Average contactless donation reaches £6.15 through Tap for Change
Melanie May | 25 September 2018 | News
People in the UK give an average of £6.15 when making a contactless donation through a Tap for Change box, according to new figures.
Earnest rolled out Tap For Change earlier this year, following a pilot in 2016 with Mary’s Meals and the development of a scalable secure payment platform with charity payment partner LibertyPay, In the last three months, Tap For Change boxes, which charities can set to offer a choice of amounts and customise to include their design and logo, have been used to make 16,250 charitable donations, with an average donation of £6.15.
Royal Trinity Hospice in London has seen a five-fold increase in donations since it replaced static collection tins with 10 Tap For Change terminals in its hospice and across supporting retail partners, which have placed a terminal by their tills.
Alessandra Novelli, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Royal Trinity Hospice said:
“Tap For Change has transformed our fundraising. It’s been easy for everyone in our team to manage the boxes and explain to people visiting Trinity how they work. It would take years to raise the same amount from people emptying their pockets of loose change, and it would require a logistical army to collect and bank those donations.
“The technology has also allowed us to successfully approach high street partners where customers don’t handle cash, such as travel agents and estate agents. Those partners would have previously been reluctant to host a coin collection box.”
Tap For Change is now preparing to launch a ‘sponsor a box’ option for corporate partners, community groups or individuals who want to support a local charity by giving them the ability to take contactless donations and receive reports on how much their box has raised.
James Wood, Head of Earnest Labs, which developed Tap for Change, said:
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“Our idea was to create an effortless way for charities to take contactless donations and, by so doing, help them to increase the number of regular, small donations from the general public.
“Neurological research has shown that the frequency of charitable donations increases when the ventral striatum – the part of the brain connected with reward – is engaged, so Tap For Change responds to every successful tap with an audio-visual acknowledgement to thank each person for their donation.
“Tap For Change embeds behavioural science principles into contactless payment technology to deliver a one-stop-shop for any charities both large and small who want to be up and running with contactless donations quickly.”
Main image: Tap for Change contactless donation box in Royal Trinity Hospice cafe.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.