2025 Telethon Wrapped – $1.3m Raised

World Refugee Day 2025 is over, and we wanted to take a moment to thank you for your support for the 10th ASRC Telethon. What a day it was!

Thanks to you, our community of compassion, we raised an astonishing $1,300,874.80!



From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for every like, comment, share and dollar donated.

While we didn’t quite reach our target of $1.5 million, we are deeply grateful for the incredible generosity and support we’ve received. Your donations will have a powerful impact, helping us provide food, housing, healthcare and legal aid for people seeking asylum.

No matter how big or small, your contribution helps power the ASRC to provide vital services to refugees and people seeking asylum, as they find hope, independence, and safety here. We will be able to continue our commitment to do our utmost to meet critical needs of people seeking asylum, and to never stop fighting for their rights.

Even more special than the funds raised, was the sense of community and hope felt on the day, and the voices of refugees at the heart of everything. From our amazing ASRC Telethon heroes, Frida Umuhoza and Bahaa Dabbagh, to the inspiring participants of the ASRC’s Community, Advocacy and Power Program (CAPP) and other refugee leaders, as well as 5 amazing refugee-led organisations that received $5,000 donations from the ASRC, the day was filled with incredible stories of strength and resilience of refugees and people seeking asylum.

Adding to those voices were the inimitable Nasser Mashni of Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and Rasha Abbas of Palestine Australia Relief and Action (PARA), who spoke of their fearless and relentless work to bring attention to the struggle of the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian Chef Aheda who catered for our World Refugee Day Telethon with delicious falafel and maqluba. In these times of grief and pain, their voices were more important than ever.

After the 500-kilometre Walk for Truth, the Yoorook Justice Commission’s Deputy Chair and Commissioner Travis Lovett was there to take donations and extend the First Nations support for refugees and people seeking asylum, as did the Wurundjeri Elder, Uncle Tony Harvey, who opened the proceedings of the day with a Welcome to Country.

A big thank you to our incredibly generous matched funding partners who doubled donations throughout the day:

• Michael & Rosemary Tabak
• Professional Footballers Australia (PFA)
• The Metamorphic Foundation
• Raphie’s family
• Maurice Blackburn Lawyers
• Da Gama Pinto Foundation (Michael & Amanda)
• IRAL Foundation
• Cindy Valdez, Founder & CEO of Teach to Learn
• PX Partners
• Ruth Eisner
• Ben Friis-O’Toole & Valeska Bloch & their children Oskar and Rory
• and our anonymous donors 

A massive thank you to our amazing ASRC Telethon ambassadors, MCs and artists who lent their voices to the cause, from coming into our centre on the day to perform, take part in interviews, staff the phones, showcase illustrations and draw caricatures, to our celebrity supporters across Australia and overseas sending us messages of support, sharing our content and donating so generously to our auction.

We thank all the incredibly generous people and businesses that donated items for the ASRC Telethon auction – a huge success, bringing in $41,570.86. And we thank the amazing team at Vu Consulting for the fantastic media work they did for the ASRC Telethon free of charge.

And last, but definitely not least, we achieved an enormous feat of a continuous 16-hour livestream across all our platforms thanks to the extraordinary crew from the Jasper Picture Company who so generously donated their time, equipment, expertise and boundless dedication to elevating and highlighting the voices of refugees and people seeking asylum. Matt Jasper and the whole crew, we are humbled and profoundly grateful for your contribution and camaraderie.  

We are so grateful to all of you; your support inspires hope and determination to continue with our work. Thank you all for standing with refugees and being a force for change in the lives of people seeking asylum. World Refugee Day Telethon, powered by the ASRC, will be back for its 11th edition and the 25th anniversary of the ASRC in 2026!

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If you missed donating to the ASRC Telethon, but still want to support our work, please make a tax-deductible donation to the ASRC’s Winter Appeal. Your support enables us to support people seeking asylum with food, housing, basic needs and medical care.