Best way to donate, via direct website or otherwise?

vpacalypse

I currently donate both to Oxfam & Great Ormand street directly via their websites with use of a debit card.

Though having read an MSE post titled 'Top charity giving sites',
I have wondered whether I would be able to make my £ stretch further following their advice.

Would Donating via 'MyDonate' or 'Virgin Money Giving' be of more benefit to the charity in anyway rather donating directly via their respected sites?

Savvy_Sue

vpacalypse wrote: »

I currently donate both to Oxfam & Great Ormand street directly via their websites with use of a debit card.

Though having read an MSE post titled 'Top charity giving sites',
I have wondered whether I would be able to make my £ stretch further following their advice.

Would Donating via 'MyDonate' or 'Virgin Money Giving' be of more benefit to the charity in anyway rather donating directly via their respected sites?

Without going back and reading Martin's article myself, I'd say that there may be a marginal benefit to the charity if you use one of the free sites and you are able to Gift Aid.

This is because if you are giving direct, but able to Gift Aid, the charity has to do the work of reclaiming. Whereas if you give via one of the sites and Gift Aid, they do the work and pass the Gift Aid on in big chunks at regular intervals.

However you do need to check what charges are being made and weigh things up.

moggymutt

I would have thought that particularly large charities would have a system in place which takes only a few moments to claim Gift Aid. I always prefer giving direct- never trust any sites that cream anything off in charges.

Savvy_Sue

moggymutt wrote: »

I would have thought that particularly large charities would have a system in place which takes only a few moments to claim Gift Aid. I always prefer giving direct- never trust any sites that cream anything off in charges.

True, but for small companies it can be a significant amount of work to prepare the claim, check the claim, get the claim signed and send it off to HMRC. Even if there is something 'creamed off ' for admin, it may be more cost effective to make indirect donations, and some sites do not charge the charity.

moggymutt

If some sites do not charge the charity then that is great, wish they were all like that. My local horse and pony trust (a small charity) finds it very quick these days to claim, a lot quicker than years ago. The benefit of the giving sites is that donors can see it as being easier, and anything that encourages people to give is positive.

RunnerMark

I understand that giving direct sounds like it makes sense but in most cases you aren't actually giving direct but you 'appear' to be giving directly as the charities make a pretty interface and outsource the admin to a third party.

I would highly recommend regular giving via MyDonate - they process the gift aid completely free of charge and their fees are pretty much zero.

How do they do it? Well it is BT's payment system originally developed for the TV telethons of the 80s (Children in Need etc) and the BT Charitable Donation simply made it available FOC for charities to use. They process the gift aid using their funds from their charitable donation.

The system is clunky but it works and amazing support if anything goes wrong. This is definitely the way forward.

I am just about to do the 100km Trans Pennine Challenge for TheHungerProject.org.uk and will be using them to fundraising.

Hugs, M

JohalaReewi

Our small charity uses MyDonate because the fees are zero (apart from some small credit card handling charges) and the gift aid claim is done for us. This is a big help because we can route all card donations via MyDonate without having to sign up (and pay) for card processing facilities. That just leaves us to process cash and bank transfer donations. Being the person who does the gift aid claiming from HMRC, it is a great relief to have someone else do it for free

charitylady

Hello everyone! I actually work for a charity, who also provide charitable giving accounts and fundraising pages, and I thought I'd throw in my tuppence

Stewardship is a charity that offers charitable giving accounts. So for example if like me you give to several charities on a regular basis, or you just want to put all your charitable giving in a pot ready for when you spot a cause you want to support, you can do it with one giving account and one Direct Debit per month instead of lots.

Stewardship also launched give.net in summer 2012, and while it isn't quite as competitive as BT MyDonate, it's cheaper than JustGiving and VirginMoneyGiving, and it's free for charities to use. Plus, give.net has more than 19,000 registered recipients, compared to JustGiving's 8000 and MyDonate's 4500. So you're more likely to find the charity you want to support.

If anyone's interested, there's a basic comparison chart on the give.net blog, but MSE won't let me post the link to it so you'd have to search the blog archives back to March 2012 and you'll find it under 'How do we compare?'

In terms of the original question you asked - about whether it's better to give directly to the charity rather than go via a third party - it all depends. It depends on the size of the charity, and the facility they have to be able to process the Gift Aid. It also depends on what the 3rd party charges. Stewardship is a charity, rather than a company, so our fees go towards staff overheads; but any amount left over goes straight back into charity campaigns and causes.

Hope that helps a bit!

CharityLady