7 giving apps to consider
Melanie May | 14 July 2021 | News
Giving apps range from those that round up the pennies and donate them to the user’s chosen cause, to apps that enable people to sell items and donate the proceeds to charity. Here are 7 to consider.
Sustainably
Now supporting over 40 charities, including Macmillan, Shelter, British Heart Foundation, Social Bite and The Rainforest Trust, Sustainably lets people give to their chosen good causes by rounding up cashless transactions and donating spare change automatically each time they shop. It also takes care of Gift Aid automatically.
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Charities can access data insights about their supporters’ shopping trends, and upload images, videos and stories showing supporters how their donations are making a difference.
The app connects to the user’s bank to securely round up spare change to the nearest £1. People just have to choose the cause they want to support, connect their bank to calculate the round-ups, and add a payment card to make donations. Users can change the date, amount or charity at any time.
Charities can join for free until 31 July. Sustainably charges a small fee per donating supporter per month and there is also payment fee per transaction to Stripe. The app is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and uses TrueLayer to connect securely to the user’s bank through Open Banking.
Kindred
Social enterprise Kindred was created to boost charitable donations through everyday purchases, and supports over 20,000 charities and causes. With over 30,000 brands on its website and extension, users can shop online, find offers, earn cashback and donate a percentage of that cash back to a chosen charity. In the last six months Kindred has helped to raise over £475K for good causes.
Users can now earn cash back and donate to charity, from their mobile phones, laptops and tablets by downloading the Kindred App, complete the onboarding steps and activating the Kindred Keyboard, then go to your mobile browser. As they search for a brand or website on their mobile browser, they have to click on the quick links displayed for them in the results ribbon.
Eligible purchases will earn cash back that is deposited straight into the user’s Kindred wallet. When they’re ready, they can withdraw their cash earnings to PayPal, and least 1% of their cash back goes to their chosen charity. There’s also the option to increase this up to 100%.
Thrift+
Thrift+ is on a mission to make second-hand clothes first choice and has just passed a milestone of £1m raised for charity.
To re-sell with Thrift+, customers order a ThriftBag, fill it up, and return for free. After Thrift+ fees (33%, with a £5 minimum), the remainder is split between a charitable donation and credits to spend on second-hand fashion (or people can donate all their earnings if they choose).
Every time a customer buys something on Thrift+, they are raising money for a charity chosen by the seller, and Thrift+ can direct funds towards any charity that is registered on the Charity Commission website.
In the past year, Thrift+ has supported 3,912 charities, and uploaded 299,008 items of clothing.
Roundups
Roundups allows you to automatically donate pennies as you spend, by rounding up your card payments to the nearest 10p, 50p or £1.00, and donating the pennies to a good cause.
App users can set a weekly cap, choose the cause, and track their donations to see the impact their pennies are having, and Roundups works by linking to the user’s bank account or credit card, reading what they’ve spent and debiting penny donations accordingly.
It charges 5% of user donations to cover transaction costs and keep the platform going. This is a bit less than the actual costs, according to Roundups, as it subsidises the payment processing fees by 1p on every £5 donation. It also does not charge charities or schools any other fees.
To join Roundups, charities just have to complete a short form to build their profile and Roundups will get in touch with the next steps.
Buengo
With Buengo, sellers can sell items they don’t want anymore and donate the proceeds to a cause of their choice, choosing an existing campaign to support or starting their own. Then, when someone buys something they pay in the app and the money is transferred directly to the cause, with the seller just having to get the item to the buyer.
It has just been revamped and relaunched, with new services for donors, and no more fees for charities with its peer to peer model. 100% of the selling price will now go to the chosen cause, and instead, buyers have the option to “tip” Buengo up to 15% on top to cover costs and support the platform.
Buengo has also introduced a directory of local places where donors can directly drop off items to be sold on their behalf for the benefit of their chosen charity. This is starting with local charity shops, but in time will be anyone nominated as an agent by the charity. It will also be launching a service where donated items can be boxed up sent to its own facility where Buengo will handle the sale of the item on behalf of the donor.
Some 90 causes have signed up to the app so far.
Pledjar
When someone with the Pledjar app makes a purchase, Pledjar rounds it up to the nearest pound, and at the end of each week, the user can donate their accumulated round ups to charity. Pledjar also helps with Gift Aid processing by passing on 100% of the donation so Gift Aid can be charged on all of it, before charging 10% of the original amount.
Pledjar supports over 150 charities and users have full control over which they donate to, with the ability to switch from one to another whenever they like.
Charities can register with Pledjar to appear as a choice on the app, and it’s also possible to purchase a charity code to boost your profile. A charity portal provides data that can be used for tracking, forecasting and trendspotting, and Pledjar currently charges charities nothing, leaving just a transaction fee. When it does start charging at the end of this month, fees will be based on how much a charity raises, rather than per user. It’s also FCA approved.
Ziffit
Ziffit provides a way for people to sell their books, DVDs, CDs, & games online, and has now partnered with Virgin Money Giving to allow users of its app to donate 100% of the value of their unwanted books, CDs, DVDs, and games to a charity of their choice. People just have to enter their ISBNs and EANs or scan in the barcodes of their books and media using the Ziffit app to find out how much their stuff could be worth to good causes.
Ziffit will accept books, CDs, DVDs, and games with a combined minimum value of £5 (or a minimum of 10 items). There’s no maximum limit to how much can be donated. Because it’s working with Virgin Money Giving, charities must be registered with them in order to appear. Then, when the user selects ‘donate’ at checkout, they can select one of the charities available.
Charities registered with Virgin Money Giving can add Ziffit.com as a donation method on their website, and Ziffit has a toolkit of banners, graphics, and posters that can be shared in emails, on social media, and in charity shops to help encourage supporters to #DeclutterandDonate.
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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.