Current fundraising methods
Charities have become more and more sophisticated at raising funds over the past 20 years. There isn’t a UK high street without some sort of charity shop and the large charities have extensive (but expensive) logistics operations for the pick-up, sorting and retailing process of donated goods. Many charities employ TV advertising campaigns for the simple reason that, although costly, they work with some asking for £3 a month, others asking to be written into your Will plus other iterations. Then there are different marketing strategies such as gorilla street marketing and regional fundraising efforts such as sponsored walks and runs. Given the cost-of-living crisis with food, fuel and heating bills taking a more significant chunk of people’s monthly disposable income, it could put charity revenues under even greater pressure as people may have to stop contributing because they cannot afford it.
Future of fundraising
Velocity Marketplaces is passionate about the importance of charities as an aid in people’s lives and we had a vision of adding a new way for charities to raise money – which we have now made a reality. It works like this – Anyone who gives to charity also buys new goods all the time, in fact, the average UK household spends over £3000 a year on general goods. We wanted to find a way to harness this spend so that at least £300 a year goes to an individual’s favourite charity, so we came up with this idea: Velocity Marketplaces can quickly put in place a big online shop (like Amazon), fully branded in the charity’s livery that is accessed through the charity’s existing website (so no expensive IT development required by the charity themselves). The shop has a choice of over 10 million products, covering all categories, so the chances of finding what you want are very high.
Effectively, the charity has its own version of Amazon, in its branding, on its existing website, where its current donors can buy new branded goods delivered directly to their homes.
The biggest two benefits are that:
- The charity gets paid from the profit from sales each month, and
- Because all 10 million products are registered on Google Shopping the charity also gets exposure to thousands of potential new donors each month that they didn’t have before!
This then presents the charity with the opportunity to communicate with these new donors, some of whom may wish to contribute further to the charity. It is a win-win for both the customer and the charity. The customer buys an item that they would have purchased anyway from another retailer – but they buy it from the charity that not only receives part of the profits from the sale but also get a new customer who may buy again and may become a long-term donor to the charity.
Velocity Marketplaces are on track to pay UK charities over £10m in 2023 and expects to have paid out over £45m to UK charities by 2025 making Velocity Marketplaces one of the largest private donors to UK charities. We are really excited about this new way that charities can have a reliable and regular source of new revenue and a constant stream of new customers.
If you operate a charity and want to find out more then, book a 30-minute introductory call with us, where we can share further information and explain how you can get started right away.
