Giving anywhere: The rise of digital fundraising 'hotspots' and how they work

What’s the appeal of hotspots for Charities?

The convenience of contactless payments means that digital leaders can still raise considerable funds with strategically placed contactless payments devices, even if they don’t offer any form of "reward". For example, Tŷ Hafan, the only children’s hospice in South Wales, raised hundreds of pounds simply by fixing a "tap to pay" device to the front of its Cardiff store which took £3 donations from passers-by for almost three weeks last year.

And cricket charity Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust raised £16,000 in one evening using a contactless payment terminal as a key way for supporters to donate at a fundraising dinner at Lords Cricket Ground with guest speaker Sir John Major last year. The event also included a text number and weblink to offer supporters further ways to donate.

Catching people’s attention

We live in an attention economy. People value charity, but it is another competing interest, and a supporter with a desire to give can quickly be distracted. So hotspots need to capture the eye - and the imagination.

Some charity digital fundraising initiatives aim to attract passers-by to their hotspots with something more eye-catching or unusual than just a simple contactless device, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used bright red "Giving Machines" as part of a global Light the World initiative in 10 cities around the world.

These charity vending machines attract supporters who can then use a contactless card to pay for items such as shoes, textbooks, mosquito nets and chickens which are then purchased and donated to those in need by charities including Glass Door Homeless Charity, Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank, and International Medical Corps. In 2018 the vending machine initiative last year raised £1.8m in 38 days, across five cities.

BBC Children in Need made a different kind of bid for people’s attention by taking its mascot, Pudsey Bear, to create hotspots at 15 of London’s busiest underground stations. Using contactless payment technology, commuters could make an instant £5 donation to the campaign by "high fiving" Pudsey with their contactless card as they went to or from work.

Perhaps the most unusual digital fundraising hotspot seen so far took the form of a Christmas jumper – or thirty of them to be precise. Save the Children teamed up with Visa at Christmas 2018 to create contactless donation jumpers for its annual fundraiser, and thirty volunteers wearing the smart jumpers took donations from members of the public at 16 tube stations on Christmas Jumper Day on 14^th December.