Online fundraising is the raising of charitable funds through the internet. It is a relatively new form of fundraising and still brings in a tiny proportion of total donations, though growing rapidly.
Some charities offer the facility to make donations through their own websites; others rely on third-party websites to collect donations for them. Some charities also raise money through the sale of virtual gifts, offering donors the opportunity to ‘send a goat’ to another person when really they are simply giving the gift as cash to a charity.
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.
JustGiving claims it has not yet been affected by Virgin’s fundraising platform, as recent figures for the upcoming London Marathon show sign-ups steady and a rise in donations.
The civil society sector is perceived by consumers as being more environmentally friendly than any other market sector, new research has revealed.
Pell & Bales has joined the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) in the wake of negative coverage about its telephone fundraising tactics in a Sunday tabloid.
Colin Lloyd, chair of the Fundraising Standards Board, is to seek a meeting with Pell & Bales, a call centre popular with UK charities, following allegations in a Sunday tabloid about its telephone fundraising methods.
Many charities see the internet as a way to communicate with the youth market, but it’s not just the young and hip who are online. Older donors are valuable and ignored at your peril, says Jonathan Waddingham
Unicef UK is set to launch an integrated five-year advertising campaign next Monday to raise £55m for children worldwide. The ‘Put it Right’ campaign, which will begin next Monday, 8 February, will be rolled out in three phases across TV, print, digital and outdoor media.
We’ve had new philanthropists, philanthropcapitalists, Felicity donors and now, strike the drumroll, the sector has a cute new catchphrase to describe another new kind of donor.
Comic Relief has announced the technology partners for its forthcoming fundraising campaign Sport Relief.
Everyclick has now raised more than £1m for charities.
More than £31.5m has been donated to the Disasters Emergency Commitee Haiti appeal, less than a week after launching the campaign.
I was shocked that for a large part of Wednesday, when many charities appeals were under way, the Disaster Emergency Committee’s website stated it was “assessing the situation” in Haiti.
The response of aid agencies to last week’s Haiti earthquake has been typical, in an impressive sort of way; fast, public, efficient. But in this disaster, for the first time, charities have taken on a new role.
More than £23m has been donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for the Haiti earthquake victims. The total includes phone and online donations only.
One new site that’s launched this week and is already generating a fair bit of interest is the Glass Workshop. It was built by the charity agency Whitewater, who are working with the charity SolarAid to try and “prove the power of inspirational donor feedback”.
The tremendous power of a Stephen Fry tweet was again felt by children’s communication charity I CAN after a Twitter post about the organisation’s Adopt-A-Word campaign caused the website to crash.
More than £1.75m has been donated to the BBC Children in Need appeal via mobile phones, the first time the charity has ever used text-message donations.
Charities are kicking off their all-important Christmas campaigns en masse, three charities have this week announced their Christmas campaigns.
People with unwanted or underused cars are being encouraged to donate them to charity, following the launch of a new website this week.
Why don't we encourage competitive fundraising?
Online charity auction site Buy Once Give Twice has been bought out after being forced into liquidation by a supplier.
Guide Dogs has launched its own virtual gifts website to capitalise on the pre-Christmas shopping rush. The 'Dog-e-gifts' site went live last week, along with a catalogue. The charity hopes to raise £200,000 in Christmas sales as a result of the initiative which gives donors a more tangible donation option.
Stephen Fry’s support for I CAN’s Adopt a Word campaign sparked an avalanche of donations and showed the huge potential of social media fundraising.
O2 has become the first mobile operator to drop fees on text charity donations worth up to £10. The mobile operator today announced that it has dropped fees charged on donations made to charities via text message from O2 customers, giving charities an estimated extra 10p in the pound per donation.
When was the last time you took stock of every touchpoint you had with your supporters? I saw a really good blog recently about the fact that fundraising has not really changed over the past 120 years. It's true and while I am an advocate of doing things that work, I ften see lots of stuff that is downright dull. Crusty and old.
Bmycharity has scrapped all fees and commission charges on its fundraising pages, making online sponsorship entirely free to charities. On the day that the ballot opens for next year’s London Marathon, for which Virgin Money Giving will be the official affiliate sponsorship site, Bmycharity has announced that from midnight last night it will not charge anything to process sponsorship donations to charities
An online fundraising platform which claims to be the first truly not-for-profit platform, has missed its launch date by more than six weeks. MyGift, an online fundraising platform akin to Justgiving, was slated for an early August launch, but more than a month later, the website remains a static page, with only links to two charity websites.
Another month, another online retailer offering the public the chance to donate to charity while carrying out run-of-the-mill transactions. In fact, two more this time. Already this year we have had Donatesomeback.com selling insurance and giving 50 per cent of the sale commission to charity, Swift Mobility which gives 10p in every pound spent to Scope, and Hope Charity Bingo gives 25 per cent of revenue back to the relevant cause, to name but a few. Does this indicate it is a profitable model? Let’s hope so.
Cancer Research UK has launched an interactive fundraising microsite featuring videos of real cancer sufferers as well as staff and volunteers, as part of its ‘Thousands beat cancer’ campaign. The website Seewhereyour moneygoes.org.uk boasts an interactive supporter map of the UK, which allows visitors to click on different people and hear their stories via video messages.
With an increasing number of online donation platforms available to charities, Celina Ribeiro looks at their various features and fees. Launched just weeks ago, the entry of Virgin Money Giving (VMG) and the forthcoming-but-delayed MyGift into the online fundraising market has prompted various platforms to claim their service is the cheapest and the best, but PF analysis of a £10 donation reveals VMG is the cheapest and Justgiving, which has raised £500m to date, is the most expensive.
