The Votes Are In

05 December 2011

The Vote that Counts campaign comes to a close

The votes are now in. They're currently being counted and verified. And on Sunday 18 December, one lucky charity will win £50,000 from People's Postcode Trust.

At the stroke of midnight last night (Sunday 04 December) voting in the Vote that Counts came to a close. The campaign has been a huge success, engaging our players, charity supporters and general voters to vote for their favourite charity to win an amazing £50,000.

It has also been compelling viewing, with the leader board changing dramatically each week. Extra incentives to get each of the charities thinking a little more creatively also created a real buzz around the campaign.

In Week Four, all of the charities were tasked to get a celebrity, personality or leading Twitter profile to retweet (RT) their Vote that Counts webpage and hash-tag. Each valid RT secured an extra 500 votes. The only pre-requisite was that the Tweeter had at least 10,000 followers. With tweets from Newton Faulkner, Joe McElderry, Gary Barlow, Christopher Biggins and Ian Rankin amongst the many wonderful RTs, the Vote that Counts was making lots of ripples in social media.

Whereas, Week Five's incentive was to secure as many votes as possible in one week to win a free advert in the Sunday Mail. A fantastic opportunity to profile the successful charity and their work ahead of Christmas, the 12 charities pulled out all of the stops to rack up the votes.

The votes are currently being counted and verified. The winning charity will be announced on Sunday 18 December. Check the Vote That Counts website or the Sunday Mail to find out which charity has been awarded a fantastic £50,000 this Christmas. And don’t forget that five runner-up charities will also win £2,000 each. These charities will appear online and in the paper on Sunday 18 as well.

From everyone at the People's Postcode Trust, the Sunday Mail and the charities, thank you for taking part in the campaign. Whether you voted, tweeted, or spread the word amongst your friends and family, taking just two minutes to go online has made such a difference to one lucky charity this Christmas.