Charities: Are you missing out on donations due to the timing of your Direct Debit Collections?

Delaying collections of Direct Debits can soon add up to loss of revenue, especially if you aren’t using AUDDIS or have not optimised your collection schedule.  Most supporters will be happy to start their donations at the earliest opportunity but all too often an organisations’ processes can cause unnecessary delays which have a significant negative impact on the amount of overall revenue that a charity collects.

Let’s look at two contrasting scenarios to assess the potential impact in numbers. In this case the supporter is prepared to contribute £10 per month by Direct Debit and will continue to do so until the same date the following year.

Charity “A” is not on AUDDIS and only offers one collection date on the 1^st of the month.

Charity “B” is using Paperless Direct Debit and AUDDIS and offers its supporter any collection date within the month.

As Charity “A” is not on AUDDIS it has to wait the minimum 10 working days before presenting a collection of a new donation by Direct Debit, (typically 14/15 days in total). Most organisations in this position impose a cut off date upon themselves, typically around the 15^th of the month, for presentation on the 1^st of the following month. If a new supporter posted a Direct Debit Instruction on the 14^th of January and it arrived after the cut off date (the 15^th January ), the first collection would then occur on the 1^st of March.

Charity “B” is registered for AUDDIS and Paperless Direct Debit.  The supporter calls up by telephone on the 14^th of January and is happy for the 1^st collection to be taken on the 21^st January with subsequent collections to take place on the 1^st of each month thereafter, i.e. February AND March 1st.

By the 2^nd of March, Charity “A” has collected £10 and Charity “B” has collected £30. If the supporter has agreed to be signed up until the following January, then charity “A” will have a total of £100 as compared to Charity B, which has collected £120.

Whilst the difference will not be as great as a 20% increase in all cases, improving collection timings or migrating to AUDDIS could have a big impact on the value of an individual’s gift.

If your organisation wants to eliminate unnecessary delays through improved knowledge or implementing AUDDIS or Paperless Direct Debit then get in touch with us now to learn more about how we are able to help.