Text donations to charity increase to £122m in 2015/16
Howard Lake | 13 July 2016 | News
Giving to charity by text has grown by 6% to £122m in the year to 2015/16, according to PhonepayPlus, the UK phone-paid services regulator.
The figures are published in its Annual Market Review of premium rate services. It expects the total to raise to £129m in 2016/17.
The regulator described the increase in donations as “impressive” given that there was no exceptional large public fundraising campaign such as #NoMakeUpSelfie or the Ice Bucket Challenge during the period. It suggests that this “shows underlying organic growth as opposed to social media driven activity”.
Top sectors in premium rate services
Charity donations are now the largest market sector of the premium rate services industry.
1. Charity text donations – £122 million
2. Directory enquiries – £82.7 million
3. Games on social networks – £60.5 million
Charities remain successful users of premium rate services, despite a decline in some of sectors’ success rates. Indeed, revenues for charity text giving accounted for 18% of the PRS market in 2015/16.
Regular giving has contributed to this, with donors adopting a subscription model as a means to donate regularly via phone bills. Donation values are increasing too, with larger charities moving from £3 to £5 as their default donation amount.
PhonepayPlus reported that “charities are the most trusted service operating in the premium rate services market”.
Jo Prowse, Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus said:
“The growth of charity text giving over the last few years shows the positive work that can be achieved when charities, providers, networks and the regulator work together. “Regulatory flexibility, such as the ‘Skip’ command, which allow you to miss a payment without stopping future donations, provide increased choice for donors and ongoing support for charitable causes”.
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PhonepayPlus will change its name in Autumn 2016 to the Phone-paid 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.