Justgiving offers new SMS giving service for free to first 100 charities
Howard Lake | 26 October 2005 | News
Online giving service Justgiving is launching its new text message donation service free of charge to the first 100 charities to sign up for it.
Justgiving SMS enables charities to accept donations via mobile phones, whether they have a monthly phone bill or pre-paid account, and charities receive the money they raise on a monthly basis. Justgiving recommends £3 as the optimum SMS donation amount, meaning donors receive two reverse-billed text messages, each charged at £1.50.
The offer of a free service is open only to existing Justgiving charity clients. The first 100 such clients who sign up to the service will pay no set-up fees and no ongoing charges ever. Justgiving’s 5% transaction fee will, however, still apply.
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To sign up, charities should simply send a blank email to ju***********@th***********.com. They will then be emailed a form to complete and submit online.
Justgiving has successfully lobbied HM Revenue & Customs to confirm the removal of VAT from the donation element of SMS donations, ensuring that more of the donation reaches the recipient charity.
In addition, Justgiving says that it can secure a higher payout to its SMS clients than what was previously available. Now, a £3 donation made through most major mobile networks will payout roughly £2.05.
James Grieve, marketing manager at Justgiving, said: “SMS is the best and often the only way to collect donations from people on the move and captive audiences at football matches, rock concerts or even conferences. It’s also a great way to access younger, SMS savvy donors.”
Grieve added that Justgiving is using its large charity client base to secure volume discounts on SMS donations that would not be available to individual charities. “The more text donations Justgiving SMS clients receive collectively, the better the payout will become, so by working together we can ensure a better deal for everyone.”
And Justgiving plans to press for further reductions in charges levied by mobile operaters and aggregators.
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.