I recently needed a solution for a small charity to take credit card donations online simply and without technical know-how. This is the result of my research. The solution I found is www.charitygiving.co.uk.
If you find this information useful, please make a donation to Seaborough Church, Dorset, using this link: www.charitygiving.co.uk/seaboroughpcc.
Charity fundraising online has been revolutionised by large firms such as Just Giving, MissionFish and Virgin Money Giving. These firms have enabled hundreds of millions of pounds online to be given at a very low administrative cost to a charity.
However, for a charity which has a small income – for example less than £10,000 – they tend not to be the solution as the subscription or transaction fees are too big to justify the use of the service.
Small charities are generally poorly equipped to deal with credit card payments at all. Even setting up a PayPal account can be another tier of difficulty, before even thinking about Gift Aid.
For exempt charities, such as the Parochial Church Council I run, there is no charity registration number and you run into trouble with some of the online forms.
The solution I found is www.charitygiving.co.uk, run by a charity called The Dove Trust.
- It is simple to sign up.
- They process Gift Aid for you.
- They give you an easy link to add to emails, web sites or Facebook Pages.
- They pay you promptly.
- They send you a paper statement in the post.
Charity Giving makes no charge for taking your payment if Gift Aid is not collected and a tiny charge of 3.1% to take a payment for you if they also process the Gift Aid. This is less than the charge many banks make for small businesses to process a credit card.
Here is a comparison of charges from their site (click on the image for more information):
The solution is simple to set up. There is no need for a web site, but if you do use a web site, they provide very simple code for a button or link. They provide a simple link for you to use in emails or elsewhere (for example on a Facebook Page).
I have tested this and not only is the site simple to use, but the staff are helpful and they make payments on time. You can set up a link or a donation button either as a charity or as an individual fundraiser.
Links to explore this further:
Charity Giving Home Page:
http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/Charity Registration Page:
https://www.charitygiving.co.uk/charityaccount/register.aspRegistration Page for Individual Fundraising:
https://www.charitygiving.co.uk/fundraising/newpage.aspSeaborough PCC fundraising link (Please donate!):
http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/seaboroughpcc
Do make a comment below if you have any other ideas about this.
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