Virgin to launch online donation service

Virgin to launch online donation service

News

Virgin Money is to launch a not-for-profit online donation service in Spring of 2009.

Virgin Money Giving will aim to maximise online donations to charity by charging a lower fee on donations than other online donation providers. Virgin Money calculated that £100m was given through online donation services in 2007 and said this could rise in 2008.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said, “Our goal is to help people raise as much as they can for charity by providing a great service to fundraisers, charities and sponsors. By operating on a not-for profit basis, we can ensure more of people’s hard-earned donations make it to the charities for good causes.”

Virgin announced in May 2008 that they would sponsor the London Marathon for five years from 2010. Virgin Money will lead the sponsorship.

Virgin founder Richard Branson said, “When we announced the sponsorship of the Virgin London Marathon I said our aim was to help runners smash £1/4 bn in five years. Virgin Money Giving is going to be the key engine behind that. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis so millions of pounds currently lost to charities will find their way direct to good causes rather than profit the shareholders.”