JustGiving

1. What is JustGiving?

Positioning: A leading global online fundraising platform, primarily focused on enabling individuals, groups, and charities to raise money for charitable causes, personal events, and social impact projects.

Functional Panorama: Covers core modules for creating fundraising pages, processing secure donations, and managing charity accounts. It includes functionalities for event-based fundraising, direct charity donations, and peer-to-peer fundraising. The platform also supports integrated features like connecting with fitness apps for challenge-based fundraising and tools for donors to track their impact.

2. JustGiving’s Use Cases

• Individual Fundraisers can use the platform to set up personal fundraising pages for events like marathons, treks, birthdays, or personal challenges, enabling friends and family to donate easily.
• Charities and Non-profits utilize JustGiving to accept online donations directly, manage campaigns, launch appeals, and leverage tools for donor engagement and reporting.
• Companies and Corporate Teams can create team fundraising pages for corporate social responsibility initiatives, charity challenges, or employee giving programs.
• Event Organizers integrate JustGiving into their events to provide participants with an easy way to fundraise, track progress, and encourage donations, often for sporting events or community gatherings.
• Donors can use the platform to discover causes, make one-off or recurring donations securely, and manage their giving history.

3. JustGiving’s Key Features

• Supports customizable fundraising pages with text, images, and videos for storytelling.
• Offers secure, PCI DSS Level 1 compliant payment processing for various currencies.
• Provides Gift Aid declaration automation for eligible UK donations, increasing the value of donations to charities.
• Enhanced Mobile Experience added in Q4 2023: Improved mobile responsiveness and a streamlined donation flow for smartphone users.
• AI-powered Fundraising Tips introduced in Q1 2024: Proactive suggestions for fundraisers to optimize their page content and sharing strategies based on historical data.
• Improved Fitness App Integration in Q1 2024: Users report more seamless connection with popular fitness tracking apps like Strava and Fitbit, allowing real-time sharing of challenge progress on fundraising pages.

4. How to Use JustGiving?

For Fundraisers:
1. Navigate to “Start Fundraising” on the JustGiving homepage, choose your cause (charity or personal), and select your fundraising type.
2. Create your fundraising page by adding a compelling title, a detailed story, target amount, and inspiring images or videos.
3. Share your page link widely across social media, email, and messaging apps to reach potential donors.
4. Track your donations and progress on your dashboard and thank donors promptly.
Pro Tips:
– Regularly update your page with progress photos and videos to maintain donor engagement.
– Integrate your fitness tracker if you’re doing a challenge; seeing real-time activity often encourages more donations.
– Personalize your thank-you messages; a sincere, personal note significantly increases the likelihood of repeat donations.

5. JustGiving’s Pricing & Access

• Donors: Free to use.
• Fundraisers: Free to set up fundraising pages for registered charities.
• Charities (UK):
  • Start (Standard): Free monthly platform fee. Charges a 1.9% processing fee on donations + 20p transaction fee per donation. Gift Aid processing is free.
  • Grow (Premium Features): Monthly platform fee (typically £15-£39 depending on charity size) plus 1.9% processing fee + 20p transaction fee. Offers enhanced data, reporting, and fundraising tools.
• Web Dynamics: Some sources indicate that JustGiving occasionally runs promotions for new charities joining, offering reduced platform fees for initial months, especially during peak fundraising seasons like Q4.
• Tier Differences: The “Grow” tier for charities provides advanced CRM integration, detailed analytics, peer-to-peer campaign management, and dedicated support, tailored for larger organizations seeking more robust tools for donor acquisition and retention.

6. JustGiving’s Comprehensive Advantages

• Market Leadership & Trust: As one of the longest-standing and most recognized platforms, JustGiving benefits from high donor trust and brand recognition, which can lead to higher conversion rates for fundraisers compared to newer, less known alternatives.
• Robust Feature Set: Offers a comprehensive suite of tools for individual fundraisers and charities, including Gift Aid automation, which significantly boosts effective donation value, a feature not universally offered by all competitors.
• Global Reach & Currency Support: Supports multiple currencies and operates in several countries, facilitating international fundraising efforts more seamlessly than many regionally focused platforms.
• Community & Support: Benefits from a large user community and extensive help resources, offering detailed guides and responsive customer support for both fundraisers and charities.