Charities Trust and Cleversquirrel prepare to launch new initiative
Howard Lake | 23 January 2009 | News
Due to be launched in February 2009, a new online innovation claims to be able to offer charities an innovative way to attract new donations; at no cost! Cleversquirrel claims to have discovered a brand new source of tapping into millions of pounds which is currently hidden.
This hidden money is in the form of fees set aside for financial advisers and other intermediaries when they sell insurance, investment and pension products. Often there is no independent adviser as people buy directly from the provider so these fees remain unclaimed.
Detailed information is not openly available as yet but Cleversquirrel reclaims these charges and donates them to charity, making the most of money already paid. Charities Trust, a national, non-profit donation management agency approved by HMRC, handles the donations and provides a choice of almost 200,000 and good causes.
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As a social networking forum in its own right, Clever Squirrel also encourages young people to sign up and recommend others to join. The existing member’s favourite charity receives a donation when people introduced have charges reclaimed on their policies. Half the money goes to their favourite charity. And half goes to the new member’s.
Cleversquirrel is free to use for charities and each charity can have its own page. Charities can download leaflets and flyers for conventional printing or placement in newsletters and other publications. They can also keep in touch with supporters by posting upcoming events and new fundraising initiatives as this information is automatically sent to Cleversquirrels (the name given to members) supporting the charity.
80% of the reclaimed policy charges is donated to charity. The amount retained covers the cost of checking whether each policy contains charges that can be reclaimed, monitoring the money received month after month, maintaining the website and all the support services. The organisation also commits to donating any “surplus after costs, expansion and development works” to charity.
Clever Squirrel is registered with the Financial Services Authority.
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.