There are three main elements to maximising your charity’s donations: payment methods, collection locations and data capture, allowing you to re-market in the future.
Let’s look at each of them in more detail…
Payment Methods
There has been much talk recently about us moving towards a cashless society - a trend that has been accelerated by shops adopting ‘no-cash’ policies under COVID restrictions and by the rapid growth of contactless payments and mobile phone payment systems like Google Pay and Apple Pay.
A British report published last year - based on 2019 figures, before the influence of COVID restrictions and before phone payments had taken hold - showed that even then fewer than one in four payments were made with cash.
Almost one in seven of the population was already living a cashless life (defined as either not using notes and coins at all, or only once a month). And when you look at the 16-34 age group, that figure dropped to one in four.
But charity collections traditionally rely on people dropping their loose change, or ‘shrapnel’, into the collection bucket. So if increasingly few people are carrying any cash, how can you make it easier for them to donate?
Simply by making it easier to donate using their favoured means of payment.
By displaying a QR Code (one of those squares made up lots of little squares - essentially a more efficient version of the barcode) on donation boxes, buckets, banners and flyers, you can invite people to scan the code and donate quickly and easily using their phone pay system, card or bank transfer.
Collection Locations
We all know some locations are better than others for collecting donations - but which ones are best?
By allocating a different QR Code to each location, you can keep track, in real time, of which collector is bringing in the most cash.
It’s a great way to keep an eye on how the day’s collections are going - and it provides invaluable information when choosing locations for future campaigns.
Data Capture
When donations are made through the platform, you can capture the donators’ details and, with their permission, target them again in future campaigns.
But the great news is that the trend towards cashless donations means you can now also log the details of people who donate in the street using a QR Code.
Obviously again with the donators’ permission - easily requested and given during the online transaction - you can capture their details and instantly add it to a database for future email shots.
So, what's the next step?
Sign up now to take advantage of this great charity donation growth hack. Pay yearly and it costs just £10 a month (saving you £60) and includes the generation of your QR Code, or Codes, which is all done for you in seconds.
