This is a critical time for the UK's 184,000 charities. Many third sector organisations are facing funding cuts, while the current economic environment has resulted in a significant reduction in charitable donations as household disposable income – an important factor in donation levels – continues to be squeezed.
A key challenge in this tough environment, especially for smaller charities, is how to engage with the next generation of donors. Just under half of 18-24 year-olds give to charity, compared with 80% of over 65 year-olds. It's clear that charities must use all the fundraising tools at their disposal to make giving relevant to this new generation and mobile technology should be high on their list.
Donating by text has huge potential – the market is estimated to be worth £96m annually by 2014. It comes as no surprise when you consider that 89% of adults in the UK own a mobile phone and 300 million text messages are sent each day. But it is the spontaneous, mobile nature of donating by text that is the key to unlocking this new technology that allows people to donate whenever and wherever they are.
Comic Relief and Children in Need have already led the way in demonstrating the power of text donations. Recent research from the Pennies Foundation has shown that spontaneity is an increasingly important factor when deciding to donate and charities would do well to tap into these human impulses. Another advantage of text donations over cash giving, is that it makes it easier for charities to claim Gift Aid. With an estimated £750m in Gift Aid going unclaimed each year (.pdf), text donations can also have a real role to play in helping deliver this extra funding to charities.
So why are only 20% of charities in the UK raising funds through text messages? Up until now, substantial set up costs have meant that only the larger players have been able to take advantage of text donations. This will now change through the launch of JustTextGiving. We have partnered with JustGiving to give every charity in the UK the opportunity to receive text message donations through a simple, free service. For the first time in the UK, hundreds of thousands of charities will be able to receive text donations for their chosen organisation by using a unique, personalised text code. Registered charities can set up their codes (or VIC - Vodafone Individual Charity code) from today and individual fundraisers from Monday 20 June. There are no set-up or running costs for charities, no network charges for people making donations and every penny raised, plus Gift Aid where applicable, will go to the donor's chosen charity.
With the introduction of JustTextGiving, every charity - however big or small - will have access to a simple and effective way of raising money, transforming the donor and fundraiser landscape in Britain, for ever. Fundraising will never be the same again.
Guy Laurence is chief executive of Vodafone UK
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