Donating to charity is too easy

It’s been a torrid few weeks for anyone who knows anyone who was running in the London Marathon. In have come the emails sent by the sender to himself or herself, and BCC’d no doubt to a very long list of the sender’s friends: ‘I’m running the London Marathon on 21 April, for [insert name of charity]. I’d be so pleased if you could sponsor me for this worthy cause. You’ll find my page on [JustGiving, or other similar websites]’ and a link is supplied.

I’ve received a few of these and in fact been pleased to help. I know what runners go through, and I wholeheartedly approve of charitable giving. So, you may ask, what’s not to like about this growing practice? Oh I don’t know, but there’s something almost – well – industrial about the giving industry these days. JustGiving made an £18.9 million profit in 2021, after introducing (in 2019) a kind of ‘voluntary’ ‘tip’ set at 15 per cent of the gift.

You can opt out from this online, and we should do so, but you have to make an effort: moving a marker on a sliding scale back to £0. Many miss that or feel embarrassed to move the marker all the way to zero and instead leave a lesser ‘tip’. Trying to dodge these traps is like booking online with Ryanair. The honest way to raise revenue is to charge a commission – as they already do, 5 per cent, on processing sums for Gift Aid. These websites are not themselves charities, and there’s nothing wrong with that; but we should be clear.

I noticed that The Spectator’s Dear Mary (20 April) received an anguished cry for help from a correspondent overwhelmed by more than 15 requests for sponsorship for the London Marathon.