So you have decided you would like to raise money for a charity (hopefully Save the Children) and you want to be able to collect donations/sponsorship monies online automatically collecting  gift aid monies if applicable.  (Gift aid is a means whereby the government enhance donations by 25% providing the donor is a UK taxpayer and the amount of tax paid by them during the year is in excess of the government’s contribution)

It is very convenient but obviously charges are involved and it’s something you may wish to consider when choosing which fundraising website to use. Charges are taken out of the donations before they are passed on to your charity.

I will just take a brief look at 3 sites, one commercial and 2 not for profit.  Figures quoted are correct as at March 2015 and relate to a £10 donation on which gift aid is also claimed.

This not for profit site is by far the cheapest merely taking 15p so your charity gets £12.35

 

This not for profit site is more expensive taking  35p so your charity receives £12.15 but offers more facilities and a smoother interface

This commercial site is by far the most popular offering all the bells and whistles but does take the lions share at 76p, your charity receiving just  £11.74

 BT’s MyDonate site  does not accept paypal donations which might put some people off, neither does it have any technical support or helpdesk but then what can you expect from a site which merely passes on the card fees it suffers.

Virgin Money, in my opinion, is a much more smooth website offering many more facilities including paypal and twitter on your fundraising page.

Just Giving offers all Virgin Money does plus the ability to text donate and also has a facebook application.

There are many more sites out there  and these are just 3 of them, just consider how many facilities you need on your fundraising page weighed up against the subsequent costs to your charity

Another good place to research which fundraising site you would like to use is Martin Lewis’s moneysavingexpert site.