What is Just Giving?

Just Giving is an online fundraising service for charities.

http://www.justgiving.com/default.aspx 

Launched in 2001, more than 8,000 registered charities, including Camelon Parish Church, direct potential donors to the site to avoid administering the process themselves. Combined with more than 800,000 fundraising pages for individuals and 8 million users, it has become one of the biggest players in the charity fundraising sector.

One of the main benefits to charities from the service is its automatic collection of the Government's gift aid tax top-up to donations. This adds 28p to each £1 donated.

Unfortunately, the Government’s own figures show more than £900m of gift aid has been left uncollected. In addition, it’s believed that around 20% of promises to donate to sponsored walks, runs and other fundraising events are never paid. The rest often come in bit by bit over what can be a long time for a charity.

Just Giving allows us to speed up the whole collection process and reduce the time spent on administration. It also allows us to spread our fundraising net much wider than we would otherwise be able to do. For example you can encourage your friends or family, throughout the UK or even further afield, to set up their own fundraising pages supporting Camelon Parish Church.

How does it work?

The charity, in our case Camelon Parish Church, sets up an account with Just Giving.  Once this is in place any donations received are sent via Just Giving directly to our bank account.

Individuals can donate directly to the charity using a credit card, or by using other secure online methods such as a PayPal account. Both one-off and regular donations can be made.

http://www.justgiving.com/camelonparishchurch/Donate/

Individuals can also create their own fundraising pages, for example if they were planning a sponsored walk, so that any money they raise from their friends, colleagues and family is directed straight to the charity they are supporting.

http://www.justgiving.com/camelonparishchurch/Raisemoney/   

In both cases, individuals have to register some details with Just Giving in order to comply with the Gift Aid rules and to help avoid money laundering and other forms of fraud. However, Just Giving promise not to send individuals spam e-mail, or to sell on their details to any third party, or to try to sell them anything.

Help with donating via Just Giving can be obtained from their helpdesk:

by email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

by phone: 0845 021 2110 (local rate) 8am-8pm, Mon - Fri.

Do Just Giving make money from this?

Yes, Just Giving is a profit making organisation. Here’s an example of where a £10 donation from a UK taxpayer goes:

Donation (by credit card)          £10.00

+Gift Aid added                       £  2.82

Total Donation                       £12.82

- Just Giving fee (5%)               £  0.64

-VAT on Just Giving fee           £  0.11

-Credit Card fee                       £  0 13 

 Total Deductions                   £  0.88

Total Received by CPC         £11.94

As well as the fees charged per transaction (5%), Just Giving charge a monthly fee of £15 to the charity.

It’s the belief of the Church Management Team at Camelon Parish Church that the additional Gift Aid recovered, the extra fundraising “reach” the service provides and the admin effort saved, more than justify the fees charged. Moreover, having examined the alternative options for on-line donation, Just Giving proved to be the most efficient provider for our situation.

Happy fundraising!