Tech & supplier update – what’s new for the charity sector
Melanie May | 6 July 2022 | News
Facebook has just launched Nonprofit Manager, while Monzo has launched a new feature to faciliate in-app donations, and Knight Frank has partnered with Currensea to offer its staff a branded debit card with opportunities to donate to Surfers Against Sewage. All this and more below.
Knight Frank offers employees company branded credit card with charity donation options
Property consultancy Knight Frank is offering its 2,220 UK employees a company branded debit card that provides opportunities to donate to charity whilst also saving them money.
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The open banking-enabled debit card is linked to existing bank accounts and has been created by Currensea. Benefitting Surfers Against Sewage, it has been made available to all UK Knight Frank employees as part of an updated benefits package, coinciding with the appointment of William Beardmore-Gray as new Chairman. It is also Currensea’s first corporate partnership, and the latest in its ‘powered by’ programme, which allows businesses and charities to issue branded cards for users to roundup UK spending and convert savings made on overseas spending into charity donations. Other charity partnerships include St Martin-in-the-Fields.
The card provides access to foreign exchange rates at 0% to 0.5% above the base rate. According to Currensea, with high street banks typically charging 3-5% per transaction abroad, this offers users savings of at least 85% on every overseas transaction. Users can then opt to donate all or part of these savings.
Knight Frank employees will also be able to donate by rounding up spending to the nearest 5p in the UK. All donations will go to Surfers Against Sewage, and Gift Aid can be added on top. With the average charitable donation using the Currensea card up to £30, it says total annual donations could exceed £66,000 if all Knight Frank’s UK employees opt for the card in their benefits package.
James Lynn, Co-Founder of Currensea, said:
“Knight Frank’s new employee benefits package is a great example of how organisations can introduce initiatives that encourage employees to support vital causes close to their hearts, whilst also saving money themselves. A branded card also provides a unique marketing benefit for Knight Frank, showcasing the firm and employee engagement through spend.”
“This is our first corporate partnership since the launch of ‘powered-by’ and we’re very excited to work alongside Knight Frank to create a staff benefit unique to the UK.”
Monzo launches Charity Donations to facilitate in-app giving
In response to customer feedback. Monzo has launched a new feature called Charity Donations, enabling people to donate to a range of causes directly in the app.
Monzo is launching with eight charities: the Trussell Trust, Stonewall Housing, MyBnk, GiveDirectly, Surviving Economic Abuse, Teenage Cancer Trust, Muslim Hands, and the Sickle Cell Society. There is a special focus on the Trussell Trust due to the cost-of-living crisis, and Monzo will also be adding more charities on an ongoing basis based on customer feedback.
Customers will be able to set up a one-off or recurring donation to charities all within the app. From time-to-time Monzo will also highlight different causes by shining a spotlight on specific charities. 100% of all donations made through the app will go directly to the charities, with no minimum donation. Customers will be able to set up payments to multiple charities.
Customers will also have complete visibility over what they donate, showing their total number of donations, total amount donated and average amount donated.
Sujata Bhatia, Chief Operating Officer at Monzo, said:
“Donating to charitable causes is something our customers care deeply about and they’ve asked us to make it possible directly from the Monzo app. Listening to customers and giving them the tools to manage their entire financial lives in one place is at the heart of what we do. So now, alongside all the features that help them with having visibility and control over their day-to-day saving and spending, they can also support some of their favourite charities.”
Facebook launches Nonprofit Manager
Nonprofit Manager is a new dedicated space for nonprofit organisations on Facebook.
An interface directly accessible from the bookmark menu, it is designed to support nonprofits by providing insights on campaign performance and making engaging with supporters easier, all from one location.
Nonprofit Manager enables users to:
- Get recommended actions to help maintain momentum on fundraising campaigns
- Quickly access fundraising insights, donation reports, FAQs and more
- View notifications about new features, onboarding status and payouts
Nonprofit Manager also lets users instantly encourage supporters fundraising on their behalf, and react or comment directly on their donation posts. There’s also the ability to connect directly with opted-in supporters for interactions via Messenger.
A new set of filters enables users to organise their lists of supporters by activity, and to segment lists to facilitate sending the right messages to the right audience.
To access the Nonprofit Manager, nonprofits must have transitioned their Nonprofit Facebook Page to the recently announced New Page Experience. Then they have to connect to Facebook via their desktop as the feature is not currently available on mobile devices, log onto Facebook and switch to their nonprofit Page account.
Once there, the Nonprofit Manager can be accessed in one of three ways:
– Find and click on it from the left Bookmark menu
– From the Professional Dashboard, under either ‘Tools to try’ or ‘Your tools’
– Enter “Nonprofit Manager” in the search bar, or use the address www.facebook.com/nonprofit-manager
PayPoint launches PayPoint Donate
Following the appointment of Jason Levy to lead its Strategic Development and Partnership plans in the charity sector, digital payments firm PayPoint has announced the launch of PayPoint Donate.
PayPoint Donate provides charities and their supply partners with an integrated single platform to support the acquisition of donors and reconciliation of payments and donations.
Its creation is part of the organisation’s intention to ensure its range of recently released digital solutions, including Open Banking, Pay-By-Link, Cash Out and e-vouchers, benefit the charity sector. It is also encouraging its 28,000 strong retailer platform to offer their customers the choice of donating.
Jason Levy, Charities Strategic Development and Partnerships Lead at PayPoint said:
“By partnering with PayPoint Donate as a single or multi-channel provider of acquisition and donation reconciliation services, charities can and will benefit from simplified integration, market-leading innovations and exemplary customer support. In addition, our digital payment channels are ISO and PCI DSS compliant giving them and those that donate to them, peace of mind.”
The Access Group acquires volunteer management software provider
The Access Group has announced the acquisition of DutySheet Ltd, trading as Assemble and DutySheet, a provider of cloud-based volunteer management software to hundreds of charities and public sector organisations.
The business will be incorporated into The Access Group’s Non-Profit and Education division, which delivers software that supports over 10,000 public sector, charity and educational organisations in the UK and Ireland.
Adding Assemble, DutySheet’s volunteering solution for the charity sector, to Access’s software offering, is the latest in a series of solutions for nonprofits in the UK following the launch of Access Workspace for Charities.
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.