online donations

Having just read the charges applied to the Justgiving website, I am surprised to discover that for every £10 donated, the charity receives only £1.92 in gift aid, and not the £2.80 we are led to believe. An amazing 33% is deducted in charges & VAT! Perhaps the traditional way of signing forms and handing over cash should be reconsidered where possible?

Nella

Just come across your post and we do not "lead anyone to believe" that the full 28% goes to the charity. All charities who work with us sign up on the basis that 5% of the gross donation comes to us, VAT goes to the taxman and bank charges (at a remarkably low rate for credit card charges) go to NatWest.

Every sponsorship page states that transaction charges will be taken from the online amounts.

For a £10 donation from a UK tax payer that costs the charity 90p and the charity still receives £11.92.

It's a fact that a high percentage of charities do not reclaim gift aid on all small donations. This is particularly so for those from sponsorship forms. Many charities would rather pay us a fee to get the money in the bank way in advance of the race (where they can put it to good use much sooner) or shortly afterwards than have to spend admin time (which equates to money) chasing runners for the money and reclaiming the tax back.

Runners also find the service of use as they do not have to bother handling cash or cheques and also chase their friends and family for money once the race is over.

Everyone is more than welcome to use traditonal sponsorship forms too. Like it or not you'll find that the bank will be charging the charity for cashing your cheques and there will be admin and time involved in reclaiming Gift Aid.

Mecca

Free online sponsorship forms for the London Marathon

Nella

I am afraid I have to stand up for Justgiving here. I am using them and yes it is annoying that there are charges involved but that is life and how most people make a living and for me it has been very usefulf for friends that live away and cannot get cash to me but can pay by card or in some instances for people that do not know me but wish to donate to my chosen charity.

I have also had a friend that gave a very large donation online because he knew I would have not accepted such a large amount if he had been donating via sponsor form.

At the end of the day even with charges off it has got to be better to get that something extra than not at all.

Simple fact here is that the two charities I'm supporting will end up with more money because I'm using justgiving.com than they would if I didn't.

Even with justgiving I'm still behind my target so if anyone would like to help please go to:

www.justgiving.com/higsflm-cancer

or

www.justgiving.com/higsflm-lupusuk

Many Thanks,
Andrew

Yep, I agree with Susan. Justgiving inevitably has to cover its costs, but this is far outweighed by the ease of use and convenience of the web. I'm also convinced that people are more generous when presented with the option of paying by credit/debit card, as I've far exceeded any previous sponsorship attempts. If you present someone with a traditional sponsorship form, they may sponsor you a couple of quid. However, I've been getting donations of £5, 10£, £25 etc, so ultimately my charity will get more money, even with the charges,

And it means that you nab the money instantly, whereas pledges on old-fashioned forms take weeks to collect and often don't materialise (despite for the best intentions...)
MB

Getting the money in is far harder than running the darn distances !

I'll be another to jump to Justgivings defence here. Must admit I was dubious to start with, but the simple fact of the matter is that I've managed to obtain almost £200 worth of sponsorship from friends/family overseas that I would not normally have been able to get.

Worth every penny if you ask me.