Pennies awarded top industry accolade at Card & Payments Awards 2022

Pennies has won the coveted Industry Achievement Award at the Card & Payments Awards 2022 – which recognise excellence and innovation across the industry – in a triumphant return to in-person ceremonies held at JW Marriott Grosvenor House on 5th May 2022.

It was announced that the judges were unanimous in their decision to honour Pennies, which they described as a “trusted leader in micro-donations, at the cutting edge of fintech”. The award was presented to Pennies’ Business Development Director Paul Seaman, by this year’s host, TV personality and BBC’s Strictly co-presenter, Claudia Winkleman.

“Micro-donations have hit the sweet spot”

This year’s Card & Payments Awards judges commented:

“The charity’s vision has always been rooted in encouraging charitable giving, with 140 million donations to date, a total of £35 million to 850 charities – very commendable and deserving of this award. Many congratulations to everyone at Pennies.”

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO of Pennies said:

“This entirely unexpected award of course recognises the hard work and dedicated of the Pennies team – but we would like in turn to give our huge thanks to our brilliant partners; across retail, hospitality and crucially the payments technology and fintech industries.

“Without these relationships Pennies simply couldn’t exist and could not unlock the millions of donations for UK charities from hugely generous customers. The UK public continues to be relentlessly devoted to helping charities, causes, and their communities – and micro-donations have hit the sweet spot of affordable ad-hoc giving, even in increasingly challenging financial times. We are overjoyed to share this award with all of them.”

“A tipping point year”

Last week, at the inaugural Retail Technology Show – where Pennies was the official charity partner – Hutchinson announced that donations have now eclipsed £35million in what is a “tipping point year” for Pennies, in her session at the 2-day industry event.

Meanwhile, micro-donations have enabled partners to respond quickly to the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Latest numbers from Pennies show that, since early March, more than 800,000 people have made a digital micro-donation to charities making a difference on the ground right now, including the Disasters Emergency Committee, Choose Love and UK for UNHCR.

These small gifts – just pennies at a time – have quickly raised upwards of £230,000 – and counting – for charities providing critical support on the front line of the escalating and largest refugee crisis since WW2.

Together, we are achieving so much, and recognition of the combined efforts of the ecosystem around Pennies, is the icing on the cake.

Find out more

Pennies works hand in hand with retailers, charities and payments technology providers to unlock the potential for thousands of customers to donate every day. Together we increase the amount businesses can give by tapping into the industry-wide move to digital payments.