‘s tech is bringing charities into the future聽with contactless donations
The end is nigh for cash.聽According to UK Finance, card payments outstripped cash for the first time in 2017, and it looks like 鈥榗ashlessness鈥� is here to stay.聽GoodBox is the start-up聽helping charities embrace digital payments. Today in London, GoodBox is the technology behind the contactless donation points taking donations for the Mayor of London鈥檚 homelessness campaign.聽
GoodBox was launched in 2016 by CEO Andrew O鈥橞rien, COO Francesca Hodgson, and CTO Tibor Barna. The start-up launched aiming to facilitate contactless donations. 鈥淐ash is dying out and there needs to be an alternative means of giving. You pay with contactless for the tube, for your coffee, why is it so difficult for donations?鈥澛爏aid Hodgson.
The company聽quickly gained support from the likes of the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Royal Albert Hall and the Natural History Museum. The Natural History Museum has reported a 64 per cent uplift in donation income since it began working with GoodBox, with over 拢500,000 donated through the contactless points.聽
Part of this success is due to GoodBox鈥檚 seamless technology. The start-up had to ensure its tech could handle offline donations, so connectivity issues couldn鈥檛 stop donations, and transactions had to be speedy; under six seconds. 聽
GoodBox is bringing in donations from a different audience: millennials. Gilbert says the charity sector sometimes fears that young people will give less, but this isn鈥檛 necessarily the case. 鈥淚t鈥檚 often that charities are asking them to give in ways they鈥檙e not used to,鈥� she explains. Many millennials would rather do a one-off donation than a direct debit, so startups like GoodBox are introducing new ways to encourage people to give.聽
GoodBox has one more major advantage. 鈥淣ever before has a non-profit organisation been able to analyse live donations raised from cash鈥�, says Hodgson. 鈥淲hen was it raised, what was the weather like, what locations were successfully fundraising, what campaigns do well with what audience? These are all questions that can start being answered by technology.鈥�
