Registering and fees
- How do we compare to other charity donation websites?
- How do I register my charity to receive donations?
- How quickly can I start receiving online donations?
- What are the benefits of joining Charity Choice?
- How much will it cost to list my charity on Charity Choice?
- What are your donation processing fees?
- Further questions?
How do we compare to other charity donation websites?
The Charity Choice website is unique in that it offers all aspects of giving in one place. We think that we measure up very well against other charity donation sites.
| Can I … | Charity Choice | Virgin money giving | Just giving | In Kind Direct | Time bank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add my charity contact details | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Display my Charity Financial Information | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Put my charity into a particular charity category | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Create charity friends | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Add my charities logo and customise my page | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| List my fundraising events | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Collect donations online | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Communicate with fundraisers | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Collect gift aid | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Link to social media | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Receive/ request legacies | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Add profile Photos | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Add my charity news | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Add my charity appeals with targets | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Receive/Request goods | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Receive/ Request volunteers | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Monitor my donations | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Access financial reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
How do I register my charity to receive donations?
Step 1
Sign up for free to activate your charity on the site. Signing up is free and easy.
Step 2
To be able to receive donations through Charity Choice you must upgrade to an enhanced or premium microsite. To upgrade simply contact subscriptions@charitychoice.co.uk
Step 3
Once your microsite is activated you'll receive an email with everything you need to get started. We'll also ask you to:
- Post us a bank statement. You can have more than one bank account – just send us a statement for each account. These statements need to be originals and dated within the last 3 months.
- Post us your HMRC exemption certificate if you are not registered by the Charity Commission of England and Wales.
- Fill in and post back the CHV1 form if you’d like to benefit from our free Gift Aid collection service (again we'll include this in the email)
Step 4
We will do a check of your charitable status and your bank statements.
Step 5
You’ll receive email confirmation from us that your donations facility is live, then you’ll be ready to go!
How quickly can I start receiving online donations?
Once we receive your bank statement and registration information it should take approximately two working days before you are ready to start receiving donations.
Setting up Gift Aid takes a little longer because your completed CHV1 form needs to be sent to HMRC. This normally takes between 2-4 weeks, so the sooner that you are able to get this form to us the quicker we can get you set up to receive Gift Aid.
How much will it cost to list my charity on Charity Choice?
It is completely free to list your basic information on the Charity Choice website. Activating your charity on the Charity Choice website enables you to upload basic contact information, your logo and also post your upcoming events.
Charity Choice also offers you the opportunity to improve your charity’s profile on the website by creating your own microsite at a very low cost. There are two packages available – enhanced and premium.
Our enhanced microsite package will cost £89 and enables you to:
- update your charity text
- upload a logo for your charity
- customise the colour scheme of your microsite inline with your brand
- upload images with captions to display on the site
- link to your social network sites
- create and manage your events
- create a tailored legacy appeal
- request goods, services or volunteers
- receive donations and fundraisers
A premium microsite costs £199 and will allow you to benefit from all of the above plus enhanced functionality which will allow you:
- set up your own appeals – you can set up dedicated appeals throughout the year. You can set the appeals targets, choose date ranges, add photographs, upload images and text. You can also generate your own supporters base/ fundraisers specific to your appeal.
- unlimited amount of photographs - bring to life your events or appeals through the use of unlimited photographs.
- add your own news stories - ensure that potential friends or supporters can keep up to date with your charities news by updating your microsite with all your latest news.
What are your donation processing fees?
At Charity Choice we're transparent about our fees and charges. We have worked hard to get the lowest possible card rates for our charities and strive to help charities receive the maximum from each donation.
| Charity Choice | Just Giving | Virgin Money Giving | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your donation of | £10 | £10 | £10 |
| Gift Aid | £2.50 | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| Do we take a percentage of your Gift Aid? | No | Yes | No |
| Transaction Fee | 20p (2%) | 64p (5%) | 20p (2%) |
| Card Company Processing Fee (based on using a Debit Card) | 15p | 17p | 15p |
| Does the Donor have the choice of paying the card fee for their charity? | Yes | No | No |
| Total cost to Charity | 20p (if donor pays card fee) 35p (if donor doesn't pay fee) |
81p | 35p |
| Total Donation (if donor pays card fees) | £12.30 | £11.69 | £12.15 |
| Total Donation (if donor chooses not to pay card fee) | £12.15 | £11.69 | £12.15 |
Charity Choice does not benefit from fees for card payments, but unfortunately all major credit and debit cards do charge for every donation made. We will continue to work hard to reduce these fees further for our charities. We’ve also come up with a solution that could help your charity benefit even more for every donation. We will be giving donors the choice of paying for this charge themselves. This means that your charity will save money on every one of these transactions making the donation worth even more. For example on a £10 donation your charity will receive £12.30 (This figure is based on the card company fee of 15p for a debit card and takes into account a 2% transaction fee below) when the donor pays the card fees compared to £12.15 when a donor does not.
Our Charity Choice transaction fees are 2% and cover banking administration charges, upkeep of the charity choice website, administration and vetting as well as enabling us to provide great customer service.
To see how this compares to other sites with an online donation facility see the question above called “How do we compare to other charity donation websites”
Further questions?
If you have any further questions about our registration and fees please do not hesitate to contact a member of our customer help team.
