Justgiving has unveiled a new online platform for staff fundraising in a move the fundraising organisation predicts will boost company fundraising.

The company fundraising ‘tool’ sits within the Justgiving site, but is entirely branded by the company taking part. Employees can create profiles, teams and events from which they can raise money and the site ranks the most successful in each category. The site features a running total of staff fundraising, which companies will be able to match and will enable companies and their staff to support multiple charities.

Civilsociety.co.uk first reported this service was in beta testing in April this year, with about 20 companies using the service in trial stage, but this morning Justgiving launched the service in full to other companies alongside a couple of the early adopters, Barclays and John Lewis. (View the Waitrose company page here) Justgiving said that financial companies were particularly interested in the service.

Anne-Marie Huby, managing director of Justgiving, said: “Employees raise millions of pounds for charity every year but much of this effort takes place offline and gets little recognition. Our belief is that by making staff feel supported and part of a community that is striving for a greater good, we can steer businesses towards closer partnerships with charities and raise even more money.”

Justgiving charges a 5 per cent commission on the entirety of the donation, including gift aid. Howard Bell, business development director, said that companies might want to pay that, so that the whole donation goes directly to charity, but that the charge was necessary for the ongoing development of the site and service. 

This public launch comes just a few days after not-for-profit sector CRM giant Blackbaud announced that it has purchased another online sponsorship platform, Everyday Hero, which in contrast brands sponsorship sites with the charity's imagery.