True cost of giving money

Sir Tom Hunter on the Chris

Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio confirmed he had donated £100,000 to The Sun’s NHS Who Dares Wins appeal.

He said: "Every penny will go to the NHS", but it appeared that was not quite accurate. We discovered there was a 4.5% charge on top of any donation - a 2% platform fee and a 2.5% transaction fee.

When pushed by The Edinburgh Reporter on Twitter, Sir Tom admitted he didn’t know there was a charge payable to Virgin Money Giving (VMG).

Within days, VMG announced they were waiving the platform fee.

CEO David Duffy said: ”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 the good causes. "By covering VMG’s small platform fee for the rest of lockdown, we hope to help charities.”

The transaction fee which remains payable is paid to credit card companies, so VMG is not making anything out of the donations made during the Covid-19 lockdown.

But beware when using any other platforms that you know the true cost to you as a donor.