Learn more about how you can use tap+DONATE™ contactless on #givingtuesday

20% discount offered to givingtuesday partners

Recent figures from Payments UK show cash usage continuing to fall away – from 24% of all transactions in 2015 to a predicted 15% of all transactions by 2025. At the same time contactless is growing by the day with a projected 900% increase from 911 million transactions in 2015 to 10.1 billion in 2025! Or, to put it another way, contactless will account for 47% of all debit card transactions by 2025.

We commissioned YouGov last year to look at how much cash the nation holds and the picture is much the same – 70% of us hold less than £30, 60% of us hold less than £20; a picture that is pretty well constant across the UK regions. For those fundraisers who have been used to shaking buckets and counting notes, coins and buttons in their Perspex boxes things are a-changing …for the good.

Consider five £1 coins in your collecting bucket – was that one person or three people or five who put those coins there? Did you collect Gift Aid on the donation (or try to using the Government’s Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme) and how do you plan to stay in touch with the donor? What did it cost you to count, account and bank the £28.61, the €5 euro note and the ¥100 coin?

Digital fundraising (text, web, contactless including ApplePay) provide new and relevant channels to collect donations beyond cash. And, the good news is that when giving digitally, average donations are higher, more Gift Aid is claimed and opted-in contact details easier to collect.

Up to now though the time needed to research, and the cost to implement, these varying channels has been prohibitive. That’s why we set up a charity to offer the DONATE™ platform to all UK charities.

What is interesting though is to consider which of the various channels best fits a fundraising scenario. We’ve found that at lectures and talks text works best – simple to use and easy to communicate. At dinners and lunches, mobile-web giving raises more and donors are more likely to have the time to add Gift Aid and provide contact details. Finally, contactless is best when asking for promiscuous donations – when crowds are passing quickly through or time is short (commuters, foyer traffic or outdoor trails).

And now #givingtuesday partners can benefit from this new technology, with DONATE™, the UK’s mobile donation platform offering 2017 partner charities a reduced sign-up rate (from £250 to £199) for their newly launched contactless tap+DONATE™ units.

Working with Barclaycard the tap+DONATE™ tins can be either rented or bought by charities and allow donors to tap their debit or credit card (or enabled phones) on the device to give a fixed donation. A handy chip+PIN slot allows for larger amounts to be given and each unit can be branded. Over 700 charities are now part of DONATE™ and use the platform to raise funds in a wide variety of ways; from text donations to raffles, ticketing and silent auctions. Run by charity National Funding Scheme, DONATE™ is registered with the Fundraising Regulator providing extra assurance to participating partners.

To sign up and take advantage of this offer, #givingtuesday charities are asked to go to download their specific order form via this link. More general product information and FAQs are here: http://www.nationalfundingscheme.org/our-services-costs/our-services/ 

Written by William Makower, founding trustee of the National Funding Scheme