Just Giving dot com

[Seafront Plodder]

Anyone got any experience of this site?

I shall probably set up a page for my New York assault. Why hell with the Boss's consent I may even post the link here!!

I ask, because a mate of mine is making his first ever marathon London this year. He's a 1:45 1/2 marathon runner so I've no doubt he'll do very well. But he emailed me the link to his web page, and I was going to sponsor him via the page, but it asked me to fill in all sorts of stuff and register too. Helluva palaver

Frankly it put me off, so I've now asked him to email me a sponsor form instead.

So, does anyone know if there any way of allowing people to donate via a c/card, without having to jump through hoops to do it?

[El Gordo]

Hi SP

I used JustGiving when I did the Chicago marathon in 2002 for the UK Brain Tumour Society.

My take: the concept is cute (as they say), the execution poor.

For people who don't know, JG allows you to donate online to people who are running or doing anything for charity. It's a natural for the internet. Does away with the hassle of creeping round, collecting money after the event.

But... BUT! I've had trouble both sending and receiving money with JustGiving. All sorts of technical glitches with the website. I did manage to receive money, and I have managed to send it to others but it was a bit hit and miss.

I imagine they've improved their technical infrastructure by now, in which case, good luck to them and all who use the service.

Please do publicise your JG page here: you can stick it in your signature if you like.

(You did say you were collecting for the "OurQPR" fund, didn't you....?)

[El Gordo]

Sorry, missed your more general question. It's not straightforward to accept credit card payments as a private individual. The most common is to set up a PayPal account which will allow money to be transferred, but you still have to register - both recipient and donor. I doubt if there's any way round that.

JustGiving is worth pursuing because they build in the extra tax allowance for charitable donations. So whatever people pay is automatically increased by 28% (I think). It also means you can set up your own page that can describe what you're doing, why you're doing it, and include a photo etc. Makes the request a bit more persuasive.

[Seafront Plodder]

My point is, that it appears to me one has to register with a password before being able to donate. Unless I'm seeing it wrong.

This put me off sponsoring my mate online and probably would put others off also.

I.e. here's his page... http://www.justgiving.com/stevesmyth

Click on "sponsor me now" and you have a bloody questionnaire to fill in

[El Gordo]

The problem is that in order to claim the extra 28%, they have to provide the name and address of the donor, so a certain amount of form filling will be necessary.

Also, in order to make a payment by credit card you'll always have to provide your name and address for security reasons, so I guess there's no way round this.

Anyway, if and when you do set up a page, let us know.

Andy

[Glyn]

I have registered with justgiving.com for my assault on the London Marathon which I am running for the National Osteoporosis Society (http://www.justgiving.com/glyn4nos) and the charity loves the system. I think it cuts out a lot of the administration of getting ther tax back, so it seems like a pretty good idea to me.

[El Gordo]

Hi Glyn, I just sponsored you, though I managed to press enter by mistake, so my message is a bit truncated. In fadt I managed to press enter twice, so I might have inadvertently doubled my donation. Well, that's no supper for the family this week then.

For anyone interested, Glyn is the guy I bumped into while running the Bath half marathon.

[Glyn]

Thanks for the donation Andy - It only came through once so supper is safe!!!

Thanks a lot

Glyn

[Debbie]

I had a nightmare with Just Giving. The charity I ran the London Marthon for, Burn Aid, are a very small UK charity and were not already listed on the Just Giving charity listings. I spoke to the charity and requested that they get set up on Just Giving so I could maximise my fundraising effort for them.

Apparently it's not at all straightforward for a charity to register. The cost is £15 per month for a start, just to keep registered - no great shakes for a large concern like Cancer Research, but for a tiny charity whose main source of income is people like me doing silly things like running marathons, it's a lot of money.

When they finally did get approval to go ahead from the charity's director, it turns out that they have to produce sets of accounts etc. which have to be sent to Just Giving, along with some kind of reference number from the Inland Revenue. Just getting this number alone can take up to 4 weeks.

Although all the enquiries about getting set up on Just Giving were started in January, in the end we abandoned the effort as by the time anything happened the marathon would have been long since over.

I still managed to raise over £1,500 using more conventional methods - but this is just to advise anyone planning to raise money this way for a small charity who are not registered with Just Giving. Allow plenty of time!