Help for Heroes rescues Bmycharity

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 16 Mar 2010

Upstart fundraising powerhouse Help for Heroes has saved Bmycharity, as less than a week after the fundraising website announced it would be shutting down it has emerged that the veterans' charity will take on the enterprise as a trading subsidiary.

The new company will be relaunched under the name BmyHero. A statement from the chief executives of both Help for Heroes and Bmycharity today confirms that the new incarnation of the fundraising website will maintain the 0 per cent commission fee structure which Bmycharity announced last October.

The company announced its would be withdrawing its service last Thursday due to a failure to secure capital from other companies.

But the organisations have moved to reassure users that the new model will be stable. “By coupling Bmycharity’s lean, low-cost business with H4H’s technical resources and relationships with banks and corporate partners, we’re able to cover the costs of providing the service to the charity sector commission-free,” the statement read.

All charities with fundraising pages on the site will continue to be able to receive donations. While hosted by Help for Heroes, the website will host pages and accept donations for different charities too – although the organisations have requested that charities not yet on the site hold off from contacting them to sign up while they deal with enquiries from existing clients.

Any profits earned from the BmyHero website will go to cover the costs of both the trading subsidiary and the Help for Heroes charity itself.

Chief executive of Help for Heroes, Bryn Parry, said that the charity intervened in the collapse of Bmycharity as “we felt that our supporters should continue to have a choice”.

The charity, founded by Parry and his wife Emma, raised more than £14m in its first financial year (ending September 2008), according to the latest Charity Commission figures but has likely increased its annual income as it has achieved nationwide fame.

Both Bmycharity founders Ben Brabyn and Matt Cooper are former Royal Marines.

Directory: Bmycharity | Help for Heroes
Who's Who: Bryn Parry

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