A Newcastle digital fundraising firm has been enlisted by department store giant John Lewis and a string of charities which are turning to text giving to counter the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Donr was launched in 2016 to disrupt the tech-for-good space, giving people the chance to give money to charity using text messages, after recognising that people are more inclined to donate using texts on mobile phones than filling out direct debit forms.
The firm is geared up to expand its 12-strong team and to continue growing its community of charities, which has grown exponentially as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with countless organisations turning to text-giving as fundraising events and face-to-face fundraising disappeared.
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As well as recently working with the likes of Chester Zoo, the National Theatre and Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter, Donr is currently providing the fundraising technology to power the John Lewis Christmas appeal, launched through its annual Christmas TV advert.
Last Friday, John Lewis and Partners and Waitrose and Partners launched their charity Christmas appeal, in which it is working with FareShare and Home-Start to help more than 100,000 families in need this Christmas. The department store and supermarket giant will match the donations.
The Donr platform is processing all online and text giving donations through website https://givealittlelove.donr.com/, inviting donations of any amount while telling donors how £5 can ensure an isolated family can join a support group at Christmas, £10 can provide 40 Breakfast Club meals for school children and £20 could provide a family with specialist support.
In September the BBC Children in Need appeal also launched with Donr as one of the three key tech providers, providing the platform to process all online donations.
The firm’s CEO Chris Newell said the firm expects text giving to continue to grow next year, as more charities integrate it as a key fundraising tool.
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Donr has added thousands of organisations to its platform, which it has grown on the back of investments made in the last two years, including £350,000 from the North East Innovation Fund, managed by Northstar Ventures, and from Angel Investor, Andrew Robson, in May. The fund previously invested £300,000 in the business in Q2 2019.
In the last year, the firm has seen the number of charities now on the Donr platform soar from 1,450 to more than 4,000, and between March and July it saw a 653% increase in donations compared to the same period in 2019, helping to raise over £2m raised for charities.
Mr Newell said the company will also work on large-scale national and international charity appeals in the year ahead, with further growth for the business leading to the recruitment of more Newcastle-based talent.
He said: “We’ve worked hard to support charities with their fundraising this year and we expect further growth in 2021.
“The charity sector has been hit hard, but we’ve been able to adapt our plans and our platform to support them. We’ve innovated to make it as quick and easy for charities of any size to use our donations technology to keep donations flowing to allow them to continue doing the vital work they do.”
Paul Paterson, COO at Donr, added: “Our work with both BBC Children in Need and John Lewis and Partners this year is testament to the outstanding team we have here at Donr and their commitment to excellence.
“As well as delivering innovative solutions for both of these organisations, we are also continuing to support the over 4,000 other charity partners that use our donation platform.”