# JustGiving’s charges queried by BBC journalist

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/11/02/justgiving039s-charges-queried-bbc-journalist/
- Published: 2010-11-02T17:19:51+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**“[Are the charges of charity-giving websites fair?](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11654649)”
asks Nigel Cassidy, Business reporter at BBC Online. In particular, he questions
the charges of JustGiving, since it is the market leader.**

He quotes some users of the site who, not surprisingly, point out that there are
other online giving sites that charge less and that they’d like to see a bit more
money going to the charities.

What no-one will say is that JustGiving shouldn’t be making a charge, or that JustGiving
doesn’t make its charges clear and obvious.

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So, it is a non-story, beyond the fact that anyone in my view has the right to query
the charges of a company providing services to a charity. But it’s not ‘news’.

JustGiving is a commercial organisation with currently an unparalleled record in
generating over £700 million for charities since 2001. It invests a lot of money
in providing new products and services, offers a lot of educational resources to
charities, and attracts a devoted following of users, both charities and individuals.

Of course, there are other providers – which makes for a dynamic and healthy market,
which surely only charities can benefit from?

Here is the BBC’s news item:

_[The video at news.bbc.co.uk is no longer available because it was displayed using
the deprecated Flash]._

and here is a response from an individual whose charity uses JustGiving to fundraise:

And here is another:

_[The video at https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z0tEYrK47fY is no longer available]_

So, the BBC gives us: a commercial company charges money for its services (yes, 
folks, charities don’t get everything for free in this world), it does very well,
it spawns competitors. But maybe it could charge a bit less.

That stretches my understanding of the definition ‘news’.

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