JustGiving

Case Study

JustGiving

The world’s first web portal for fund-raising and charitable giving, JustGiving, was founded in 1999, headquartered in Paddington, London. Helping charities cut costs and maximise income through online donations processing and tax reclaiming, the site also revolutionised fund-raising by empowering people and groups to easily set up their own pages to raise money for the charities of their choice.

Bringing the Government’s Gift Aid scheme online, JustGiving ensured that each pound donated by UK taxpayers also engendered a 28% tax bonus, with the site automatically reclaiming the bonus on behalf of charities.

Since its launch, JustGiving has brought over 9,000 charities and over 12 million registered users together, raising more than £770 million in total. JustGiving has been the online donation system of choice for the Flora London Marathon as well as Christmas appeals by the Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph amongst others.

The Challenge

To match its innovative business model, JustGiving required a web-based software solution that was just as fresh and forward-thinking. The system needed to process donations securely and collect the tax bonuses efficiently, then distribute the donations to the charities nominated – all ‘paperless’. A round-the-clock service was essential. Charity news and event news needed to be hosted, and the system needed huge flexibility so it could grow as more charities and donors joined the service.

Finally, the system needed to be able to cope smoothly with significant surges in donation volume, such as following major natural disasters. The licensing models available from big enterprise software vendors were far too costly for a business start-up, and they would have lacked the robustness and adaptability required for full compliance with HMRC guidelines. Developing a bespoke system in-house would have taken too long, especially as similar business models could have been developed in the meantime before JustGiving went live.

Quantiv’s Solution

Quantiv’s Sales & Fulfilment Platform was selected for its impressive combination of functionality and flexibility. More agile and cost-effective than a modular system, it was also more ‘rugged’ than a traditional bespoke solution. Quantiv’s Platform back-office management suite met all of JustGiving’s needs while complying with the HMRC’s requirements.

“Quantiv’s business analysts were very impressive; they really understood the complex issues of online banking, and were an integral part of the development team,” says Dominic Lacey, Chief Technology Officer at JustGiving. The stability and adaptability of Quantiv’s Platform meant that JustGiving was also able to add the new ‘Payroll Giving Plus’ service. “The system was easily adapted and scaled up to fit our requirements, and went live without a glitch,” says Dominic.

The Result

JustGiving is now a widely-recognised brand name across the UK and beyond, and its donation processing service for the Flora London Marathon saw it win New Media Age’s ‘Best Use of the Web’ award as well as The Charity Times’s IT and Fundraising Award. The site now has the largest online community of charity supporters in the world and continues to develop innovative approaches to charitable giving, which are quickly and easily incorporated into its software solution thanks to Quantiv.

“Our platform keeps us agile,” says Anne-Marie Huby, Managing Director of JustGiving. “It allows us to focus on customer service and respond quickly to new developments in fundraising, while keeping operating costs low.”

The Benefits & the Future

Since then, Quantiv has helped JustGiving develop a parallel system for the US, processing donations in dollars for fundraisers in the States. Quantiv’s Sales & Fulfilment Platform is able to define processing templates for any currency, to be used in any language, so the system can easily handle US addresses and bank transfers. JustGiving has since opened a US office to increase its growth.

Ten years on and £833m later, we knew that mobile would be the next chapter in the story, to make spontaneous, on-the-spot giving available to everyone in the UK. Together JustGiving, Vodaphone and Quantiv have helped this to launch successfully and help fundraising across the country.