Vodafone: now 90p for every £1 text donation goes to charity
Howard Lake | 26 February 2010 | News
From today, Vodafone UK is increasing the amount that charities will receive when its customers make a donation via text message. Charities will now receive 90p of every £1 donated by Vodafone customers when they give £1 or more via a five digit ‘short code’ number which starts 70.
“Donating by text message is an easy and simple way for customers to give to charity and this change will make it more attractive,” said Libby Pritchard, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Vodafone UK. “Research by nfpSynergy has shown that people understand there may be a small charge how ever they chose to donate.”
Vodafone say that the 10p that is kept covers network and third party costs. VAT is no longer payable on the donation itself and is passed to the charity.
John Low, Chief Executive of the Charities Aid Foundation said: “Vodafone are the UK’s second biggest mobile phone operator so this is a very significant announcement… This is a huge step forward in the campaign to make text donations a good way to give to charity and means that all charities benefit, not just one off major appeals such as Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need when all mobile phone companies have generously waived their fees”.
O2, the UK’s biggest mobile phone operator, reduced their rates in November 2009 to pass on 90% of each text donation.
Low added: “I hope other mobile operators will follow because giving by text is a great way to fundraise since it is easy and spontaneous for donors.”
Roger Craven, Director of mobile fundraising solutions provider Vir2 Ltd, has supported the campaign to secure higher donations from texts, said: “Text donation is a competitive option for small value payments on more and more networks. Text is also more spontaneous, it appeals to a younger audience and unlike cheques, there are no plans to phase it out by 2018.”
www.vodafone.com/index.GB.html
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.