Virgin Money Giving has facilitated £100m of donations two and a half years after its launch, the online giving platform has announced.

It has taken more than 2.5 million separate donations and around 4,200 charities have now registered with it. Gift aid has been added to 85.5 per cent of donations. 

Virgin Money Giving was set up in October 2009 to coincide with Virgin Money’s sponsorship of the London Marathon and is the official online sponsorship platform for the event. The 2011 marathon raised more than £51m with £13.88m of that coming through Virgin Money Giving.

The platform operates on a not-for-profit basis, is free for fundraisers but charges charities a £100 plus VAT registration fee and a 2 per cent fee on all donations before gift aid to cover the cost of running the site.

The February issue of Fundraising looked at the rise of the online sponsorship platform and the results of a survey asking fundraisers what they want from a platform will be published in April's edition of the magazine.