Digital Donations with Smartphones

There are numerous providers capitalising on smartphone technology to collect donations; we have just listed a few and neither is directly endorsed by NICVA Fundraising. 

Contents

• Are smarter phones the future of digital fundraising?
• QR Codes and Text-to-Donate
• Texting to create donor journeys and build relationships

Are smarter phones the future of digital fundraising?

With over 90% of people owning a smartphone, Charlotte Barnard, Customer Success Executive at Supported Giving notes “with the UK adoption of smartphones being this high, charities can’t afford to not include cashless donations as a primary part of their fundraising roster. With Generation Z now having an income stream, an awareness of social issues, and a smartphone in hand - to not accommodate them as potential donors would be near-criminal!” Charlotte discusses two of the digital solutions her company offers below:

QR Codes and Text-to-Donate

Supported Giving 

Supported Giving has a range of fundraising tools including contactless donation terminals through Goodbox as well as QR codes and Text-to-Donate.

• QR Code Donation Solution - donors scan QR codes which you can place on promotional material such as brochures or collection tins. Donations are then processed on your customisable landing and confirmation page. Using the one QR code for its lifetime can give organisations a real time tracking of donations across multiple locations and thus provide valuable insights to fundraising teams as they run campaigns and events.

• Text-to-Donate function offers users a simple SMS based donation solution. Simply choose the amount you wish to collect from donors for each SMS donation, and Supported Giving do the rest.

Supported Giving’s “QR and Text based donation mechanic offers a simple way for charities to collect Gift Aid and 'Opt In' permissions to build long term relationships with your supporters, an essential part of any fundraising strategy” explains Charlotte.  

BOPP 

BOPP allows organisations to create their own QR codes or secure paylinks via the BOPP app or on their online platform. Donors can pay securely in person by simply scanning a BOPP QR code on your device or from the poster you can create on their website. Organisations can also create a Bopp Paylink which can be sent via email or messenger. Donors don’t need the BOPP app to pay - the link will automatically open their banking app, and securely pre-fill the donation details, ready for them to authorise the payment.

BOPP are a donor partner with Charity Digital, so charities and non-profits registered with Charity Digital can receive a 10% discount on plan options.

Texting to create donor journeys and build relationships

Donr

Texting is a simple way to reach your supporters with targeted messages tied to your funding appeals as seen on Channel 4's Stand Up To Cancer and BBC Children in Need. Donr states that the text message marketing has a 98% open rate, compared to 20% for email. Donr's Text Giving can be used to take one-off or recurring donations and they also offer organisations opportunities to build relationships through Donr Text Journeys.

Here you can take your supporters on a journey helping them understand the impact they're having - with regular updates on your charity's achievements. Add richer content with links to audio and video to bring these achievements to life and gain feedback from your supporters. The company have also introduced Text Raffles to run remote raffles while they take care of the required steps for you. 

Letting your supporters know what impact their donation makes and building a relationship with them can be a key step in converting them to other forms of giving, i.e. one-off donation to regular giving. This has traditionally been done through regular postal mailings or emails, but smartphone technology could not only reduce the costs and time of this, but also enhance donor experiences as Good Thyngs (also known as Thyngs) demonstrate in our next resource - Smartphone technology can enhance donor experiences.