On 8th November 2022, Pennies held its annual Autumn Celebration event – attended by many partners and friends of the micro-donation movement that’s transforming fundraising in the UK.
Despite a year in which the biggest financial crisis in decades take grip, Pennies is seeing many more consumers digitally donating at checkout; raising more in volume and value in the last 2 years than in the first seven since our launch. The trend suggests that this way of donating meets the public’s unwavering generosity whilst we all manage tightening budgets.
With this backdrop, the evening, hosted for the 3rd year by BBC journalist Sally Bundock, opened with a rousing call-to-action film, depicting the economic and social conditions in the last 2 years, whilst looking hopefully into the future at the huge potential for micro-donations.
Sally Bundock then sat down for a ‘fireside chat’ with Greene King CEO, Nick Mackenzie – who spoke of the particular challenges hospitality continues to face, and the importance of rooting community purpose and vision into customer and colleague experience.
“Social purpose is at the heart of our culture, and Pennies, who we started working with in 2018 [in trial], is a key part of that agenda. It has been embraced by our pubs and our customers thanks to its simplicity and effectiveness. It has raised over £1 million for Macmillan Cancer Support; demonstrating the power of the micro donation.”
Nick Mackenzie, CEO, Greene King
This was followed by a panel of retail and hospitality leaders who generously shared key insights and insider learnings from their businesses in a post-Brexit, COVID and Ukraine war landscape. Each had warm stories about engaging teams and consumers and the importance of living values to grow business and communities; highlighting the particular importance of Pennies for brands in today’s trading landscape.
Our panel were:
“Our purpose is to build better communities and enrich lives. Our consumers, a lot of builders and trade, build schools, hospitals, and infrastructures. And while they do a huge amount as a sector in traditional ways for charity, Pennies helps us give them a modern, digital way to make a difference as they seem to prefer; little and often.
“Once a business it in, it’s ‘wow’. It’s a cold start, but – particularly for ESG – Pennies is a no-brainer. For example, we are creating more value for our charity partner for Macmillan. It’s as simple as that.”
James MacKenzie, Managing Director, Toolstation
Pennies CEO Alison Hutchinson CBE delivered this year’s set of special recognition awards, as nominated by a convening judging panel of leaders from retail, hospitality and payments technology sectors.
As ever, the Pennies awards recognised individuals across the many partners in the micro-giving movement, helping to push forward and unlock the opportunity for customer giving, supporting the vital work of hundreds of UK charities.
Read the full story of the awards, and discover the full list of winners here.
If you were one of our guests on the evening, thank you so much, and a special thank you to all those that joined us live online too and took part in the lively virtual chat alongside proceedings.
Pennies would like to say a huge thank you to Worldpay from FIS for their support for this year’s event, and Avvio Reply for the fantastic production, which was once again high value and as entertaining to watch online as it was in-person. The event was also supported by partners Blue Train Marketing and Retail Gazette.
And we also extend a massive thank you to our guests, supporters, partners and everyone who helped make the evening so special.
If you missed the event of the autumn, we have you covered – you can watch the whole event again or enjoy for the first time below, or over on our YouTube channel.
Pennies strengthens its Hospitality and Leisure Advisory Board with the appointment of Tracy Gehlan, President, EMEA at Subway International, and Matthew Price, Regional General Manager for Uber Eats, EMEA.
The pair bring senior leadership experience from two of the world’s best-known food and delivery brands to support Pennies’ work with hospitality partners.
Pennies has been shortlisted in four categories at the Charity Times Awards 2026, recognising its innovation, leadership and impact in making digital giving simple and accessible.
TrainPal customers can now make a voluntary charity donation when booking train tickets, thanks to a new partnership with fintech charity Pennies. The initiative supports Railway 200’s ‘Trips Change Lives’ campaign, helping raise funds for charities as part of the UK’s railway bicentenary celebrations.
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