Buckinghamshire: Local businessmen launch Make-a-Donation

Two local businessmen are supporting both local charities and local companies with the launch of the world’s first fee and charge-free charity giving website, enabling charities to benefit from every penny of the money raised through online giving without the usual deductions for credit card or website fees, while still remaining a commercially-profitable enterprise and also benefiting the local business community. 

The innovative Make-a-Donation business model has been developed to give 100% of every donation directly to the nominated charity, using a unique business structure which also serves as a marketing tool for local businesses.

Make-a-Donation has been developed and grown by High Wycombe-based businessmen David Finch of Purple Frog and James Moorcroft from Canon Moorcroft, who combined their business knowledge to create a workable business model. Finch brings 25 years of marketing, design and IT expertise to benefit the project, while Moorcroft is one of the most qualified and experienced accountants in the UK.

Finch explained: "In order to run as a profitable business we obviously need to make money, but we’re the only giving website which won’t take money from the charities themselves or deduct fees from their fundraisers.

"Instead, we give local businesses the opportunity to offer money-off vouchers on the website for which they pay a small fee. When supporters make a donation to their chosen charity, they can then recoup double the value of their donation any time in the next 12 months, by downloading vouchers from the site which serve as a ‘thank you’ for their donation at the same time as encouraging them to try local businesses.

"The benefit for businesses is not only the advertising they receive on the site which raises their brand awareness, but also the increased footfall as people use the vouchers."

Businesses can offer as many or as few vouchers as they feel comfortable with and they will be able to easily measure the return on their investment as they see the vouchers being redeemed by customers.

The Make-a-Donation business model is entirely unique and has been created to support the needs of charities and businesses whose messages are often swamped by their larger rivals.

The initiative currently operates in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and will shortly be expanding nationwide.