70% of UK charities reported a decrease in their cash donations over the past three years.  What’s going on? Have we Brits stopping caring about causes?

No, but we’re carrying less cash. The government is estimating that by 2026 only 21% of all financial transactions will be in cash, down from over 60% in 2006.

Today if I want to do anything like buy lunch, catch a bus, or go to a movie I don’t have to part with a penny. All I do is tap my bank card or phone on a point of sale device and I’m done. And this isn’t some whacky novelty, it’s an everyday consumer experience.

So, you’d expect UK charities, with their well-earnt reputation for innovation, are adopting these systems in droves right? Wrong.   Three-quarters of all UK charities said they haven’t used contactless systems to take donations.  Sure, committees and task forces are putting together feasibility studies, looking at the systems. But they haven’t actually gotten to it yet (yes, we’ve dropped 70%, but let’s not be too hasty, maybe this wheel gizmo won’t catch on?)

As Stephanie Siddall, Institute of Fundraising policy manager, said:

“Looking at the feedback from IoF members, the direction of travel is clear – charities already seeing a decrease in the percentage of donations given in cash, they expect the decrease to continue and the majority think that they will be using contactless payments in the near future.”

Like Roger wrote of PayPal, you can see a future where this is a way of taking donations that charities are expected to have.  Unlike PayPal, however, it isn’t good for transactions where you are already online (yet).

But adopting contactless processing isn’t just technology for technology’s sake.  For example, street, door to door and private site fundraisers all benefit from making signing up for recurring donations easier.  And live events could benefit from these systems to help with silent auctions, ticket purchases, and the like.

But there’s another intriguing possibility – the human-less contactless donation.  Witness what Safer Off the Streets is doing in Bristol.  They have on-the-street advertisements that encourage people to make a two-pound donation with their contactless payment processor of choice.

This is one of many innovative efforts:

• Blue Cross is putting contactless processing ON DOGS
• Cancer Research UK is giving free WiFi and allowing contactless donations at pedestrian benches
• National Museums Scotland is using kiosks both to make the pitch and take a donation
• The Church of England has created digital collection plates

Doubtless we’ll see all kinds of copycat campaigns launch in the not too distant future. But let’s hope we don’t make the same mistake with contactless that we’ve made with every other way of giving. Let’s not confuse how people can give with why they’d want to give.

Contactless won’t replace canvassing – persuasion is an important part of getting someone to make a longer-term commitment.   But this does offer a significant behavioral science advantage.  People give more when they don’t feel the psychic pain of giving up cash.  Sure enough, in trials, people tend to give three times as much with contactless technology than with cash.

So, perhaps contactless will finally help ween British fundraisers off the broken ‘recruit on a low-value gift and chase for an upgrade’ model. Maybe now we don’t need to patronize and/or frustrate people by telling them “just £X a month can save the whale/feed the hungry/find a cure…” only to hound those who say yes for more because it can’t.

That said, my understanding is there isn’t as much experimentation with contactless technology in North America.  Agitator US, and World, can anyone tell us about tests you’ve conducted with this new technology?

Charlie