Saturday, November 24, 2007

Top 5 questions from charities

We've had lots of comments (mostly very kind!) and questions from charities signing up on theBigGive.org.uk. A number follow the same theme, so here are our top 5 questions - and answers - about theBigGive.org.uk.

1. Why can't I find my charity in the sector/location/beneficiary search?

theBigGive.org.uk helps donors to search for projects rather than charities. Many charities cover a range of sectors - by displaying individual projects, we let donors know exactly what is available to them in their area of interest.

2. Can I enter a Magic Wand proposal for my charity?

The Magic Wand area will allow you to present a core funding proposal on the site (because we know how important core funding is!). This is currently in development - the 3 projects on the site now help us to illustrate how the section will appear.

3. I uploaded a project but it seems to be lost

As with all web forms, we recommend copying or saving your projects in a Word document (or similar) before submitting. Unfortunately Internet connections can time out - especially if you have spent a long time on a single page - causing you to lose the project.

We appreciate your patience (we've lost things too) and hope that you will try again - after a few deep breaths...!

4. Do I need to be a registered charity to join theBigGive.org.uk?

Yes, in a word. In order to protect our donors from unregulated fundraising organisations, we can currently only accept UK-regulated charities on theBigGive.org.uk.

We are talking to a number of experts about ways to get social enterprises and CICs on the site. If you have any suggestions, why not leave a comment using the form below?

5. How much does it cost?

We are very pleased to say that theBigGive.org.uk is free to all users! As we don't take a cut, either from the charity or the donors, we believe that theBigGive.org.uk really is helping big donations go further.

This is possible thanks to generous funding from the Reed Foundation (who, incidentally, make all their grants through theBigGive.org.uk).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do we request that our logo appear at the bottom of the home page? A number of charities, the larger ones, appear regularly. I haevn't found any way of requesting this on the site, could you help?
thanks
Jo

Jon Brooks said...

Hi Jo,

This is probably the 6th top question from charities!

The logos on the homepage rotate automatically, so every charity logo will be on the homepage at some point.

Our concept research found that high wealth donors would be more likely to use a website that identified with well-known charity brands. As we are still building our brand (pretty quickly!), we - and all charities on the site - benefit from this association with the top charities.

However, we want theBigGive.org.uk to be more than just a marketplace for the top charities, and so every charity has their place on the homepage.