More than $12,000 has been raised overnight in a fund set up to help clerical abuse survivors travel to Rome to front Cardinal George Pell in person.

On Monday afternoon, A Go Fund Me page was set up by Meshel Laurie and Gorgi Coghlan - hosts of Network Ten's The Project - to assist survivors with costs for flights and accommodation.

By midday on Tuesday, the Courier reports, the fund had raised more than $12,700 with hundreds of people across Australia contributing to the cause.

Survivors hoped to raised $55,000 which would allow up to 15 representatives from Ballarat to be in Rome when the Cardinal gives his evidence at the end of this month.