, smashing its original £1 million target.

It’s the latest success story for the website, set up by former furniture company boss Yitzi Bude. In just two years, it has raised a staggering £140 million for good causes, largely for a host of communal charities unable to stage annual dinners because of the pandemic.

The current total is £80 million up on the overall figure in March, when Mr Bude last spoke to the JC, reflecting the continuing attraction of crowdfunding marathons, even as in-person fundraisers are slowly resuming.

“We have started to see many charities coming back for a second time round and they are making even more money than the first,” Mr Bude reported.

“For example, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice made £2 million last year — this time it rose to £2.2million. Seed, the communal adult and family education charity, raised 30 per cent more this year.

“One communal charity who booked with us last year, telling me this was strictly a one-off campaign [during] Covid, have come back and booked again. When I asked why, they said it was because they made five times more than they do at a dinner and reached out to 20 times the amount of donors, all at a fraction of the cost. They said they can’t ‘go back to the old dinner mode’.”

The 35-year-old sees the future of fundraising as a mix of intimate in-person functions for major donors combined with online crowdfunders to vastly enhance the revenue potential.

“It is important to have that personal connection, especially with major supporters. I am starting to see charities making these events smaller — which is much better for those in the room, as well as being much cheaper to run — while using our platform to find more people.

“Instead of traditional pledge cards, charities are leaving iPads at the tables and asking their major donors to give using our tech.

“This provides for easy giving and lets everyone see how much the charity has raised, enabling a real time appeal.”

The next step would be “full-on hybrid events where a dinner and a Charity Extra campaign work hand in hand”, with live-streaming of parts of the evening, such as the entertainment and appeals, via the site to attract further donations.

To this end, Charity Extra has upgraded its technology and added new functionality including a “like button” for donations and support for raffles and challenges such as treks or read-a-thons.

New communal clients run the gamut from Norwood to British Emunah.

And having raised almost £25 million for secular causes, there are now crowdfunders lined up for NHS trusts, hospices and charities including the Royal Free London, Rays of Sunshine and Food Bank Aid, as well as organisations in Europe, North America, Israel and even India.

To keep up with demand, Mr Bude’s team has expanded to 30 with offices in America, Canada, Israel, Belgium and Switzerland.

“We pride ourselves on always staying ahead and seeing what the next opportunities for our charities may be,” he added.

“We have adapted our strategy for a post-lockdown world and are consistently developing new ideas for both the donors and the charities.”