Boost for regular giving online

Howard Lake | 19 April 2006 | Newswire

An advanced electronic tool is enabling small and medium sized charities to sign up regular donors at any time of the day or night via their websites.
Until now, most charities have been able to collect one-off payments online, but the introduction of edirect debits means that regular donors can sign up 24/7 in a cost-effective way for charities.
Rapidata Services, the leading BACS Approved Bureau to the not for profit sector, has developed the tool and offers back-up services to help charities set up and run the service.
Managing Director Scott Gray said:

edirect debit is a fantastic opportunity for charities to use their websites to drive regular donations. In the past, this has been the domain of a few large charities who have had the resources to develop their own systems and been able to sign up regular donors online.
What we are offering is a service to help charities of all sizes benefit from having a regular giving option on their website via our edirect debit secure pages, cost-effectively and very easily implemented. We can also help them become ‘Paperless’ approved.”

Everything appears with the charity’s own brand, said Gray, and the whole process only needs a hyperlink from the charity’s donation page. There are no worries about security – all pages are totally secure and all regulatory requirements are taken care of by Rapidata.
Charities need to have a Direct Debit Originator Number and need to be ‘Paperless approved’, but as Rapidata is an established BACS Approved Bureau it can help with all the red tape involved. It also provides the mandatory bank validation and an optional postcode look-up for donors signing up which lessens the likelihood of errors in records. It is also AAA compliant, ensuring the highest level of web accessibility
More information about the site or a demo can be found on www.edirectdebit.com

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Case studies available on request.
Rapidata Services plc is a BACS Approved Bureau and established in 1997.
We provide our clients with a cost-effective, outsourced solution for the implementation and collection of direct debit payments. Our philosophy has been to build the business through establishing long term partnerships by providing a cost-effective collections solution to meet our clients’ exact requirements.
Our continuing partnership with our clients has seen Rapidata Services grow to become the leading processor of direct debits in the UK for the charity sector.
www.rapidataservices.com

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.