More than ever before, innovative payment methods are being used as a force for positive social change, especially as charities recover from shortfalls experienced during the pandemic. UK charities suffered greatly over recent years, especially at the start of the lockdown in 2020: 40% of charities were forced to dip into reserves at the height of the crisis and lost over £6.4bn of anticipated income. 

This is because almost two out of five (36%) regular donors reduced the monthly amount they gave by an average of £11, while 44% of fundraisers had slowed down or paused entirely on their activities. However, as the recovery across the UK continues, payments play a crucial role in how donors - both enterprise donors and individual donors - can support the organisations providing vital services to local communities. 

Payment providers can help charities recover by waiving transaction fees and mandating zero fees on donation transactions. New payment methods mean that the entire donation that an organisation or an individual gives should reach its destination and not be subject to payment fees, ideally due to a zero-fee policy for any direct charity donation.

Beyond transaction fee savings, payment innovations can also be introduced around the methods through which donations are made in charity fundraising efforts, offering much more efficiency than traditional payment methods. There has long been an urgent need for innovation in digital fundraising and while many charities had switched to contactless payments before the pandemic, the events of 2020 only accelerated that trend. 

For example, there is an increasing shift away from costly and inefficient payment methods, such as mailers with manual card entry fields that collect physical cash. Instead, contactless, digital and cashless payments have now become an essential aspect of fundraising, and normalising these methods has only become more paramount. 

New payment methods like QR code scanning on television have been introduced to take donations during live events. Another example has been using QR codes on mailers for direct instant and secure payment and the ability for street charity fundraisers to collect simple one-off donations without the need for a card reader. 

There are also inspiring new examples of digital innovation like Matchable - a volunteering platform matching corporate employees from firms like remote first payment fintechs to virtual volunteering projects based on the causes they care about. Matchable is available to over 10,000 employees at companies around the world. 

The continued proliferation of new digital opportunities including seamless, secure payment methods will only encourage donations to reach charities more efficiently, streamlining operations and removing unnecessary friction between those who are in a position to give back and those who need those resources the most.