Over £250m raised using Virgin Money Giving
Howard Lake | 19 June 2014 | News
Virgin Money Giving has now helped charities raise more than £250 million since it launched in 2009. Over 9,000 charities, including the 10 largest, are registered with it.
Despite difficult economic conditions for many individuals, donations via Virgin Money Giving have risen by over 11% year-on-year.
On reaching this milestone, the not-for-profit online fundraising arm of Virgin Money pointed out that it had delivered an extra £9 million more to charities since 2009 “compared to its closest competitor”. It says that, unlike other online giving platforms, it “charges charities the minimum fees needed to cover the running costs of the site”.
It charges charities a flat registration fee of £100 + VAT and a 2% fee on all donations before Gift Aid, and does not charge to collect Gift Aid. As a result it states that “for every £10 raised, charities receive £12.15”.
How much do people give?
Virgin Money Giving has shared some observations from its fundraising data for the last five years.
- The average donation by value is almost £39 (excluding Gift Aid)
- The average donation value by women is around £31.
- For men it is almost £48.
Advertisement
Who is fundraising and how?
- The average age of fundraisers is 36 for females and 39 for men.
- The most popular names of those who have set up fundraising pages since launch are David (c.10,000), Paul (c.8,000) and James (c.7,000).
- Setting a fundraising target on a page works: the average amount raised from pages with a target is more than twice as much as those without.
- The most popular type of fundraising event, based on pages created, is running, followed by cycling
Who benefits?
- Children’s health charities have received the largest percentage of donations (37%)
- The second most popular cause is health research (31%).
Virginmoneygiving.com is the official fundraising partner of events that include the Virgin Money London Marathon, Royal Parks Half Marathon, Nike Run to the Beat and the Virgin Money Cyclone.
Jo Barnett, Executive Director at Virgin Money Giving said:
“It has been a fantastic achievement by our fundraisers to hit that £1/4 billion landmark. We only launched in 2009 and are still a growing service, so to hit that level already is a great achievement”.
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.