charities

Fonix and JustGiving partner

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Fonix and JustGiving partner to introduce SMS donations to thousands of UK charities

London, September 18, 2024

Fonix, a leading mobile payments and interactive services company, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with JustGiving, the UK’s leading online fundraising platform. This collaboration is set to transform charitable giving by integrating seamless SMS donation technology, making it easier than ever for individuals to support causes they care about.

Through this partnership, Fonix and JustGiving are enabling donors to support their favourite charities through quick and secure mobile payments.  Leveraging Fonix’s cutting-edge technology, JustGiving users can now make donations directly via SMS, offering a fast and convenient way to contribute, whether at home or on the go, no credit or debit card required.

This partnership also empowers charities with a powerful new tool to engage with supporters and drive donations. By expanding payment options to include SMS donations, charities can reach a wider audience and significantly enhance the impact of their fundraising efforts.

According to the Annual Market Review for Phone-Paid Services 2023–2024, £38.6 million was raised through phone-paid services in the UK during the last financial year. Since 2014, Fonix has processed £333 million in SMS donations. Offering this capability to JustGiving’s 20,000 UK charity partners represents an opportunity to make a marked increase to these figures.

Oliver Shaw-Latimer, Senior Director of Payments and Innovation at JustGiving, commented: “We’re pleased to partner with Fonix to enhance the ways our charities can accept donations in the UK. Their market-leading messaging and payment technology will enable us to optimise a key aspect of charity fundraising and audience engagement. JustGiving is committed to making giving as easy and accessible as possible. This partnership allows us to offer our users a fast, secure, and convenient way to donate through their mobile devices, helping us continue our mission of connecting people with the causes they care about.”

Rob Weisz, CEO of Fonix, added: “JustGiving has been a pivotal force in charity fundraising for over two decades and remains one of the most recognised platforms for both charities and donors. This partnership will allow JustGiving’s charity partners to leverage Fonix’s mobile payment technology to offer text donations in the UK – a crucial donation method given its simplicity and widespread use. Having raised over £330 million through text donations to date, we’re excited to continue supporting fantastic causes alongside JustGiving.”

This partnership comes at a perfect time, with JustGiving announcing a record £550 million raised for nearly 20,000 UK charities through their platform in 2023, and more than 950,000 JustGiving fundraising pages set up – a 9% increase from 2022.

Fonix has a proven track record with charities of all sizes across the UK, including Comic Relief, Children in Need, Socceraid, Stand Up To Cancer, and many more. Their text donation technology enables charities to reach a broader audience, with some organisations seeing as much as 80% of donations coming through mobile. Fonix’s innovative techniques maximise donations, value, and Gift Aid declarations.

mGage and Oxfam successfully launch world-first RCS mobile payment campaign

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

In an exciting milestone for the charities sector, mGage, in partnership with Oxfam GB, has deployed its next-generation Rich Communication Services (RCS) mobile payment solution, to encourage more donations and higher levels of engagement.

At a time when charities are struggling amidst the pandemic, this world-first campaign is supporting Oxfam with its vital work worldwide, fighting poverty and assisting victims of humanitarian crises. With positive results when compared to a standard Premium SMS send , this channel is proving to be more popular than traditional card payments, offering a unique opportunity for charities to boost revenue, whilst deepening the relationship with supporters.

“With a simplified payment flow, a donation amount can be selected at the click of a button and added to the mobile bill, providing a truly seamless experience. This solution really is a gamechanger, especially at a time when so many charities need our support,” said Nick Millward, Vice President Europe at mGage. “RCS payments provide the ultimate convenience and an appealing experience for customers, who increasingly want organisations to contact them via mobile messaging. With more than 1.31 billion mobile payment users expected by 2023, it is a service that is soaring in popularity.”

Additionally, the service’s Verified Sender feature offers absolute peace of mind and builds trust between both charities and supporters. Accompanied by branding, users can be assured that a message sent to them is legitimate, protecting against fraud and the reputation of the sender.

“We are engaging with our supporters in a completely new way thanks to this innovative rich messaging channel, which allows for more choice and tailored, flexible content embedded directly into mobile messages,” said Drew Hickling, Supplier Relationship Manager, at Oxfam GB. “Working with mGage we have created an RCS and Mobile Billing flow that provides a simple and seamless experience for our supporters with increased levels of potential engagement.” 

Watch the video interview with Oxfam and mGage on YouTube – “Oxfam GB & mGage Successfully Launch World First RCS & Mobile Payments Campaign“

Member Spotlight: Introducing Supported Business

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

We chatted with Adam Maxted, CEO of Supported Business, to learn more about their digital and payment capabilities through their Supported Giving and Supported Health services, and their full solution range at InverOak.

With a focus on helping charities develop a solution for recovering unclaimed Gift Aid, and also live video consultation services, they have plans for developing new verticals built on their existing capabilities over the next few months.

You can find more about their services from our Spotlight Interview.

 

Charity online giving has risen during Covid 19

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

During this time with the country at home, and unable to shop the usual way, a survey by nfpSynergy has found that online charitable giving has doubled from 2019.  It found that those charities that were set up to accept online giving had benefited during this time, highlighting the importance of having an online presence and the ability to react quickly to changes. Online donations were collected via charities websites and Direct Debits but also saw an increase in text giving.

“It’s about making it as easy as possible for the public to give so that charities can achieve more.” Simon Baines MD of the Access Group

It was also reported that while donation levels were down generally, the average donation amount had increased by approx £10 per person from January.

 

Quote taken from: https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/number-of-people-giving-to-charity-during-lockdown-lowest-in-a-decade-poll-finds.html

Fonix to power mobile donations across all of Cancer Research UK’s fundraising activity

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Fonix, the mobile messaging and payments specialist, today announced that it has extended its partnership with Cancer Research UK, one of the world’s leading cancer charities dedicated to saving lives through research.

Fonix first started working with Cancer Research UK in 2017 for the Stand Up To Cancer campaign, a joint national fundraiser from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, seamlessly enabling mobile donations and Gift Aid. This continued in 2018 with Fonix successfully processing SMS donations to Stand Up To Cancer made during the live show on Channel 4 – significantly contributing to the record £24.6 million raised on the night.

This extended contract will see Fonix power the mobile donations across all of the charity’s fundraising activity, including Race for Life, other challenge events such as Shine Night Walk and the Great Hike and also as a direct response to indoor and outdoor print advertising.

Kathryn Toner, Head of Individual Giving at Cancer Research UK said: “With a proven track record across all high-profile charity campaigns, Fonix’s experience and expertise in the charity sector speaks for itself.

“Text to donate is a great fundraising mechanic for the charity as it is a quick and easy way that the public can donate to the charity and help us bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life saving research and relies entirely on the generosity of the public. We’re always looking for new ways that the public can donate to the charity such as raising donations via competitions.”

Clare Charles, account director at Fonix added: “It’s been such a privilege to work with Cancer Research UK over the past two years and in this time we’ve seen how our shared passion for innovation has positively impacted the amount raised for such a good cause.

“The extended partnership was the obvious next step for Fonix and Cancer Research UK, and we look forward to driving mobile donations and seeing the results across all fundraising activity.”