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The best UK charity text donation services
06 Aug 2024by Ioan Marc Jones
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to a few of the best UK text-to-donate services
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The pandemic massively impacted the fundraising revenue of charities, with so many organisations forced to adopt more innovative solutions to bring in donations. Text donation services were part of that shift and proved to be an essential resource, allowing charities to quickly and conveniently fundraise.
Affording your donors the option of text donation fits neatly into the increasingly creative digital appeals that charities are using, ranging from social media videos to exciting virtual events, as text donation is simple, intuitive, and fast.
Charity text donations are on the rise and have been for some time, as shown with the massive success of events like Comic Relief, Sport Relief, and BBC Children in Need.
Comic Relief, which relies on the option of text donations, raised a staggering £42.8m in 2022, taking their overall total to £1.5bn since the charity began. And Children in Need raised almost the same amount in 2021, with their total reaching £39m, another incredibly successful year for a charity that relies on text donations.
Offering the option of text messages has provided the above charities and so many others a quick and easy way to raise funds. And it clearly works, especially during live events and face-to-face campaigns where supporters can simply enter a short code to donate on the stop, without needing an internet connection or to go to a website.
And the text-to-donate options are growing. There are now so many platforms to use, some offering different functionality, others with additional features, many with options to add Gift Aid.
So, without further ado, we look at some of the best UK text-to-donate platforms and services.
Donr
Launched in November 2018, Donr offers charities a dedicated text giving platform aimed at giving supporters a quick and convenient way to give both one-off amounts and regular giving through their mobile number.
Charities have a choice of any keyword or multiple keywords at no additional charge. Supporters can choose to also give by credit and debit cards, or Apple and Google Pay, as well as by text, through their own branded mobile-optimised page. GiftAid can be added to any donation.
Donr charges a 5% fee per donation, though there is no set up or monthly fee. The organisation also provides training and support for charities around their mobile fundraising.
All of Donr’s charity partners have the opportunity to chat to a dedicated digital strategist to find out how to get the most out of text giving for their organisation, brush up on digital skills, or perhaps even learn a new skill at no extra charge.
What makes the platform stand out?
With a focus on regular giving and mobile fundraising strategy, Donr opens up a new option for charities wishing to engage new long-term supporters outside of just a fundraising event context.
Once your keywords are set up you can monitor all their progress and see donations come in in real-time. Supporters can enter a specific keyword to give monthly by text, which the organisation says offers a convenient option particularly for younger donors who are comfortable with mobile giving and ready to explore more ways to give.
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instagiv
Mobile donation platform instagiv was established in 2010 and offers a range of mobile-related products and services for charities aimed at fundraising, recruitment, and donor engagement.
Its integrated software enables charities to receive single and regular text donations, as well as create, customise, and track their campaigns through multiple channels.
Charities can also receive responses and registrations through SMS, and manage responses in real-time. And that’s not all. Charities can also create customised web pages for mobile with a drag-and-drop page builder, which allows them to track campaigns in real-time and download data and responses.
Charities can also run mobile raffles and lotteries through SMS. Supporters enter the competition with a voluntary donation, entries can be viewed in real time and 100% of donation is paid out.
The platform already has more than 300 charity customers including Macmillan, Mind, The British Red Cross, and Amnesty International, and has raised more than £7.5 million for them.
instagiv charges a 5% fee on text message donations, along with a £25 per month service charge for any text keywords use. Outbound SMS are charged at £0.05p per message.
What makes the platform stand out?
Alongside text donation, Instagiv offers charities a full set of features around engagement, such as the ability to create mobile-optimised campaign pages attached to an SMS, and the ability to view and track campaign success in real-time.
Charities can also send multi-media messages, set up text-based competitions and games, and record voicemail messages.
DONATE
DONATE is an integrated platform across text, web, and contactless for one-off events and everyday fundraising. Event guests purchase, text, give or bid using their mobile phone.
A charity themselves, the focus is on being quick and simple to set up text campaigns for events and text raffles, though once a donor has made donation, their reply text can include a link to set-up a monthly donation for that amount.
All charity customers also have access to DONATE’s self-serve reporting portal where administrators can access donation reports, download web, text, QR donation codes, user data and more.
Charities can add Gift Aid and set up campaign-specific codes without any monthly charges and are again charged 4.5% fee per text. An outpayment charge to cover bank transaction costs is charged when DONATE make a payment. For charities, the payment is the greater of £3 or 0.5% and for non-charities the greater of £3 or 1.5%.
DONATE also offers a Platinum membership through which charities can get access to a bespoke suite of services including additional support and guidance from their fundraising team. The paid-for package includes a dedicated account manager, help with planning your event, cash handling, support at the event itself and post-event consultancy to discuss what worked and what didn’t.
What makes the platform stand out?
As well as text fundraising, DONATE offers a contactless donation service for shops, gala events, and silent auctions. Supporters tap, text, give or bid from their mobile phone, computer or tablet. They integrate text and web giving along with on-the-night fundraising through contactless technology.
Because of all of the above, DONATE is ideal for charities who want to offer multiple avenues of donation and really capitalise on an event during, before and after the day itself with multiple options for giving.
For more information on the latest digital fundraising trends, check out our recent podcast:
Ioan Marc Jones
Ioan Marc Jones
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