Charity donation sites

I am planning to run the Halstead Marathon for Charity this year - and am looking to set up a Just Giving or Virgin Money type donation page.

Can anyone tell me does all the money donated go to the charity or do these sites charge some form of fee?

Thanks

Comments

  • Generally, they take a cut of each donation.

    I volunteer for a charity and set up their Virgin page.  It cost £100 initial fee, then Virgin take 2% of each donation received.

    They are, however, not for profit, so this is sufficient to simply cover their costs, apparently. 

  • From the justgiving site :



    How our fees work - and what we do for it

    Charities pay a 5% fee on donations (which we take from the Gift Aid we reclaim) and in return we help them raise more money, more efficiently. By leaving the costly and time-consuming stuff to us, they can spend more time, energy and money on doing good.



    Seems reasonable to me - far more likely to get people to donate with justgiving etc...
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    The do take a small fee.

    I prefer to give sponsorship this way for many reasons - not least of which is never having any cash on me when people I've sponsored come looking for payment.  I also seem to give more for some reason - probably because it's going on my credit card rather than being "hard cash".

    From the other side, because JustGiving etc do all the Gift Aid claims to HMRC, it saves the charity a lot of time and effort (and money) so it is good for everyone.

  • Thanks for your answers -

  • I think that Virgin Money doesn't take a cut and it still does the gift aid reclaim etc for your chosen charity.

    If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    They do, LMH.

    From their website:

    We only charge what we need to cover our operating costs.

    Just one £100 + VAT set-up charge, and 2% of donations. That’s it.

    We don’t charge an ongoing fee to be on our site and there are no monthly or annual fees. Plus we don’t charge to collect Gift Aid.

    So more money goes where it's needed - directly to your charity.

  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭

    I've not used this lot, but they claim to be commission free.  Not quite sure how they cover their costs, in that case, but there we are: http://www.bmycharity.com/

  • Thanks all will have a look at them all.

  • Thanks Nessie - I use them and thought that the charity received more of the donation than if I used justgiving and whilst I wasn't entirely accurate 3% extra is still going to the right place.

    Haven't heard of that one Joolska - will have to take a look.

    If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
  • Virgin money trumpeted the fact that they didn't take any cut when they launched, obviously a bit quieter about introducing the charges later, typical Branson.

    I have used Justgiving from both sides, and Virgin money to donate to people.

    JG was only 2% then, so I worked out the charges and donated it back just so the charity got every penny.

    I think they are a great idea, you read or hear of something and you are able to support it there and then.

    I have heard people say they are creaming off charity money but there is a cost to move money from one place to another, it's naïve to think there isn't.

  • Ah - that's where I got it from then Mr Puffy - thank you.

    If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
  • I used bmycharity in the past as they pass on 100% of the donation to the charity.  I believe Help 4 Heroes actually bought the site to ensure this continued, as with just giving you can choose any charity registered on there it is lnot limited to H4H.

  • bmycharity smallprint in information for charities: 

    All donations will be paid into your charity Bank Account (as notified to us in your completed Bmycharity contract) via BACS transfer on a monthly basis minus the 1.6% transaction fee, so for example all donations paid to your Bmycharity account in December would be paid to your charity at the end of January. Please note that our payment run is usually made on or around the 28th of each month.

    Our Finance team will send you a transaction fee statement each month outlining the transaction fee that has been taken from your donations each month. Please note that you do not need to pay the transaction fee as this will have been deducted from your monthly donations.

    To obtain a breakdown of the monthly BACS amount and obtain a list of the all the individual donations, simply login to your Bmycharity account, select reporting, then select an all donations report for the previous month. For example if you received payment at the end of Dec 2011, this correlates to all donations received in November 2011 – therefore select dates from 1 Nov 2011 – 30 Nov 2011. The amount paid should match this total minus the 1.6% transaction fee which is taken in advance.

  • so they do charge.its just in the small print

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    And also the will be earning interest on the money for up to 8 weeks.
  • The point is that anyone who says there are no overheads is either stupid or lying. There are, and always will be. They don't exist in a vacuum unaffected by the costs of everyday life.

  • WombleWomble ✭✭✭

    Even if they were doing it out of the goodness of their hearts they still have to pay the payment processing companies, utilities, providers of computing systems, business rates, rent.....

  • The bt one apparently gives 100% to charity at east that's what a charity i'm doing something for said so they asked me to use them. 

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    Just had a look at the various sites (I'm an accountant - I find these things interesting image).

    Just Giving and Virgin money charge 5% and 3% respectively, and do the gift aid claims on behalf of the charity.  This charge does not include the credit/debit card charges which can range from 1.6% to 3% depending on the card used.  Justgiving also charge £15 monthly fee.  Virgin charge a £100 + VAT set up fee).

    bmycharity charge 1.6%, but that includes card charges, and they keep the money a little longer.  However, although they collect gift aid consent,they don't do the actual gift aid claim on behalf of the charity.  They charge a £150 set up fee.

    BT mydonate do the gift aid claim and only charge the charity the actual card charges, pay weekly, and there don't appear to be any set up charges.

     

    Bear in mind that if the charity collected the payments themselves by credit/debit card, they would have to pay the card charges direct anyway.

    For the service provided, I think none of them are milking it, and I'd be happy to use any of them to fundraise and also to donate through.  They are saving the charities money by doing substantial admin for them (which a lot of small charities may not have the expertise to do themselves) with the economies of scale to make that part of it cheaper.

     

    But it looks like Booktrunk's charity have given good advice. image

     

    (no, I don't work for any of them.....)

  • Thanks for taking the time to do that Nessie - it's good to have it so clearly set out so that we can make informed choices.

    If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
  • WombleWomble ✭✭✭

    Well said, Nessie. Thanks

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