Text donation to charity was worth £122m in 2015 and is projected to grow to £129m this year, according to the premium rate regulator’s annual market report.
Overall charity donations accounted for 18 per cent of the total consumer transactions over the last period, making it the single largest premium rate services (PRS) market in the UK.
The research also showed that charities are “the most trusted service operating in the PRS market”.
PhonePay Plus said that the increase in growth was all the more impressive, given that “there have been fewer high profile viral campaigns” such as the Ice Bucket Challenge in the last year. PhonePay Plus instead put this increase down to “underlying organic growth as opposed to social media driven activity”.
The regulator also said that larger charities in particular are “increasingly replacing £3 with £5 as their default payment value” and that charities and consumers alike are adopting “ a subscription model as a means to donate via phone bills” on a regular basis.
The number of people who donated to charity by text in the last year was estimated to be 5.8 million, around 9 per cent of the total population of the UK. That is roughly the same amount as donated the previous year.
The figures for PhonePay Plus’s review can be read in full here. The figures cover the financial year 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016.
Jo Prowse, chief executive of PhonePay Plus, said: “The growth of charity text giving over the last few years shows the positive work that can be achieved when charities, providers, networks and the regulator work together.
“Regulatory flexibility, such as the ‘Skip’ command, which allow you to miss a payment without stopping future donations, provide increased choice for donors and ongoing support for charitable causes.
“We will continue to work with charities and the broader PRS industry to support positive innovation which is good for consumers and the industry.”
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