MSE News: How to pick the best charity-giving website

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Fundraisers who set up donation pages could be depriving charities of hundreds of pounds by choosing the wrong site ..."

Read the full story:
How to pick the best charity-giving website

poppy10_2

I get really annoyed by these websites. They take a significant chunk of donations people have made intended for charitable purposes, and pocket them for private profit. Worse still, they are never up-front about how they work or how much they skim off. I appreciate they make the job easier for the charity by dealing with the mechanics of the fundraising, but still, they leave a bad taste in my mouth. I always give directly to the charity when possible.

lolly1981

my charity im raising for are pretty good the sponsership page is their own so they dont have teh extra comission costs

Savvy_Sue

While I agree it's a good idea to use the 'best' giving sites, it's worth pointing out that there are costs involved with online donations, both in the secure site needed and in reclaiming the Gift Aid. Those of you giving direct to the charity should be aware that the costs don't go away just because the charity is funding them direct, rather than through an intermediary.

And I've always found that the costs ARE clearly shown on the Just Giving site (I mention that one because it's the one I have most experience of, it's been around longer than some of the others!)

southend

Hiya, sorry to sound thick but i thought that charities would of being better off financially ( lack of letters/postage etc) if things were done on line.
We want to donate money on a regular basis ( not a lot) to 'Help the Heroes'. My concern is the fees £100-150, that is a lot of money. Can anyone advise me about a d/debit of say £10.00 to them would be benefica to then ( charges).
I felt sick to the bone when i started to read the other page, less depressing to ask all of you

Savvy_Sue

southend wrote: »

Hiya, sorry to sound thick but i thought that charities would of being better off financially ( lack of letters/postage etc) if things were done on line.
We want to donate money on a regular basis ( not a lot) to 'Help the Heroes'. My concern is the fees £100-150, that is a lot of money. Can anyone advise me about a d/debit of say £10.00 to them would be benefica to then ( charges).
I felt sick to the bone when i started to read the other page, less depressing to ask all of you

I did skim the article the other day: the charges in the detailed table are not £100 per transaction!

For example, Virgin charged our charity £100, once, to get us set up with them. Now anyone can give us money through their website, no further charge to us.

JustGiving makes a monthly charge to us: gradually we'll encourage our supporters to use Virgin and at some point we'll withdraw from using the JustGiving site, however that monthly charge is covered many many times by the additional donations we receive online.

If you phone or email Help for Heroes they will probably give you their bank account details or send you a Standing Order form. You can then set up your payments either by post, or online through your bank if you use online banking. HfH will then get ALL your monthly donation, with no charges made. Nowt wrong with that.

But if you want the convenience of clicking buttons on a website, most charities find it cost effective to use one of these sites, even though there are costs involved, rather than set up their own secure giving facility. Which, as I said before, would have costs associated with it, which wouldn't necessarily be easy to see.

southend

Thanks Savvy Sue, i thought it might of been that price per person ( set up/admin ) so to speak. I will follow your advice, thought i might of cost them money if i had to stop. Ta, sweetheart

sams247

We donate to one of our charities through Charity Choice. It's run in conjunction with the Co op, and I have read all that I can and believe that it is a free way of giving, the charity and the donor can give and receive free of charge. I am happy for someone to point in the durection of incredibly small print, but the large print says Free.