Charities to raise funds through split-ticketing rail travel service
Howard Lake | 28 October 2015 | News
Trainsplit, the train travel booking service that helps passengers save money by using split-ticketing, is inviting charities to receive a share of ticket sales made on their site by supporters.
Split-ticketing has been used by savvy rail travellers for some time, but Trainsplit makes the process easier with just one transaction. The site lets travellers save money by spitting their journey into separate legs.
For example, a journey from Ascot to Bristol travelling at peak time and returning later the same day might cost £124.50 on one of the major sites but by splitting the journey into two parts – Ascot to Swindon and then Swindon on to Bristol – the cost would drop to £62.70, giving a saving of £61.80.
Even if Trainsplit cannot find a split-ticket saving, customers can still find an advance saving on the site against the standard fare bought on the day and the charity will still benefit. The site does not charge credit card fees.
How much?
Crowd funding: raising funds from a ticketing service will rely on volume
Trainsplit’s average order value is around £50 so a participating charity would receive just over 50p on this level of transaction. The value of the scheme therefore lies in volume and persuading enough charity supporters to use it.
Charities can consider boosting their income by charging a small booking fee, and their supporters would still be saving money.
Trainsplit will be offering charities a dedicated white-label version so that supporters can simply visit and bookmark that page in order to benefit their chosen charity.
Monthly payment
Charities taking part in the scheme will receive a cashback payment each month based on the total value of any tickets purchased by the organisation, its supporters and/or their contacts.
Kip Parker, owner of Kipster Media said:
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“Using Trainsplit’s site their staff, supporters and even their friends and family can make significant savings on rail travel helping their chosen charity at the same time. We are really pleased Trainsplit have appointed us to manage this project and we will be able to help all types of charity both large and small”.
The site is not yet mobile responsive but work underway now should resolve that by the end of the year.
Charities can find out more via Trainsplit.
Other train ticket companies already enable charities to generate income from ticket sales. For example, Trainline lets individual and business customers generate a donation when booked via Easyfundraising.
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.