Now You Can Donate by Text in Seconds

Just Giving have allowed charities to collect donations by text for some time and, thanks to the generosity of mobile phone companies, the service has been free. A similar service has helped the likes of Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need raise millions of pounds in one evening.

Smaller charities, without the resources to 'plug' the text giving service on TV, haven't done quite so well with it. But all that might have changed from today.

When we asked Just Giving about using text giving for our Fifty Quid Challenge, raising money for St Nicholas Hospice Care, we were told that only the charity themselves could set up such a system but that text giving for fundraisers like ourselves was 'coming soon'.

Well, that day has arrived! From today, we have our own unique 'short code', QUID50 and that means you can now donate anything from £1 to £10 in seconds, just by texting QUID50, then the amount you want to donate, to 70070. The text itself is free.

Just giving will show your donation on our Just Giving page, the money goes directly to the Hospice, and Vodaphone, who run the service for Just Giving, don't charge a penny. Your donation is simply added to your next mobile phone bill, with no extra fees at all.

You'll get a receipt for your donation by text and the opportunity to add gift aid, at 25%. Your donation will be anonymous.

Try it now. Just donate £1 to see how it works, by texting QUID50 1 to 70070.

It's magic!

Roy

The Fifty Quid Challenge Starts Now!

Yesterday evening saw the official launch of the Towergate Accumulator Challenge, at Towergate's offices in Bury St Edmunds.

The challenge is raising funds for St Nicholas Hospice Care, also in Bury. You can read about the hospice on our website.

We were ready for the challenge: our Fifty Quid Challenge Website was already in place, our Facebook Page was set up and our Twitter account is up and running. We believe we can win this year!

We have other plans, too, including one of our increasingly popular workshops on 14 July, this time on content creation and this time for a full day. We still only ask for a minimum donation of £50 for a full day, including, we hope, all the food and drink for the day.

(Anyone who wants to sponsor some of that in return for some great publicity, please get in touch.)

Meanwhile, on the website you can get some of the cheapest advertising available anywhere for your company, or take advantage of some of the deals that are on there already. Ads cost £50 for the full period (to end Sept) for a text ad, £50 a month for 200x200 pixel ads or £50 a week for a banner.

Lots of the product offers are £50, too.

And if you think charity should just be about giving, you can do that as well, by going to our Just Giving page.

The Fifty Quid Challenge has something for everyone, and it's for a truly great cause! Join us, follow us, Like us on Facebook or just donate to the hospice via our page. People's lives will be made more bearable with every pound we raise and we might just win the competition!

Roy