4 January 2011. Great news – effective today! After long discussions with HMRC, JustGiving no longer has to charge VAT on our 5% fee on donations made through our website. That means even more of your donation goes to your charity… over 120% of it, as long as you’re eligible for Gift Aid.
Get the full scoop here.
Aspire, the charity which supports people with spinal injury, raises 52% more (on average) for its Channel Swim event through fundraisers using JustGiving than through offline fundraisers.
Aspire raises significantly more using JustGiving for its event fundraising than through offline methods. Its annual Channel Swim event involves supporters swimming the distance of the English Channel (22 miles) in their local pool over 12 weeks.
In 2007, JustGiving fundraisers raised 67% more than those raising money offline for the event (an average of £288 compared with £172). In 2008 JustGiving users raised 44% more (£242 compared with £168) and in 2009, this increased to 46% more (£226 compared with £155).
Photos courtesy of Aspire’s Channel Swim photo wall: http://www.aspirechannelswim.co.uk/photowall.html
Chris Field, head of fundraising and marketing at Aspire, tells us how the charity uses JustGiving so effectively:
When did you start using JustGiving for your fundraising?
We signed up in 2002 but we didn’t really start to take full advantage of the service until 2007 and 2008.
Why did you decide to use JustGiving for your fundraising?
The reason we decided to increase the amount we use JustGiving was because we had a mass participation event where many of the fundraisers signed up online – the Aspire Channel Swim.
We had previously recommended people use JustGiving by emailing them after they signed up to take part in the swim, or by mailing them with a postcard.
We decided to go with a harder approach, whereby supporters who sign up for the event on our website are automatically directed to set up a JustGiving page once they had completed the sign-up process. This led to a huge leap in the number of pages set up for Aspire on JustGiving, and it’s something I’d really recommend to other charities.
However, we do have a lot of pages which are inactive (about 50%) so we’re working hard to encourage our supporters to start their fundraising.
Do you raise more money through JustGiving than you did offline before you started to use JustGiving?
We do through our Channel Swim event, yes. In 2007, JustGiving fundraisers raised 67% more than those raising money offline (an average of £288 compared with £172). In 2008 JustGiving users raised 44% more (£242 compared with £168) and in 2009, this increased to 46% more (£226 compared with £155).
Does the amount you raise through JustGiving justify the 5% fee charged to charity members?
Absolutely. JustGiving offers value for money and an unrivalled service. The donations come through to us much quicker than they would if they were collected offline and using JustGiving means we don’t miss out on any Gift Aid. Claiming Gift Aid takes us a lot of time and resource, so it’s great that this is taken care of for us.
Would you recommend JustGiving to another charity? Why?
Yes, and I have done on many occasions. The main reason is that you raise more money on JustGiving than through any other method of fundraising, and admin time and costs are really reduced.
If you had any advice to give to charities about online fundraising what would it be?
Integrate JustGiving fully into your fundraising activities, particularly if you’re running an event where people are encouraged to sign up online. Where possible I would strongly recommend automatically directing people to setting up a JustGiving page. You then need to work hard on communication to ensure high active page rates.
Tags: aspire, Aspire fundraising, channel swim, charity case study, JustGiving case study, Online Fundraising, spinal injury, sponsorship, swimming event