The Big Night In Appeal raised more than £10.3m via mobile donations

Fonix has announced today that more than £10.3m has been processed in mobile donations for The Big Night In Appeal.

The three-hour show took place on 23rd April and saw BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief join forces for the first time. The £10.3m processed through text donations helped contribute to the £27.3m raised on the night of the Appeal. Funds raised will be split equally between BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief and will go on to support vital local charities and projects in the UK who are providing essential help to those most in need.

The show promoted text-to-donate, allowing donors to donate via text at a range of price points: £5, £10, £20 and £30. Three competitions were also promoted on the night including the David Walliams prize draw, Little Mix prize draw and a chance to win a Morgan car. The Morgan prize draw was the top competition for the night and was sourced by Fonix.

Donations for the competitions were charged to the entrants mobile phone bill. Using Fonix’s delayed donation technology entrants had the choice to opt-out without being charged within 60 minutes of entering.

Clare Charles, Director of Media and Charity at Fonix, said: “It’s been such an honor to work with Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need for this great cause. It’s also amazing to see the impact of running competitions – the money donated was rather astonishing!”

Kerry Howard, Head of Operations Appeal for BBC Children in Need, said: We’re so thankful to Fonix for enabling mobile donations so quickly and to the generous public whose donations will go on to make such a difference. A huge amount of money has been raised to help projects around the country that are doing vital work to support people throughout the pandemic.”

Jules Thorne, Campaign Co-director at Comic Relief, said: “Thanks to Fonix’s support and the enormous generosity of the public, both our charities will now make sure that this desperately needed funding supports vulnerable people, as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Fonix powers billing and messaging for Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge

14th May 2018

Fonix’s carrier billing and messaging solution enables 5-day veggie challengers to discover new recipes and to receive text messages from Jamie.

Fonix, the tech company for acquiring, engaging and monetising consumers through their mobile phones, has been selected by Jamie Oliver to power the billing and messaging service for Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge. Jamie’s 5-day Veggie Challenge starts today and challengers simply sign up and pay £2, which is charged to the mobile phone bill, without needing to enter credit card details.

During the challenge, an email will be sent every morning containing the day’s meat-free meals, along with extra tips and videos for a super-tasty day. Plus, through Fonix’s messaging platform, Jamie will be in touch throughout the week to share even more veggie inspiration.

Jamie’s colourful meal plan guarantees at least five portions of veg and fruit each day, plus a healthy balance of all the main food groups and nutrients.

Stephen George, Business Development Director, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Jamie Oliver with this challenge. Everyone knows how important healthy diet and lifestyle are and technology should always seek to make these easier to achieve. By making payments for the 5-day Veggie Challenge as frictionless as possible, Jamie Oliver will be able to help more people to get better food into their diet.”

Linda Davidson, Director, Digital Product, Jamie Oliver added: “We’re very proud of this challenge, we want to inspire everyone and provide them with a great experience from start to finish.

“The 5-day Veggie Challenge is a great way to have a bit of fun and get healthy; making the payment process to access content easy, is just the cherry on top. With a payment mechanic as simple as this and with tips and recipes from Jamie throughout the week, there’s no excuse not to join in the challenge.’’

Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge coincides with this year’s National Vegetarian Week, 14-20 May. To sign up visit here.

 

Charity Text Seminar a Success!

Charity Text Donation Seminar a Success

AIME and PhonepayPlus jointly ran a free one day Charity Text Donation Seminar in London on Friday 19th February. This was well attended by many small charities who came to learn more about how to use text donations to improve their fundraising, make sure that their marketing campaigns are compliant, learn the importance of increasing donations by Gift Aid and to ensure the audit standards are good.

As well as regulatory updates from PhonepayPlus, there were highly informative presentations from Telefonica, OpenMarket, Instagiv, Cymba, Vir2, Open Fundraising, Fonix and BBC Children in Need.

With positive feedback from the attendees it has been suggested that this event is run on an annual basis to ensure the spread of the successful intelligence sharing. A link to the presentations for the day is here.

You can also read about the event on PhonepayPlus’ blog here.

Feedback from the day:

I attend the Charity Seminar last week and I just wanted to say thank you for such a well-organised, informative day. It was really useful and I hope there will be a similar seminar next year! Samaritans

Thank you for organising Friday. It felt like a good session, let’s do it again soon. Open Fundraising

Great event. Informative, relevant and enjoyable. Can’t ask for more! OpenMarket

Well done on organising such a great day. RSM2000

 This event was so informative and useful, and should definitely be an annual event! Parkinsons UK

RSM 2000 acquires text donation business from Vir2

RSM2000 logo

DIRECT DEBIT AND CARD PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDER RSM 2000 LTD HAS ACQUIRED THE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES, STAFF & BRAND OF THE UK CHARITY TEXT DONATION AND MARKETING SPECIALIST, VIR2.

 

At a time when charities are worried about reputational risk from their suppliers, the purchase is the first time that a charity text donation provider has been bought by a fully regulated & compliant payment service provider. RSM 2000 can now provide a full range of payment solutions including text donation to charities under one roof and tick all the boxes for compliance and expertise at the same time.

For the full press release please read here: RSM 2000 acquires text donation and SMS marketing business from Vir2 final

19th Feb 2016 Charity Text Donation Seminar

Download your Seminar information pack here: Charity Text Donations Seminar Event pack 19Feb16

This one day free seminar organised jointly by the Premium Rate Regulator PhonepayPlus and the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME) provides the opportunity for charities to learn how to get started and maximise text based donations, Gift Aid, post donation marketing, regular gifting and competitions.

Text fundraising has grown to a £120 million pound opportunity with most charities finding new donors and differing demographics through this easy mechanism. Are you maximising your donation footprint in this growth market?

During this seminar, you will learn about:

  • Why 70xxx shortcodes are important
  • How to get started with text donations
  • Codes of practice for text donations
  • Latest developments in Gift Aid
  • The emerging role of a Gift Aid intermediary
  • Improving marketing footprint
  • Effective post-donation marketing
  • Competitions with donation elements
  • Proposed changes to regular donations

If you don’t currently use text donation for your fundraising, this seminar will provide a good introduction for you.

If you are already using text donations, this event will be looking at improving your skills and maximising your donation and Gift Aid opportunities.

With several expert speakers already lined up and more to be announced this will be an informative day not to be missed.

If you are a charity you can get your FREE tickets (maximum 2 per charity) here: Seminar Tickets

Download your Seminar information pack here: Charity Text Donations Seminar Event pack 19Feb16