How charities are gearing up for the cashless society
When was the last time you gave any cash to a charity? Chances are it was probably a very long time ago now.
The CAF’s 2021 UK Giving Report concluded that just 7% of donors used cash to give to charities in January 2021.
The vast majority of donations are now online, either via direct debits or one off-payments. There is still, however, a big issue for charities is that they have lost a lot of the spontaneous giving that cash used to enable.
That time when you saw a need and reached in your pocket to make a quick contribution.
Give a Little
One company that is attempting to rectify this is Give A Little. The service, which launched in 2019, provides a point-of-donation experience for donors and campaign management for charities to set up their fundraising.
It does this in three ways including a donation station, which is powered by the company’s software, a DIY approach that pairs an Android smartphone or tablet with the Give A Little App and a payment card reader and Online giving powered by QR codes and executed through digital wallets (Apple Pay and/or Google Pay)
Its key clients include Cancer Research UK, London Zoo, and the Church of England.
Saus Give A Little Co-Founder, Ben Stewart:
“We set out to ensure charities, especially the smallest ones, would not be left behind by the acceleration towards a cashless society and it’s a testament to the team’s dedication that we have built such a robust customer base in such a short time, and mainly through word of mouth.
“We designed Give A Little from the outset to easily accommodate changing technology and to integrate with a range of portable and fixed donation points and a choice of payment processors. This allows charities to keep up with the latest innovations while at the same time eliminating technology risks and the inherent costs of change, and helps further by removing the need for staff to be trained as experts.”
“Our unique model as a point-of-donation platform enables us to offer charities reliability and resilience over very long periods of time. We achieve this while also being an affordable way to get started with cashless fundraising. Additionally, we believe strongly in making the donor experience as best as it can possibly be, whether that’s by offering donors a choice of donation amounts or presenting them with a visually engaging campaign screen, and that builds trust with the charity.
Give a Little claims its point-of-donation experience leads to industry-leading average donation values (over £10 for App donations and £40 for Web donations) and has just celebrated reaching £10m in donation revenues.
It’s a significant milestone and one that reflects over 4,000 charities which have made the move to cashless fundraising with the platform, taking payment card donations via contactless, Chip+PIN and online donations. It seems the days of collectors rattling their tins full of cash at you as walk down the High Street are very much on their way out.
