BT is hoping to expand the online giving market via the launch of its web fundraising offering myDonate, a launch which sees it compete with established players JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving in the online sponsorship and fundraising arena.

At an event in central London this morning, BT announced that myDonate, a website which will enable fundraising sponsorship, regular and one-off gifts in the tradition of JustGiving, will funnel 100 per cent of donations to charities.

Unlike JustGiving which charges a £15 monthly fee to charities and takes 5 per cent commission, or Virgin Money Giving which involves a £100 set-up fee and a 2 per cent commission, myDonate will only charge charities credit card processing fees – and that fee is charged at a lower or equal rate to its competitors.

“BT will eat all of those costs,” said Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT at the launch.

Five charities have worked with BT in the development of the site, which goes live today, and a further ten have joined BT as launch partners. BT was keen to stress that the site was a product developed not just for charities, but “by charities”.

Paul Amadi, director of fundraising at NSPCC, one of the charities involved in development, praised myDonate as “BT’s gift to the sector” and said it will make giving online easier, more accessible and more prevalent.

myDonate’s launch into the online sponsorship/fundraising arena makes it a crowded marketplace, following the launch of Virgin Money Giving last year. But BT said its intention is to grow the marketplace, rather than shift donors from site to site.

“It’s not asking people to substitute or switch,” said Donna Young, BT CSR programme director. “Competition in any market is good and it grows the market.”

Young said that the offering forms part of BT’s long term commitment to the charity sector. “We’re in it for the long haul,” she said.

BT will be promoting myDonate throughout the summer with a ‘Festival of Fundraising’ which will involve the service being touted at summer festivals, among other places. But Young said that it would be charities that will drive it.

David Cosham, chief executive of KidsOut, another of the development partners, said that his charity would continue to use JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving, but will be heavily encouraging its own supporters to use the BT service in order to get the maximum donation out of the giving.

Experience from last year, when Virgin Money Giving was for the first-time the preferred fundraising partner of the London Marathon, shows that rather than only draw donations and fundraisers from JustGiving, the arrival of a new player in the market did indeed grow the entire giving pot, albeit just marginally.