The Pennies Foundation included in Giving White Paper

The Pennies Foundation welcomes the continued attention on the topic of giving to charity. We are pleased that Pennies, the electronic charity box, is mentioned in the Government’s White Paper as an example of a successful existing micro-donation channel.

We have repeatedly said that micro-donation is an idea whose time has come, and that making it easy for consumers to donate as they shop and pay by card is a fundamental step to involve more people into charitable giving. With 43 million card holders in the UK today, and around one million card transactions an hour, it is clear that the fundraising opportunity is huge. If the UK’s card holders donated the equivalent of a penny a day, well over £150m would be raised for charity every year.

Making simple, affordable giving by card available as an option has been well received by consumers, who have so far collectively put more than £100,000 into the Pennies electronic charity box in just over six months.

We hope that the Government’s support expressed in the Giving White Paper and the ‘Round Pound’ working group will be an additional boost to micro-donation initiatives that can raise meaningful, much-needed funds for charities.

Alison Hutchinson, CEO of The Pennies Foundation, commented:
“We are pleased that the work we have done as an independent charity over the last two years is acknowledged in the White Paper as a positive step towards bringing micro-donations into everyday life.

We are harnessing existing technology to offer consumers the choice to carry on their habit of dropping small change into a charity box, but we’re making it fit into the way we pay for goods and services now – by card. Making giving easy and affordable works:  that’s why we have received almost 440,000 consumer donations since November 2010.”

For a full copy of the Giving White Paper, please visit http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/giving-white-paper