Irish give €5 million online to help victims of Haiti disaster

27 Jan 2010

The level of online charity donations has soared as Irish people make donations to help victims of the Haitian earthquake. More than €5 million has been donated online so far.

In the days since the disaster, online donations valued in excess of €5 million have been made to numerous charities that process payments with Realex Payments, the company said.

According to figures released by Realex Payments today, in excess of 50,000 transactions have been processed in the two weeks since the tragedy.

Donations started to flood in as soon as news of the devastation caused by the earthquake emerged.

The day after the earthquake in Haiti

The day after the earthquake struck, there was a significant increase in the volumes of payments processed for charities, with the volume of online donations increasing by more than 1,100pc in just 24 hours.

The normal average for daily online donations is €85,000, however this increased to €443,000 from 13 January. The biggest donations were made 14 and 15 January, when the average donation was in excess of €113.

However, the volume of donations continues to remain high.

Realex Payments is Ireland’s largest payment service provider and supports more than 125 charities who accept donations online.

For many charities, the internet is an important source of revenue and these figures would reflect this fact and that Irish people continue to be very generous, even in these financially restrained days.

By John Kennedy

Photo: More than 50,000 transactions have been processed in the two weeks following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, figures released by Realex Payments have indicated

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com