BuytoGive founder Kevin Turner explains how he is shaking up the charity sector with an exciting new model
Who hasn’t sighed when they receive another request for a charity donation on sites such as JustGiving?
You know it is for an excellent cause.
You admire that your friend is trying to make a difference and genuinely putting others before themselves.
But you had a request from another friend the previous week and that was another £30 or £50 from under pressure household finances.
Two weeks earlier, another friend reached out with a similar request.
Within a month, you have spent £100 that you can ill afford because you cannot bring yourself to say, ‘No.’
None of your friends know about the other requests.
Saying no makes it look like you don’t care.
And if you bring up the earlier requests you look like a whinger.
All this comes before we get on to the naming and shaming that goes hand-in-hand with so many of these requests.
Once you receive the request, you go on JustGiving or a similar site and see that your much wealthier neighbour has given £50 or even £100.
Will you look tight fisted if you don’t match it?
It is all these dilemmas that I wrestled with when I was starting up BuytoGive – a new way to support charities and good causes which actually rewards the donor.
Like so many others, I was tired of JUST giving. I knew that lots of people want to help causes close to their heart but they also wanted something back at the same time.
I set up BuytoGive earlier this year and now hundreds of big name charities are using the site to raise funds and allowing users to support them while shopping for households good at competitive prices at the same time.
We started BuytoGive to combat the ‘charity fatigue’ I have outlined above which will be familiar to so many of you.
We have been running since the summer and wanted to test out just how widespread this charity fatigue is.
We polled 1,000 people and found that we really are tired of just giving to charity, with 59% of us saying we are suffering from charity fatigue.
A further 68% of respondents feel under pressure to donate money they cannot afford and 51% are fed up with donation requests from friends doing charitable events.
The survey found that 71% are looking for a new way to reward charities which doesn’t just rely on donations, and 49% would like to get something back in return if they support a charity.
At BuytoGive shoppers can buy thousands of products while benefiting good causes at the same time. It is aimed at combating charity fatigue by turning everyday purchases such as the weekly shop into a way to benefit the community. You buy your weekly shop at the same prices but help good causes at the same time.
Charities can set up their own online fund-raising shops for FREE – with a unique URL just for them – and earn more from sales than with existing platforms.
BuytoGive is the only marketplace dedicated to fund-raising. It is growing every day as a community of charities, schools, clubs, schools and everyday change-makers see how they can earn more than by using more established partners such as JustGiving which take a bigger proportion of proceeds.
I set up BuytoGive to harness the power of everyday spending to create meaningful change. The platform integrates charitable giving seamlessly into online shopping, ensuring that every purchase contributes to causes that matter.
It is far easier to do a fund-raiser on BuytoGive – you avoid that peer group pressure, don’t upset your friends and know that any purchase will help a good cause.
It is not just charities that are joining the BuytoGive but hundreds of brilliant organisations who use fund-raising to benefit what they do.
Charities and community groups can set up their own bespoke fundraising pages without going to the expense of creating expensive websites.
So many fantastic organisations have already come on board.
They include well-known organisations such as the YMCA, the mental health charity MIND, the Lewis Foundation cancer charity and the Macari Foundation (the Stoke-based homeless shelter set up by former Manchester United and Scotland star Lou Macari) and lots of vital local groups such as food banks and charities supporting causes such as Ukraine. Many animal charities are on board including PACT Animal Sanctuary which finds homes for abandoned animals around East Anglia.
One cause particularly close to my heart is AEDdonate – which raises money to place defibrillators throughout the UK. Sudden cardiac arrest kills 100,000 people in the UK each year and survival rates improve markedly if patients have access to a defibrillator. The Staffordshire-based charity was set up 11 years ago by Jamie Richards – a friend and former employee of mine- who left his role at Staffordshire Fire and Rescue because he knew how important the issue was. The charity which now raises more than £2 million a year and puts 3,000 defibrillators into the public domain annually. It is one of hundreds of good causes benefitting from BuytoGive.
Over half of UK charities fear closure over the next five years, according to a recent survey by the Charity Times.
Almost all of us in the UK want to help good causes, but we are looking for a new model. That is why BuytoGive is a game changer and why so many charities are seeking funding sources away from straight donations which is what BuytoGive provides. If you do want to make a straight donation to a charity, you can on BuytoGive. We make no money on this and have the lowest card charges in the UK.
BuytoGive allows everyone to support charities and good causes in a simple way by buying goods they would shop for anyway.
It also makes it super easy for charities and community groups like a local football team to raise funds without any technical costs or know-how.
BuytoGive has a team of staff who can create a free online store for your favourite good cause featuring all BuytoGive products.
Our dedicated team helps each cause to promote their store, secure ongoing deals from UK vendors, and maximise donations from every purchase.
Come and join the new revolution transforming the charitable sector today at BuytoGive.
