SMS Fundraising - Archive

For Whisper’s current SMS fundraising details see here.

Vir2

Whisper has used Vir2 (now taken over by RSM2000) in the past but the subscription was not renewed.

Costs

Vir2 charged £360 per year plus VAT (£432) which works out at £36 per month. This gave us the use of 3 keywords. Any additional keywords were charged at £10 per month.

100% of the donations were passed to Whisper, with no fees deducted.

We had an online login to view donors’ details and other data, which we could download if needed.

Gift Aid

If the donor chose to register for Gift Aid then we received the details so we can claim it ourselves.

Whisper’s Gift Aid registration web page for SMS donations was here.

Followup marketing

Vir2 very much supported followup marketing. Their view was that it is pointless to carry out a one off donation campaign if there are no plans to try to keep some of the donors. They said that many charities make this mistake so they are cash rich for a year but then have no money!

They would charge us 4.5p plus VAT (5.4p total) per outgoing text.

Vir2 suggested the following as a likely scenario:

• 100 messages sent out asking for a regular donation of £3
• 10% replies yes
• We receive £30 in donations but pay £4.50 plus VAT (£5.40) so end up with £24.60

However, once we have regular donors set up, the percentage of yes replies will be a lot higher meaning we make more. It’s likely to take 3-6 months to establish a firm following of donors.

How one-off mobile donations work

1. We choose a keyword and an amount we want donated per text, for example £3. Vir2 registers this to a shortcode number, which always starts with 70xxx.
2. A donor sends a text containing the keyword to the shortcode number. This text costs them their standard message rate.
3. Vir2 then sends the donor a reply text confirming their donation. This text charges the donor £3 which is either added to their bill or removed from their phone credit.
4. Other options can be added in at this point such as a text 24 hours later asking if they want to make a regular text donation or a phone call to see if they would like to donate via DD.
5. We will receive donations approximately 2 to 3 months later. This is due to the time it takes for the mobile phone company to issue its bill, the bill to be paid and a certain time scale to pass to allow for any dispute claims to be made.

How regular mobile donations work

1. Donors who have made one off donations are sent a text from Vir2 asking if they would like to make a regular donation.
2. If they choose to do this, they will receive a text a month later asking them to confirm they are happy for this donation to be taken. We pay for this text.
3. The donor confirms (or texts skip if they want to skip a month, or stop if they don’t want to make any further donations). This costs the doner the cost of a standard message.
4. Vir2 then texts to say the donation has been made. This text charges the donation amount to their phone bill or credit.
5. Every month step 2 to 4 is repeated for as long as the donor chooses to continue.

Mobile donation regulations restrict regular giving to a maximum of £10 per month.