Does Tom Moore’s family business Maytrix Group profit from fundraising? Fact Check
Rumours online claim that a portion of the money raised from Colonel Tom Moore’s charity walk for the NHS will go to a company called Maytrix Group Ltd. which is owned by Moore’s family.
FALSE
An example of the claim can be seen below.
Captain Tom and his charity walk has raised 15.5 million with over 750,000 people donating nice.. now read the small print.. for every donation the charity organisers take 1.98% off the fee plus 20p per each donation. Then if you request gift aid they take 5% of the gift aid before passing it on..
So let’s do a few maths.
1.98% of the nearly 16 million he has raised is approx. £300k then 750,000 x 20p is another £150k so far there’s nearly 3 million in gift aid which the charity company takes 5% another £150k.
So in total the charity organisers have made £600,000 Not bad eh..
From what I can gather the charity organisers on just giving I believe are called maytrix… Oh the people who own-set up maytrix is only captain toms daughter and son in law… funny old world ain’t it… I’ve sent it off to piers Morgan but I’m sure I won’t get a reply as he’s pushing for Tom to be knighted.
What’s true? Tom Moore’s family members work for a company called Maytrix Group, of which two are currently listed as directors. It was this business that originally set up the JustGiving page, offering to donate £1 to the NHS for each time Tom Moore travelled the length of his garden.
What’s false? Mayrtix Group do not profit from the campaign, nor do they receive any portion of the money donated. The processing fees mentioned in the rumours are taken by JustGiving, mostly for processing fees incurred, as we have previously explained in a debunk here.
During the coronavirus pandemic, army veteran Tom Moore walked 100 lengths of his garden to raise money for the NHS. As his campaign – using the JustGiving platform – went viral, he managed to raise (at the time of writing) over £30 million.
However, unfortunately, some misinformation has spread through social media concerning his charitable campaign. Previously we dismissed exaggerated claims that the JustGiving platform were taking a sizeable cut from the money raised for profit. (In reality, the platform were taking a small 1.9% fee which largely covered payment processing costs, which are not free. Our full article is here.)
Another claim that followed shortly after is the claim that Tom Moore’s own family business stood to make hundreds of thousands of pounds off the campaign. This is entirely false, and the message above makes a number of factual errors.
The message above claims the “charity organisers” take a 1.98% cut from all donations made, and then continues to identify the “charity organiser” as the Maytrix Group, the company of which Moore’s family members are listed as directors. However this is false since in the context of the message, the “charity organiser” is actually JustGiving.
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And as we have previously explained, while JustGiving do take a 1.9% fee (not 1.98%) from donations to cover costs that are incurred by the platform. (JustGiving used to take a self-funding percentage from all donations, but this was scrapped in 2019 in favour of a voluntary contribution system.) It is JustGiving that also takes 5% from any Gift Aid contributions.
None of the money is given back to Tom Moore, his family, or the business in which his family are directors. Money donated is sent straight to JustGiving, who then distribute the money to the relevant charity. In this case, the Association of NHS Charities.
As such, the Maytrix Group is not the “charity organiser” – at least not in the context given in the rumour. It was the Maytrix Group who originally set up the JustGiving page that ultimately went so viral. The original description of the JustGiving page stated that the Maytrix Group would donate £1 for each length of the garden that Tom Moore walked. However as the page began to spread so rapidly and so many different people also began to donate, this was changed. But of course, as we previously mentioned, the people or entities that set up a JustGiving page are not [at any point] given the money raised, nor any portion of it.
Another similar confused claim states that JustGiving is affiliated or owned by the Maytrix Group. This is false. JustGiving is owned by Blackbaud. There is no connection between JustGiving and the Maytrix Group.
As such, any claim that Tom Moore’s family will directly profit from the NHS fundraising campaign is false.