Virgin Money Covers Its Not-for-profit Fundraising Platform’s 2% ‘Platform Fee’ Until The End Of Lockdown

Virgin Money UK PLC has announced it will cover the platform fee for its wholly-owned not for profit fundraising business, Virgin Money Giving (VMG), for the remainder of government lockdown.

VMG will waive its platform fee on all donations and fundraising activity, including the ‘2.6 Challenge to save the UK’s charities’, from 18th April. This fee, set at 2%, covers the running costs of VMG to enable it to provide charities, fundraisers and donors with a safe and secure digital fundraising service without making any profits.

The company said that by temporarily covering the fee in this challenging time, Virgin Money will help people’s generosity stretch even further in support of charities and the valuable work they do all across the UK.

VMG introduced ‘Donor Covers Fee’ in November 2018, which gave donors the option to cover the 2% platform fee on behalf of their charity. This was expanded in September 2019 to cover the 2.5% payment processing fee. This popular feature makes the service free for charities on over 80% of donations. For the remainder of lockdown, the 2% platform fee will be removed and donors will still be given the option to cover the 2.5% payment processing fee for the charity.

David Duffy, CEO said:v“With many charities seeing a large drop in their fundraising contributions during lockdown, we want to make it that little bit easier for all the generous donors, fundraisers and the charities they support.

"We believe that a not-for-profit model is the only way for a digital fundraising platform like VMG to ensure as much money as possible goes to good causes while maintaining a safe, secure and user-friendly service.

"But in this extraordinary and challenging time we wanted to do more to support the generosity of the public and our beloved charities. By covering VMG’s small platform fee for the rest of lockdown, we hope to help charities raise much needed funds to continue their valuable work during the worst of this pandemic.”