JustTextGiving free mobile donation service makes charity easy

Chuggers beware: we now have another reason not to succumb to your intimidating clipboard of direct debit forms. We can now give to charity from the comfort of our mobile phone keypad, no bank account details required, with JustTextGiving.

Vodafone, fresh from painting the town red, white and blue, has partnered with the online donation service JustGiving to make giving even easier. Any mobile user can donate up to a tenner a time to any registered UK charity, completely free of charge and with nothing taken away from the donation.

It's not just the big charities that will benefit from JustTextGiving. Smaller charities, often unable to benefit from more modern ways of giving due to high setup costs, can easily take donations by registering for a unique code with JustTextGiving and then publicising it. Fully registered charities can even claim back Gift Aid from the government, as they can with JustGiving's sleek online service.

With 184,000 charities in the UK all seeking funds at a time when everyone is tightening their belts, the easier and cheaper it is to let people donate the better. The five in six people who have a mobile is a whopping market to tap into.

From June, individual fundraisers will also be able to use the service, so you can send money to Uncle Jim running his latest half marathon without messing around with sponsorship forms.

The service is not limited to Vodafone customers. Both contract and pre-pay phone users can participate, provided they have enough funds and have paid their mobile bill.

JustTextGiving has many benefits. With mobile and online scams increasing and people's reluctance to give out their financial details, using a single trusted service should encourage users to give without worry. It should also put to bed that nagging feeling that a fundraiser is getting a big signup bonus from your hard-earned cash.

Crave does a lot for charidee; we just don't like to talk about it. How about you?