BT is taking on JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving by launching a cloud-based fundraising website which will see charities get more of the donations that are made to them.
Charities can register on the BT MyDonate site for free, and no fees will be taken as a percentage of the donations. The only charge will be a credit or debit card transaction fee, charged by some card companies, which will be taken out of the donation amount.
This compares to existing fundraising websites like Virgin Money Giving, which charges charities a one-off, set-up fee of £120, and a 2 per cent fee of the donations, and JustGiving, which charges charities a monthly fee of £15, plus a 5 per cent fee of donations.
Charities that have been involved with developing the new service, which includes Cancer Research UK, NSPCC, KidsOut, Changing Faces and Women’s Aid, expect to see an increase in their income if people make online donations via the service.
David Cosham, chief executive of children’s charity KidsOut, said: “It would make a different of 5 per cent in excess of our income. More people will donate when they know that there are no overhead [costs].”
The technology behind BT MyDonate is based in a virtual data centre, and can cope with at least 20,000 concurrent users. It also uses technology that BT already provides to its customers and in its Global Services business.
BT corporate responsibility programme director Donna Young: “We have used, as much as possible, our technology that’s tried and tested, and integrated it.”
BT plans to continue developing the MyDonate service, in consultation with charities, and is looking to make it more mobile. It is also looking to supply a corporate version of the service, for companies’ own fundraising efforts.
