Bmycharity to close after failure to find new investment

Fundraising website Bmycharity is to close in ten days’ time if new investment can’t be found.

Bmycharity, which provides online donation services for individuals and charities including Help for Heroes and Children with Leukaemia, will stop taking new donations from the end of next week, with the site to close fully two weeks later if it can’t secure new funding.

The company, founded in 2001, is one of the pioneers in online fundraising in the UK and says it has raised more than £28m for charities.

However, in the last year the online fundraising space has become more crowded, not least with the launch of Virgin Money Giving as part of Virgin’s London Marathon sponsorship.

Bmycharity dropped commission charges for charities last year, funding its operations through corporate sponsorship. But co-founder Ben Brabyn said it has struggled to find investment to help it grow and recently saw a proposed funding deal fall through.

Speaking on the Bmycharity blog, Brabyn said: “For some time we have been seeking additional resources to help us to develop our system, grow our team and engage with charities and corporate sponsors to support this growth. We are a two man team with no external investors in a market increasingly characterised by companies with scores of employees and multi-million-pound backing.

“Our search for investment has been unsuccessful, culminating in the failure of a proposed deal in the last few days. Sso the time has come for us to withdraw our service,” he added. “We regret the inconvenience this will cause to our users and clients.”

Bmycharityy has also move to reassure all charities that they’ll recieve money raised through the site by the end of April.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk