Pennies Awards 2026 open for entries, celebrating micro-donation champions

Howard Lake | 30 July 2026 | News

• Tagged with:
• Awards
• microdonations
• Pennies Foundation

Micro-donation charity Pennies has opened entries for its 2026 Awards. These recognise the merchants, technology partners, charities and individuals who are helping to turn small, spare-change donations into significant charitable impact across the UK and beyond.

Now in its seventh year, the awards will be presented on Wednesday 4 November across six categories. The deadline for entries is Wednesday 26 August 2026. Anyone partnered with Pennies, or who has worked with the charity to advance the micro-donation movement, is invited to apply, and organisations may enter multiple categories with a separate submission for each.

Award categories

This year’s categories include the Merchant Impact Award (Worldpay) for a long-standing merchant driving measurable growth in donations; the Technology Impact Award (Nashtech) for a product or integration that enhances micro-giving; and the Merchant Breakthrough Award (Taggstar) for newer partners who have made an early impact within their first 12 months.

The Power of Partnership Award (Intuit) recognises non-merchant, non-tech collaborations delivering results, while the Unsung Hero Award (Experian) honours individuals or teams working behind the scenes. A sixth category, the Outstanding Achievement Award, is not open to nominations; its winner is instead drawn from the strongest applications to the first three awards.

Pennies has itself also been shortlisted in four categories at the Charity Times Awards 2026, recognising its work making digital giving simple and accessible.

In November 2025 the organisation marked its 15th anniversary at its annual Autumn Celebration in London, having facilitated £75 million in micro-donations to date.

Microdonation week

Next month Pennies will be highlighting the power and potential of microdonations in Microdonation Week, which runs from 31 August to 6 September.

Full details and the entry form for the awards are available on the Pennies website.

• Fifth annual Pennies Awards opens for nominations (27 June 2024)
  
• The Entertainer hits £1mn mark with Pennies partnership (2 December 2015)
  
• New digital platform raises microdonations from social media posts (14 January 2021)

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.