Last week a very tired Eddie Izzard arrived back in London to complete his 43rd marathon in just 51 days. This staggering feat saw him run across the UK, carrying the respective flag for all 4 nations, and covering a blister inducing 1100 miles. All in aid of Sport Relief, donations were collected on route via a support team and their ice-cream van, as well as through the Sports Relief website. But as with many celebrities Eddie also has a twitter page. He provided constant updates on his progress and his tweets regularly included requests for contributions but then on September 4th the following tweet was posted:
“You can now support me via text if you are in the UK! Details in next tweet. For those abroad you can still donate online http://bit.ly/rKdep.” (www.twitter.com/eddieizzard)
With at least £3.50 from each £5 text (£4.50 from two MNOs) going directly to Sport Relief it offered an easy and quick vehicle for individuals to support a good cause.
Growing popularity
This year, Comic Relief launched a service to enable the donation of £1 or £5 via SMS and this accounted for £7.8m of the event’s £59.2m grand total by 31st March 2009. Furthermore, research published in Charity Magazine in June, estimated that by the year 2013, text donations will account for £100m per year; that’s a lot more people donating through their mobile or perhaps even the company mobile?
Impact on the corporate telecoms bill
In the corporate environment where charitable donations are managed at board level and form part of financial reporting and management accounts, how might this trend impact upon annual reports and the figures detailed within them? How do employers ensure that their employees are not being charitable on their behalf?
Firstly, in business, charitable donations can of course be paid from gross profits as they are deductible when calculating corporation tax. They generally form part of the corporate strategy for an organisation, with funds allocated depending on the availability of profits and any taxable benefits taken advantage of. Employee SMS donations made through a business mobile may remain hidden within their itemised bill and result in an inexact representation of total monies donated and tax relief applied.
Additionally, VAT on any personal expenditure cannot be claimed back through the VAT return and with VAT now waived on SMS charitable donations, to claim against the mobile phone bill without the removal of such items could be doubly erroneous.
Micro-payments of any kind through a mobile device need to be reviewed and allocated to the appropriate cost centre or personal expenditure; failure to do this could see the telecoms budget covering items such as travel, meals, parking charges and even a gift to a charity, all of which could present an inaccurate picture of over-spending on telecommunications.
Increase control and identify savings
Undertaking detailed analysis of all telecoms spend will continue to rise in importance as further mobile devices, applications and services are developed. In an environment demanding cost control and management accountability there has never been a keener time to remain in control of spending.
Whether working in-house or with an expert TCM partner, and with events like Children In Need just around the corner, it’s time to ensure that the donations made to your charity of choice are the only ones for which your organisation is footing the bill. Alternatively a review of any current payroll systems for charitable contributions might offer the opportunity to use SMS instead, providing of course it links back to the employee’s personal expenses. Either way, knowing what has been spent, by whom and from which budget, will guarantee increased control over total telecoms expenditure as well as allowing the identification of potential cost savings; a positive result for any company.
