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Bmycharity folds after making service free 3

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 11 Mar 2010

Less than six months after announcing it would revolutionise online fundraising by offering its service for free, fundraising sponsorship website Bmycharity has announced it is to shut down after failing to raise enough funds.

In a statement posted on the company’s website yesterday, founders Ben Brabyn and partner Matt Cooper said that Bmycharity had secured corporate partnerships and charities were lining up to use the free service, but a failed deal within the last few days means that the company will have to wrap up by the end of the month.

Fundraising pages will remain live and able to receive donations until 19 March, while the pages themselves will be active until 31 March.

Talking to Civil Society on 1 October last year, when announcing that Bmycharity would abolish all charges to charities, Brabyn said that the model of charging charities for online fundraising services was no longer necessary. He predicted that making the service free would increase the use of the medium by individuals.

When speaking to Civil Society, Bmycharity had recorded a 40 per cent rise in revenue in the year before it announced the dumping of fees.

In their statement, Brabyn and Cooper suggest that the market place has become dominated by goliaths, with no space for Davids. “We are a two man team with no external investors in a market increasingly characterised by companies with scores of employees and multi-million pound backing,” they write.

The announcement yesterday follows the revelation by JustGiving earlier this week that its site has seen an increase in fundraisers, and average donations, for the all-important London Marathon this year.

It is not clear whether the entry into Virgin Money Giving into the market has had any impact on Bmycharity's fortunes or ability to attract investment.

A call to Ben Brabyn by Civil Society was met with a recorded message confirming that the service is being withdrawn.

Bmycharity folds after making service free

Directory: Justgiving

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Eleanor Edwards
Secretary
Give A Brick
14 Mar 2010

As a charity who registered with BMyCharity less than 3 months ago, this news has left us reeling. We work on the principle of asking everyone to Give A Brick (£1) and as such, can not justify spending the generous bricks of 20 people every single month in order to use the service of Just Giving.

We're calling on the lovely Mr Richard Branson to make a stand for non-profits and 'gift-in' those charities like us who have paid £150 to be set up with BMyCharity. Virgin Money Giving usually charges a one off fee of £100. We are calling on Virgin to waive that fee.

This would be excellent publicity. It would also prove to the sector that Virgin Money Giving mean business. I personally love that it would one in the eye to Just Giving and their £20/month, 7% commission model.

- Eleanor
Give A Brick

[Reply]

Niamh Neville
Account Director
JustGiving
15 Mar 2010
Response to [ Eleanor Edwards]

Eleanor, we at JustGiving were sorry to hear the news about BMyCharity also. However in the interests of accuracy, I would like to correct what you have said about our fees - Charities pay £15 +VAT per month to be a member of JustGiving and the fees on donations are 5% not 7%.

Information about our fees and what we spend them on can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/info/fees/

[Reply]

Eleanor Edwards
Secretary, GiveABrick.com
Give A Brick
15 Mar 2010
Response to [ Niamh Neville]

Apologies Niamph,
I based my information on my memory (always risky, I should have known better!) from when we considered your service back in October 2009. I stand corrected.

That said, whilst I personally celebrate every single time someone gives a brick (£1), I'm not prepared for us to give £17.62 of them away each month. Not while there are alternatives at least.

To that end, Give A Brick is calling on Sir Richard Branson to financially support Virgin Money Giving so that they can allow BMyCharity registered charities to use their service without having to pay the £100+VAT set up fee.

If you'd be interested to read our blog post about this Niamph, it can be found here:
http://www.giveabrick.com/bmycharity-alternative/

[Reply]