Charities choose in-house online sponsorship tools
Howard Lake | 6 December 2004 | News
While most charities are using providers such as Bmycharity and Justgiving to handle their online sponsorship services, others have opted for the in-house approach.
Action Medical Research and the British Heart Foundation are two charities which have created their own bespoke online sponsored event systems.
Action Medical Research created theirs in 1999 and say there are very satisfied with it. “We’ve found it cost-effective to roll out, and very low maintenance”, Dan Sartin, Publications & Website Editor, told the charitywebforum discussion group. “It pays for itself not just in terms of revenue, but return site visits and loyalty to, and understanding of, the charity.”
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Sartin commented that “we’ve added features like event message boards, and log-in areas where people can get fundraising tips and read messages left for them by their donors.”
Because they have undertaken the building of the system in-house they only have to pay commission to their payment provider, Secure Trading.
The British Heart Foundation launched their in-house online sponsorship system in January 2004. Bertrand Bosrédon, Online Manager, reports that nearly 4,500 pages have been created since then. It has become a key tool in BHF’s online fundraising: “more than 50% of our online income is coming from our sponsorship system”, said Bosrédon. On average, each page raises £140 and the average donation is £18.83.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.