Children in Need

Fonix powers mobile donations for BBC Children in Need, raising £12.4 million in mobile donations for the 2021 BBC Children in Need Appeal, contributing to an overall fundraising total of £40m to date.

Overview

BBC Children in Need is the BBC’s UK corporate charity. It has the vision of ensuring that every child in the UK is safe, happy and secure, giving them the chance to reach their full potential. The BBC Children in Need Appeal Night takes place every year in November and its mobile payments have been powered by Fonix since 2014.

Testimonial

Karen Bass

Chief Operating Officer, BBC Children in Need

Mobile is such an important channel for maximising donations, helping us to raise as much money as possible to support disadvantaged children and young people around the UK. Donating by text is a quick and simple way for people to help change young lives. We’re grateful to Fonix for enabling this and to all of our generous supporters whose donations will go on to make such a difference.

The Challenge

What was our job?

BBC Children in Need wanted a way to ensure that they were raising as much money as possible to help make a difference to young lives.

The charity now offers a total of five donation price points (£5, £10, £20, £30 and £40) which has been instrumental in increasing the total money raised, offering a true alternative to card payments.

wanted a way to ensure that they were "raising as much money as possible"

The Solution

Finding the best way

Fonix provided Children in Need 2021 with an SMS billing mechanic for mobile donations. This meant that the public were able to donate to the charity via their mobile phones, simply by sending a one-word SMS to the charity. In addition to this, the introduction of delayed donation prize draws powered by Fonix’s Campaign Manager platform, has meant shows and Appeals can use different content formats to engage the public. For example, the 2021 Appeal show offered viewers the chance to enter three prize draws to be in with a chance to win some spectacular prizes, including a vintage Jaguar car, a campervan and tickets to the Abba Voyage concert, all to help raise money to change young lives across the UK.

As well as acting as the donation collection mechanic to the end user, the message sent by a donor was also used to provide the Gift Aid declaration code which is unique to each specific user.

Gift Aid is an important part of the donation journey, as for every £1 donated the government adds 25p to the donation, at no extra cost to the donor. Therefore, Fonix worked with BBC Children in Need to make this process as simple as possible and maximise the amount of Gift Aid added.

When clicking on the link, the consumer arrives at a declaration landing page where they need to confirm details such as being a UK taxpayer. Fonix also created a website journey to provide HMRC with evidence for the claim for the campaign.

The Results

£12.4 million

raised via text-to-donate

£40 price point

alone contributing to 20% of the overall amount raised via text-to-donate

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