 Sherine then asked Richard Dawkins for a quote for the campaign, at which point he offered to match the first £5,500 raised.The Atheist Bus Campaign's donation phase launched on Tuesday 21 October 2008 with another article by Sherine, "All aboard the atheist bus campaign", on Comment is free.To the surprise of the organisers the fundraising target was broken within hours of the launch, raising almost £48,000 by the end of day one.