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.