What do the Givto charities think?
Givto members have supported 27 fantastic charities since our pilot began in the summer of 2020. So what do they think of the service? Penny Coulthard, our Charity Engagement Director, shares some of their feedback.
What do the Givto charities think?
Givto is a charity donation service that allows members to give to a different charity each month with one simple Direct Debit. We’re really keen to support local charities and raise awareness of a variety of causes. We love catching up with the organisations that we’ve partnered with to get feedback on our service. With more than 30 charity partners signed up already this is no small feat, but it’s always so uplifting and encouraging to hear why the charities love what we are doing!
So, what are they telling us?
One of the key commendations is that it is quick and easy for charities to sign up to Givto, with no upfront costs.
Registration is as simple as filling out a form with some basic information, providing a description of the organisation to help members understand the cause, and writing a “thank you” email for donors. There are no upfront registration costs for the charities and Givto only takes a small % fee on any donations.
“The whole process was so easy to do. We signed up within minutes and were luckily contacted almost straight away to be featured the next month. Then at the end of our featured month, we were contacted with our amount. I 100% recommend joining. It is such an easy method of fundraising and raising awareness for charities!” Miriam Watson-Pratt, Secretary, Little Hiccups
Our charity partners have told us that the funds they’ve raised as a result of being featured on Givto have far exceeded their expectations. With many sponsored and physical events having been cancelled over the past 12 months, Givto has provided charities with an alternative funding stream.
Debbie Fawthrop, manager at AVSED said: “It was quick and easy for us to sign up to Givto and we were delighted with how much was raised for AVSED. It will make a big difference to us as this year has been such a tough one to fundraise.”
Jenny Sellers, Community Fundraising Manager, Leeds Weekend Care said: “We decided to give Givto a go after being invited to take part in the Yorkshire pilot and were told we’d be a featured charity within three months of registering. In one month we raised nearly £200 and gained engagement from new supporters – a great result!”
Givto helps charities to increase their digital presence and reach new donors. Raising funds online can be really challenging for small charities and simply adding a donation button to their website isn’t always as effective as they’d like it to be.
Our members will often share details of the cause they’ve chosen to support that month on social media, which really helps to grow a charity’s online presence. Givto offers charities the opportunity to connect with a pool of donors who are already interested in charitable giving and enables them to reach new audiences without having to seek them out.
“As well as giving us a welcome financial donation, being featured on Givto helped to raise our profile, spreading our purple message a little further across Yorkshire. I’d definitely recommend being a part of it!” Fran Rodgers, CEO, Purple Patch Arts
Nobody is perfect – so how can we improve?
Our charity partners would love to be able to keep in touch with the members who have chosen them that month and thank them personally for their donation. While we send a thank you email to members on their behalf and explain how they can keep up to date with the charity online, we don’t pass on our member’s details to the charity. In the future we may offer donors the option to share their details with the charity, but at the moment we want to respect our members’ privacy and make sure they don’t receive communications that they haven’t asked for.
Charities are keen to be featured on Givto again and we are looking to incorporate ways to feature more charities and personalise the options in the future. They are also really keen on shouting about Givto and so we’ll create social media templates that they can use.
Finally, some charity staff are signing up as donors on Givto themselves; they love the concept and the opportunity to discover local charities they didn’t know about and to spread their own donations around. Working within similar organisations, they know how much difference being featured on Givto can make to a charity’s finances and impact.
If you’re a charity and would like to register with Givto, simply complete our registration form. If you’d like to become a Givto member, why not visit the website today and join us!
Penny Coulthard is our Charity Engagement Director. Connect with Penny on Twitter or LinkedIn.
