Donation via text message, does all (or most) of the money go to the charity?

Question

A while ago a signed up via text message to Save the Children £3 per month. I get a message every month saying thank you for donating and £3 is added to my phone bill. But I wonder does the phone operator take a big cut of that?
Would I be better just setting up a standing order from my bank. I could not find much info about it online just very old articles, saying operators are taking a big cut but then I found national funding scheme, which seems to have no charges for charities ( that i could find anyway).

Answer 1

Assuming that this was a direct sign up to donate to Save the Children via text, and not via some third party broker or agent, then Save the Children get 100% of your donation.

They have the details on their website:

What happens when I sign up?
You'll be charged £3 or £5 plus the cost of one standard rate text message in the first month and we'll receive 100% of your donation. Your gift will be activated and your first donation of £3 or £5 will immediately be charged to your phone bill or your pay-as-you-go credit.
Each month from then on
This is a monthly subscription service to Save the Children. Each month you'll receive a free text as a reminder, the day before your gift is due. If you're happy to give you don't need to do anything and you'll be charged £3 or £5, or you can choose to skip a month. You will be charged £3 or £5 a month thereafter. We will receive 100% of your donation.

Presumably, they have signed up with a platform that doesn't charge them per-donation fees, although since the platform must get their money from somewhere I would guess that Save the Children are paying them a flat fee to operate the service. There is a list of charity text donation platforms along with how much they charge here

Answer 2

Here are some general rules for fund-raiser calls and texts:

• If not given, ask for the specific name of the charity that they are soliciting for (not please help our vets or help the hungry children)

• Ask how your contribution will be used and what percentage of your donation will go to the charity

• Call the organization to verify that the fund raiser is collecting on behalf of the organization and if so, how much of money raised by the fund raiser goes to the charity (cost of fund raising).

• Ask if your contribution is tax-deductible. Pay by check, made out to the charity. Avoid cash gifts. .

• Be wary of any suggestion that you will receive special treatment for donating

If anything doesn't sound legitimate, report the caller to the appropriate regulatory agency.

Fund raisers are paid to contact you. In some cases, only a fraction of your donation actually goes to the charity. Look up the financials of the charity in question for specifics.