Virgin Money Giving adds free training to its offer to fundraising charities
Howard Lake | 24 June 2015 | News
Online fundraising site Virgin Money Giving is introducing free training to help charities and their supporters raise more money via the service.
The training is one of “five promises” announced by the not-for-profit service this week, underlining its commitment to helping all its charity partners maximise their income from the site. In addition, the promises are designed “to address some of the fears and challenges they face when it comes to online fundraising”.
Virgin Money Giving’s five promises
The five promises to charities are:
1. We will help charities make their fundraising go further
The company re-emphasised that it will not take a penny in profit, will pass on Gift Aid “in full” and make sure that charities receive their donations within one week. It claims this approach, when contrasted with that of its for-profit competitors like JustGiving, has generated over £11 million more for its charity partners since the site launched.
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2. We will make online fundraising easier
VMG committed to “providing handy tools that even the most computer-phobic can use”. These include its personalised appeal page functionality, event and campaign hubs, and its reporting tools.
3. We will help charities develop their skills
Members of Virgin Money Giving’s training team for charities
VMG is now offering free, interactive training, both face-to-face and over the phone to help charities make more from its service and tools. The training covers reporting, fundraising and campaign design.
4. We will keep charities money safe
VMG assured its charity and individual users that the money raised is safe because its using Virgin Money’s systems which meet approved banking standards and, “because our not-for-profit model is sustainable”.
5. We will have a dedicated helpdesk
VMG encouraged charities who needed support, advice or ideas to pick up the phone and speak to their helpdesk team.
Jo Barnett, Executive Director at Virgin Money Giving, explained why the organisation had introduced training and made its five promises. She said:
“Our website is simple and user friendly but many charities just want extra support to make the most of digital channels. Our team has designed a series of interactive bite size training sessions, accessible from a desk, which will give our charity partners new skills and knowledge that they can put into practice straightaway”.
Online fundraising far from being maximised
Recent research for VMG by Third Sector Insight, who contacted 550 charities, found that:
• Only 2% of charities feel they are maximising online fundraising as a donation channel
• More than half (52%) of respondents believe they are not making the most of online fundraising
• Almost 10% of charities do not use online fundraising at all.
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.