Charities benefit from new donations technology

£2.7 million has already been raised for charity during a pilot scheme, which allows donor supporters the option to skip their monthly donation rather than stop it altogether. These donations have been used by charities including Save the Children and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

The scheme has been praised by charities such as Save the Children and Breakthrough Breast Cancer for giving them a more flexible way to raised money and helping bring a new generation of supporters to their cause. Over 150,000 supporters were recruited by charities via SMS giving during the pilot scheme.

Matthew Jupe, Direct Marketing Manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said:

“At Breakthrough Breast Cancer, we want to stop women dying from breast cancer through improving early diagnosis, developing new treatments and preventing all types of breast cancer. We have been offering regular giving by SMS for nearly a year and nearly a thousand people so far have decided to support us in this way. SKIP is ideal for these donors - offering them the flexibility to support us in a way that suits them - and also ideal for us as fewer donors cancel outright so we're able to raise more money to save and change the lives of those affected by breast cancer.”

Annie Moreton, Save the Children’s Deputy Director of Individual Giving & Legacies, said:

“Regular giving via mobile offers people a convenient and flexible way to donate to Save the Children. In 2013, we recruited just over 5% of our new donors through this channel, and raised over £100,000 to date. The monthly option to STOP or SKIP payments is clear and simple, and we can see that 40% of donors who choose to SKIP 3 or more consecutive payments do then choose to donate again.”

Paul Whiteing, Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus, said:

“We want to support charities in making the most of mobile fund-raising and help people give their donations to the good cause they support. We are pleased the pilot has proved so successful and we are happy to introduce SKIP for all charity giving today at an exciting time for mobile charitable donations.”

The changes to the rules on SMS-based charity giving that are introduced today also include a requirement to remind consumers every three months of how to stop their donation.

The changes and the conditions attached to them are:

• The use of a SKIP facility, allowing subscribers to text SKIP to miss a month’s subscription payment, but without opting out of the ongoing donation entirely;
• Dis-application of the requirement at rule 2.3.12(d)(v) of the Code to remind consumers of the STOP command each month, replacing it with a requirement to remind consumers every three months, and
• Dis-application of the requirement for PRS-based charitable donations operating on a subscription basis to seek permission to operate where the donation exceeded £4.50 in any given 7-day period.

To read a full copy of the new conditions please click here.