Donations via SMS up to £800
Howard Lake | 28 August 2006 | News
A new system launched by mobile payment system LUUP means that donors can give up to £800 at a time via text message.
Until now the limit has been £6, but the new system allows a maximum of £800 from a bank account or £200 from a credit card to be pledged. It also levies substantially lower charges than current providers.
UK director Rob Perkins explained that donors have to first set up a LUUP account, which can be done online. Money can be transferred from the donor’s bank account to their LUUP account, or the account can be linked to a credit card or debit card. The company charges 2.5 per cent, plus 18p per transaction, which gives the charity more form each donation than happens with other systems.
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Perkins said he saw the system being used to give ‘spontaneous’ donations to charity, either as a result of a direct mail campaign which uses a text number as a response mechanism, or as a result of an emergency appeal such as the tsunami.
LUUP is also looking at ways to accept Gift Aid, either through texting the donor to ask if they are UK taxpayers, or through a tick box in the registration process.
The first charity to sign up to the system is Cystic Fibrosis UK, which is receiving £2 for each new user who registers for a LUUP account through the CFUK website. CFUK supporters can make donations or pay for items in the online shop using their LUUP account.
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.