JustGiving - disguised fees

sacherlover

A friend died recently and the family has set up a JustGiving page.

I went to donate and found it very difficult to opt out of a 'voluntary' platform fee 15% donation to JustGiving.

In my hunt to resolve this, this article made interesting reading - highlighting how much JustGivings profits have increased since moving to this 'voluntary' 15% extra donation:
from thirdsector.co.uk:
JustGiving profits more than double to £9.4m after switch to voluntary donation model

I eventually found a  way to adjust my 'voluntary' platform fee down, here's how to do it:

Click on the drop-down menu for the volunatry donation, you can choose to lower the fee to 10 per cent or 5 per cent.

The only way to avoid paying the extra charge is to select 'other' and then enter £0.00.

JustGiving, this is far from transparent and leaves a poor taste in the my mouth.

Pollycat

Would be better posted on this board as JustGiving is not just for when someone has died:
Praise, vent & warnings — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Here's an article from a few years ago highlighting what the company make:
JustGiving website takes more than £20m a year | Daily Mail Online

pjcox2005

Can see why it would trip people up but I always found it quite easy to shift it to 0. They are though a business designed to make profit rather than be a charity in their own right so I can understand why they ask given the service provided.

JReacher1

It’s quite easy to move it down to £0. 

However Just Giving are a business so do need to make money to cover their costs and make a profit. Before they introduced this fee they just took a percentage of your donation. I think this way is far more transparent and fairer.  

Ron246235

I used JustGiving recently and it now says "We don't charge a platform fee, so we've added a tip to JustGiving." This is confusing - it sounds like "we" is separate from JustGiving, and the difference between a fee and a tip is unclear.

The reality is: "We (JustGiving) don't charge a compulsory fee, so we have added an optional fee or tip, which you can change if you want." As the others say you can change the optional fee/tip to zero. 

I agree with the original post that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I was surprised to learn that it is a company and not a charity. It is literally called "just giving", so I expect many people assume that it is not trying to make a profit. 

Andy_L

sacherlover said:

A friend died recently and the family has set up a JustGiving page.

I went to donate and found it very difficult to opt out of a 'voluntary' platform fee 15% donation to JustGiving.

In my hunt to resolve this, this article made interesting reading - highlighting how much JustGivings profits have increased since moving to this 'voluntary' 15% extra donation:
from thirdsector.co.uk:
JustGiving profits more than double to £9.4m after switch to voluntary donation model

I eventually found a  way to adjust my 'voluntary' platform fee down, here's how to do it:

Click on the drop-down menu for the volunatry donation, you can choose to lower the fee to 10 per cent or 5 per cent.

The only way to avoid paying the extra charge is to select 'other' and then enter £0.00.

JustGiving, this is far from transparent and leaves a poor taste in the my mouth.

Full quote"

"there were a number of key reasons for its performance including the switch to voluntary contribution model in March 2019, which it says was well received by the charity sector, a significant increase in disbursements to charities processed by the platform and double digit growth in charity sign-ups."

so not just as a result of the 15%

Pollycat

Original post dates back to December 2022.

The OP has not logged on to MSE since that date.

Ron246235

Pollycat said:

Original post dates back to December 2022.

The OP has not logged on to MSE since that date.

It can still be useful to answer, as other people come across the page, like I did