New York — There could have been no better way for Jon Stewart to bid his final goodbye on his long-running satirical news program, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart“— than by raising $2.2 million for autism.
Unknown to many, Stewart announced back in April that the show made raffle tickets available for fans who wished to get a chance to watch the show’s finale live in New York. Around 47,000 fans from 48 different countries made donations in exchange for the tickets— most of them in relatively small denominations of either $10 or $20.
But the total donations from the raffle reached a whopping amount of $2,235,520.
The winner of the raffle, Paul Dorasil, got to watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” live in the show’s studio, and also had a promotional interview with Stewart for Omaze, a fundraising platform for charities that partnered with Stewart’s show for this particular autism fundraiser. The interview was later on posted by Omaze on its website (see below).
Speaking of Stewart’s final bow for his TV show, Omaze said that it was only “fitting that he leveraged his final show to raise over $2 million for this incredible cause.” It then added that the fundraiser was the company’s first campaign with Stewart, which some take as indicative that there will be many more to come.
Proceeds from the campaign will be donated to New York Collaborates for Autism, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with autism and their families.
Source: Brian Stelter in CNN Money Jon Stewart used last show to raise $2.2 million for autism