# Text donations to charity increase to £122 million in 2015/16

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/07/13/text-donations-charity-increase-122m-201516/
- Published: 2016-07-13T22:52:03+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**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](http://phonepayplus.newsweaver.co.uk/alert/1vo8tm16sw5ezrc63hojto).
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](https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/03/24/nomakeupselfie-campaign-raises-e750000-irish-cancer-society/)
or the [Ice Bucket Challenge](https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/08/26/fundraising-story-ice-bucket-challenge/)
during the period. It suggests that this “shows underlying organic growth as opposed
to social media driven activity”.

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## 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.

![Text Santa](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/files/images/news/text-santa.
jpg)

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”.

PhonepayPlus will change its name in Autumn 2016 to the Phone-paid Services Authority.

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