The Justgiving Blog

Fundraising page shows power of online communities
The fundraising page created by a Richard Hammond fan within hours of the BBC presenter’s accident has become the best-performing page in Justgiving’s history after fans donated nearly £190,000 in seven days.

The page illustrates the fundraising potential of online communities and the benefits of the Internet for small charities.

On 20th September, Alex Goss was one of several car enthusiasts discussing Richard Hammond’s accident on www.pistonheads.com. Goss, a systems engineer from Bracknell, remembered Justgiving from sponsoring a friend online and set up a page in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) charity.

He posted the link to his fundraising page on the forum with a target of £340 – the cost of a single YAA helicopter mission.

The response was immediate: within three hours of the page being set up, donations had reached £2,475. Other online communities in the UK and overseas picked up the story, followed by broadcasters and newspapers.

Seven days later, the page has raised £190,000 including Gift Aid, the fastest rate of collection of any fundraising page in Justgiving’s six-year history. The overall total, including off-line donations, stands at £240,000.

A ground-breaking appeal for the YAA 
The YAA raises approximately £1m a year and relies entirely on donations to fund its life-saving work. Most of this income is raised locally, or from people with Yorkshire connections.
Alex Goss’s appeal not only raised an unprecedented sum of money in record time for the YAA, but it also delivered a totally new audience for the charity. 

“For the YAA to raise £240,000 in a week is extraordinary enough. But for us to raise 80% of this online is even more astonishing,” YAA’s CEO Martin Eedes says.

“Justgiving has enabled us to punch above our weight and reach out to a global audience,” Eedes adds. “We are amazed by the power of this medium.”

The page’s online fundraising target now stands at £500,000 with donations still coming in. The success of the page will enable the YAA to bring forward its expansion plans with the purchase of a new helicopter to carry out 300 more emergency missions each year.
An efficient collection mechanism

As well as additional income, the Justgiving system has collected unprecedented amounts of Gift Aid for the YAA.

“It can be very difficult to reclaim Gift Aid on spontaneous donations, because the donor rarely has access to a Gift Aid form there and then,” Paul Gowland, Director of Fundraising YAA says.

“The charity would love to claim Gift Aid on 100% of its eligible donations each year but often can’t. By contrast, Justgiving will reclaim Gift Aid on every eligible donation by UK taxpayers, or nearly £40,000 for this appeal to date”.

The charity’s cashflow will also be greatly enhanced by Justgiving’s weekly payments. Within ten days of the appeal being launched, Justgiving had already transferred £146,000 into the charity’s bank account.

“Modern fundraising tools need to be easy to use, accessible to all ages, international, tax-efficient, transparent and cost-effective – a tall order! Justgiving does this and adds the personal touch,” says Gowland.

Join the online fundraising community
To create a fundraising page of your own, please visit www.justgiving.com.

If you are a charity looking to raise funds online, please visit www.justgiving.com/charities.

If you are an existing Justgiving member and need help to make the most of your own online fundraising facility, please email our charities team at charities@justgiving.com. We can help you optimise your website for fundraising and better promote your service to your supporters.