Zapp teams up with Charities Aid Foundation and Oxfam for mobile donations

Source: Zapp

The UK's leading mobile payment innovation, Zapp, announces today it is working with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and Oxfam Great Britain (Oxfam) to introduce new ways for supporters to donate using their mobile phones.

CAF and Oxfam will work with Zapp to explore ways to offer their donors a secure, quick and simple way to give, using just their mobile device and their existing bank account. Zapp offers a fast and secure way to donate. Making it easy for people to support as long they have their mobile phone and a Zapp enabled bank account.

Recent research has shown that giving through mobile phones is growing in popularity, with a 22% increase in people saying they prefer to give via text message than through any other method. (1)

Zapp will allow donors to give via their banking application on their phone, meaning that the money will come directly from users' bank accounts, rather than phone bills. Zapp will also give donors more control of their finances and removes the need to input card payment details. Donors can see their bank account balances at the point of donating and choose which account to give from, helping them manage their charitable gifts more effectively.

HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank have already been announced as Zapp partners, meaning that a third of all UK bank accounts are soon to be Zapp-enabled, and their financial institution will be supporting the charity sector.

The Charities Aid Foundation, helps people and businesses support the causes they care about, and provides financial services for charities. CAF works with over 280,000 charity donors and, in partnering with Zapp, will make it easier for their users to give to charities wherever they are through their mobiles.

Oxfam is a globally renowned aid and development charity with 70 years of experience, working and campaigning with charities in 94 countries worldwide to explore new ways of giving. By working with Zapp, Oxfam will explore new mobile donation opportunitiess; making it simple to support Oxfam and offering supporters flexibility and choice.

John Low, Chief Executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said, "We are delighted to be one of the first charities to sign up with Zapp and offer this payment method. At CAF we are keen to embrace innovation and believe Zapp will offer more choice for donors and make donating to charity even simpler."

Matt Jerwood, Digital Fundraising Lead, Oxfam, said, "Oxfam is always interested in innovations that offer new ways for supporters to engage with us. We look forward to investigating how this new technology may offer a new channel for receiving donations and make life easier for our supporters."

Peter Keenan, Chief Executive of Zapp, commented: "We're really proud to be doing our bit and working with CAF and Oxfam to bring the benefits of mobile payments to the charity sector. We're confident Zapp can make giving even more convenient for consumers and lower the cost to charities of receiving and processing donations, while boosting donations at the same time."

1) Give As You Live, February 2014 

Comments: (4)

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 08 September, 2014, 11:43Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Barclays Pingit has been allowing charities to collect donations and capture important gift aid declarations for some time: https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=25440

Matt White
Matt White - Finextra - Toronto 08 September, 2014, 12:27Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Barclays’ press office has been on the phone to make the same point about Pingit, suggesting Zapp’s “first time” claim is off.

 

Ketharaman Swaminathan
Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 08 September, 2014, 17:57Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Call a telephone number. Be disconnected after one ring. EUR 5 credited to charity. EUR 5 debited to monthly mobile phone bill. End of story. When I came across this payment method in Germany in 2000, I thought there couldn't be a more convenient way to donate to charity (that also drove impulse donations). 14 years later, my views haven't changed. "Direct Career Billing" for "Charity Donation" was certainly one use case where TELCOs had a huge chance to disintermediate banks. But they still haven't, given how, in 2014, we're still reading about two banks vying for honors for being the first to introduce mobile payments for charity donations!

Matt White
Matt White - Finextra - Toronto 09 September, 2014, 11:24Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

At Zapp's request, we've now removed the "first time" claim.