Is this what the headline in Fundraising.co.uk, 24th October should have read?

For any campaign to hit the £100,000 in just a few days is fantastic and shows the power of online giving facilities.

But whether the charity is the British Humanist Association or Alpha International or any other charity, can we all unite to say that it’s such a shame that possibly £6000 or more of any fundraising total of around £100,000 plus Gift Aid is unlikely to hit the charity’s coffers?

Relating to the “Atheist bus campaign”, (http://www.fundraising.co.uk/blog/2008/10/22/atheist-bus-campaign-enjoys-record-day-justgiving#comment-36950 ) Simon Doggett, Justgiving’s User Champion, highlights that “a £2k donation has just has tipped http://bit.ly/4yI9qY over £100k, so now the legendary Steve in OZ can go to bed.” (http://twitter.com/simondoggett/statuses/973799417 ) 

Was Simon writing in euphoric mood? Could that donation be worth £100 to Justgiving? (http://justgiving.com/statements/commissions_popup/default.asp ). More importantly did it “cost” the charity £117.50 taking into account VAT?

About AltaContact

At AltaContact we provide a platform for charities to raise funds entirely in their own branding and to keep all their Gift Aid with out deductions.

Our service charges are probably the most competitive in the market and we set things up so donations go directly to each charity’s bank to be there on the third working day.

All this is because our mission is to enable charities to raise more donors £s online and retain more of every donor’s £.

For example, why in this day and age is money “donated” to a large charity actually sent to an external merchant for later redistribution to the chosen charity? Does this not add cost and become a poor use of donors’ money?

We respect the work of other companies and what they have achieved. But it’s our intention to breathe competition into the fundraising page market, give charities and donors a genuine choice and reduce the leakage from donations to third parties.

Make no mistake we wish to win more business but we will only do this by offering genuine choice and a better way of working.

Take this example.

With AltaContact’s service, a £2000 donation without Gift Aid, the transaction fee would have been a maximum of £10.50 + VAT, i.e. £12.34.*

So, as we see it, a direct ex VAT charge comparison with Justgiving would be £100.00 versus £10.50. The difference is £89.50.

In your opinion who should get that £89.50? The charity or Justgiving?

* Charities must have/setup an Internet Merchant Account.

** AltaContact’s donation service charge equates to a maximum of 3.5% of the value of the donation transaction with service charges capped at the first £300 of the donation. If charities wish to have a monthly service charge or longer service agreements these can be arranged.