A round up of round up (& micro-donation) solutions

Melanie May | 10 March 2021 | News

• Tagged with:
• cashless payment
• microdonations
• rounding up

With the use of cash already diminishing before the pandemic, and people now actively encouraged to use contactless payments in shops, round up and micro-donation solutions can be a good way for charities to raise donations through consumers rounding up transactions and donating the surplus or adding (and then donating) an extra, small, amount to their payment.

Here’s a round up of some of the till point and app solutions available, from Pennies to Thinking of You.
 

Pennies

Till point micro-donation platform Pennies works with retailers including The Entertainer, Domino’s, and Screwfix and gives customers the opportunity to make a small, one-touch donation when paying by card or digital wallet with a partner retailer, whether instore or online. It’s raised £25m for charities so far through over 100m small change donations.

With Pennies, retailers must have the potential to raise at least £10,000 in a year using the digital charity box, meaning they will need to have several stores or a popular online store. Pennies can also be implemented in charities’ own shops and online stores.

There are no set-up or ongoing costs and the retailer’s staff don’t need to do anything, leaving it up to the customer every time to decide if they want to add a donation. There is also no charge to the charity for using Pennies – instead the retailer donates a small percentage of its customer donations.

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO of Pennies says:

“In line with the increasing speed of adoption of digital services in the retail and hospitality sectors, exacerbated by the pandemic, charities need to pivot – and quickly – to ‘digital first’ means of raising income. We know that digital micro-donations can contribute to charities’ ability to dramatically scale the income they can raise through UK consumers’ much-loved ad-hoc giving.


“Last year our donation volumes showed a 6% year on year increase – despite 80% of our partners’ doors being shut to consumers for much of the year. This is strong evidence of the UK public’s desire to give back to their communities; they are seeking easy, intuitive ways to do so.”

Roundups

Roundups, as the name suggests, also rounds up people’s card payments and donates them to the user’s chosen non-profit organisation. Users of the app can choose to round up their payments to 10p, 50p or £1, and can set a weekly cap. When the rounded up money reaches £5, Roundups initiates a donation of that amount from the user’s account.

To cover costs, it takes 5% of all donations. Charities easily add themselves to the app by filling in an online form to build their profile with Roundups then getting in touch to continue the process. 

GoPoolit

GoPoolit raises funds for good causes by monetising social media posts into micro-donations. Instead of prompting users to post ‘asks’ and lobby for funds on behalf of charities, GoPoolit users are encouraged to use the GoPoolit app or website to share posts over their usual social media networks and nominate a charity to benefit. Instead of a ‘like’, those on GoPoolit have the option of giving (or ‘pooling’) between 1-10p to that post, and therefore the charity it supports. The more viral users go, the more opportunity to raise micro-donations. Users can nominate a different charity for each post if they want to.

People can ask GoPoolit to include causes, and charities themselves can contact GoPoolit and request that they are added.There is no upfront cost for charities to join the platform, but GoPoolit does have a service charge when funds are withdrawn to help it cover costs. Funds can be withdrawn however at any time. 

Pledjar

Pledjar offers a free app to enable people to donate. When someone with the app makes a purchase, Pledjar rounds it up to the nearest pound. 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. Charities can register with Pledjar to appear as a choice for users, and it’s also possible to purchase a charity code to boost your profile on the app.

There is also a charity portal, providing data that can be used for tracking, forecasting and trendspotting, and there are no monthly fees – just the 10% transaction fee.

Pledjar CEO Mujtaba Jaffer says:

“Everyone is hurting from COVID at the moment and micro-donations are a great and easy way to acquire new and regular donations without any financial risk to the charity or lifestyle change to the user. Today, people are looking for quick and easy ways to do things, and donating should be no different. Donors are motivated to use micro-donating platforms that are digital, effortless, support a variety of charities, and most importantly, are safe and secure. Financial technology is moving at a fast pace and the third sector should not be left behind.”

Adyen Giving

Global payment platform Adyen Giving enables retailers to collect micro-donations for charities online, in-app and in-store and takes on the all costs of the donation transactions itself for charities supporting at least one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Retailers can choose which charity they want to support, and set up Adyen Giving by store, region, terminal or URL domain.

It gives a fully localised experience including language and payment method options with 100% of the donation going to the chosen charity with charities paid directly by Adyen Giving and the retailer getting a full transparent overview of contributions.

Sustainably

The Sustainably app gives people two options for giving: rounding up their spare change to the nearest £1, or giving monthly donations. With the round up option, people choose the cause they want to support, securely connect their bank, and add a payment card to make donations. To calculate the round ups Sustainably uses a secure tool called TrueLayer to connect to the user’s bank through Open Banking. To give monthly, people choose the cause they want to support and how much they want to give every month, and add a payment card to make donations. The date, amount or cause can be changed at any time and charities can withdraw funds at any time.

Sustainably also helps with Gift Aid claims by dealing with HMRC so the payments go straight into the charity’s account. It also provides a monthly report with anonymised insights into a cause’s supporters, how they give and their shopping trends, and enables charities to share the impact of donations through instant updates showcasing activities and campaigns. Businesses can also give through Sustainably by match donating in real time with customers and employees using hyper-localised and personalised real time CSR.

Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven lets employees donate the pennies from their payslip, up to the nearest pound, to charity. No one donates more than 99p, and the scheme can benefit any charity. Employers sign up and decide which charity they want to support – either one or a number that all employees give to.

mployees are invited to join the scheme and donate their small change. Once signed up the pennies are automatically deducted every month. 550,000,000 pennies have been donated so far and there are no fees for charities.

Charities can introduce Pennies from Heaven to their corporate partners and connections as an additional way to support them. Pennies from Heaven can provide support in introducing the concept and will help corporates set up and administer the scheme. Gift Aid can also be claimed on Pennies from Heaven donations adding an additional 25%.

Thinking of You

The Thinking of You app lets people donate easily from their mobile, with a number of options including sending a thought and optionally donating in the moment to their charity of choice. Users of the app can also donate directly to charities and during the current pandemic, Thinking of You is donating its 2.5% operating fee back to the charities on it. There are also no monthly fees or service charges for charities to be on the app.
 
 

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.