JustGiving

History

In 2000, Zarine Kharas and Anne-Marie Huby founded JustGiving (initially clickforaction.com), a company to provide online tools and processing services to enable the collection of charitable donations.

In 2002, JustGiving won the New Media Awards Grand Prix award and also Best Use of the Web award.

In 2004, JustGiving was recognised in the 2004 Charity Times annual Awards in their Fundraising & IT Services category. Charity Times said the company had "transformed the face of donating in the UK".

2006 was the firm's first profitable year. In June 2011, the firm claimed that it had provided its service for more than 9,000 UK registered charities and 1.9 million fundraising pages for users, collecting more than £770 million since launch. The cumulative total passed £1 billion in March 2012. The cumulative total passed £4 billion in June 2016.

Fees

JustGiving charged a 5% fee on all donations to cover the cost of running the business until March 2019, when the fee was made voluntary. In 2008, The Guardian reported Kharas as acknowledging that "the commission charged by justgiving.com is controversial".

Notable fundraisers

In January 2010, Charlie Simpson, aged seven, raised more than £210,000 (£145,000 in the first 48 hours) via his JustGiving page for the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief programme by UNICEF.

In March 2014, Christian Smith was killed in a crash with a car during a 24-hour charity bike ride for Mind. Donations via his JustGiving page rose to more than £68,000 after his death was covered in the media.

In April 2014, Stephen Sutton raised more than £4.5 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust, after help from celebrity backers including Jason Manford.

In April 2020, Captain Sir Tom Moore, by the end of a fundraising walk, had raised £32,796,155 (the most ever raised on the JustGiving platform) by completing one-hundred, 25 metre laps of his garden in Bedfordshire to raise funds for the UK National Health Service (NHS), to aid the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, and to mark his 100th birthday on 30 April 2020. The initial £1,000 goal was realised on 10 April and the target was increased to £100,000 and then to £500,000 as more people around the world donated. On completion, Moore said he would not stop and aimed to do a second hundred laps.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

JustGiving was acquired by U.S.-based Blackbaud, Inc. for £95 million in October 2017.

Blackbaud were criticised in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting for its links with the National Rifle Association of America.

International expansion and U.S. subsidiary sale

In 2003, JustGiving launched a subsidiary in the United States, changing its name to FirstGiving in 2005. FirstGiving is located in Somerville, Massachusetts. In 2010, The New York Times reported that FirstGiving.com was "among the best known" online fund-raising sites. In August 2012, FirstGiving was acquired by FrontStream Holdings, LLC.

Finances

In February 2017, JustGiving was reported to be taking more than £20 million from fundraisers while paying staff up to £200,000. It takes a cut from most donations and while some of the money is used for maintenance, product development and charity training, accounts show that more than £10 million was spent on staff costs in 2016. This includes an average salary of more than £60,000 for some directors, sales and administration workers, with the head of the firm having earned approximately £198,000. A charity chief executive had accused JustGiving of being greedy, saying the fees were "hard to stomach" and fundraisers had expressed their anger, labelling the site "JustTaking".

References

References

1. Whittle, Sally. (30 May 2002). "Is it a girl thing?". The Guardian.
2. Smithers, Rebecca. (6 April 2011). "Charitable giving: BT launches website where 100% of donations go to charity". The Guardian.
3. (2 December 2013). "JustGiving online charity platform arrives in Australia to make donating easier". Daily Telegraph.
4. Cahill, Helen. (2025-09-29). "JustGiving pays £25.8m dividend to American owner".
5. "Home". New Media Age.
6. "Home". Nmaawards.co.uk.
7. "UK Charity Awards 2004 winners". Charitytimes.com.
8. Inman, Phillip. (24 March 2008). "Charities go online to stay in the running and reach the next generation of givers – JustGiving.com has dealt with more than £250m in donations since 2001". The Guardian.
9. "JustGiving...by the numbers".
10. (28 March 2012). "£1 billion raised through JustGiving". JustGiving.
11. (15 June 2016). "JustGiving total raised passes £4 billion". UKFundraising.
12. (26 March 2019). "JustGiving drops 5% platform fee so more money goes to good causes".
13. (23 July 2014). "How our fee works – and what we do for it". JustGiving.
14. (25 January 2010). "London boy raises £145k for Haiti quake aid by cycling". BBC News.
15. (25 March 2014). "Family of Mind charity cyclist Christian Smith 'moved beyond belief'". BBC News.
16. (15 April 2020). "Army veteran, 99, raises £4m for 'humbled' NHS". BBC News.
17. "Captain Tom Moore's 100th Birthday Walk for the NHS". JustGiving.
18. Ricketts, Andy. (4 October 2017). "Blackbaud completes its £95m takeover of JustGiving".
19. (9 June 2022). "Blackbaud faces backlash for working with NRA". UK Fundraising.
20. (12 September 2007). "Firstgiving – $50 Million Raised for Charity and Counting".
21. Wallace, Amy. (5 September 2010). "Online Giving Meets Social Networking". The New York Times.
22. (6 August 2012). "FirstGiving Acquisition By FrontStream Expands Integrated Fundraising Options".
23. (7 February 2017). "JustGiving accused of taking £20m from donations while paying staff up to £200,000". The Telegraph.