Despite Cost-of-Living Pressures, More People Are Giving to Charity Digitally Than Ever Before

Pennies, the award-winning fintech charity which enables micro-donations to charity, has conducted a landmark survey[1] of UK consumers to gauge attitudes and behaviours about donating to charities. After being told that if every UK cardholder gave just 35p a week to charity, it could raise an additional £1 billion for charities every year, almost half (48%) of respondents said that they’d be more likely to micro-donate.

Despite the UK public donating £13.9 billion to charities in 2023, up £1.2 billion from 2022[2], increased personal, energy and household costs are the most common reason (56%) cited by those who don’t donate to charities.

Pennies CEO, Alison Hutchinson CBE, said: “With the increased cost of living in recent years, it is not surprising that many consumers are feeling the pinch, but this also serves to highlight the importance and potential impact of micro-donations, where giving a few pence when paying for a purchase by card or digital wallet can make a huge difference to charities. It is pleasing to see steady momentum in the proportion of consumers who make micro-donations, which increased to 46% this year.”

Of those that have micro-donated, almost 3 in 4 (72%) have micro-donated in-store, whilst 41% have micro-donated when purchasing food or drink. Online/app/Direct Debit has significantly increased to 40%, compared to 24% in 2023.

Almost half (44%) of respondents say their perception of a business would improve if they offered micro-donations, of which 21% would be more likely to purchase from there. Given that nine-in-ten (90%) consumers would advise retailers to facilitate micro-donations, this bodes well for the growth of micro-donations as nearly half (42%) of UK consumers are now familiar with micro-donations, which is a steady increase compared to the 35% in both 2023 and 2022.

The findings also revealed that the most popular charities to support are those that have a personal connection to the donor or family/friends (favoured by 40%), followed by national charities (30%), local charities (29%), well known charities (19%), and emergency appeals (13).

Pennies provided further insight about the findings of the survey at its annual Pennies Autumn Celebration Event, which was held on 15 October in London, and attended by over 150 senior leaders from the retail, hospitality, payments and technology sectors.

Micro-donations can be made on card payment terminals in-store and at the checkout online or in-app, when shopping with participating Pennies partners across retail, hospitality, leisure and the service sector. Since 2010, millions of people have joined the micro-donation movement. To date, Pennies has enabled over 230 million micro-donations and raised over £55 million for more than 1,000 charities.

Pennies has partnered with more than 150 high street brands to offer their customers the option to make a micro-donation when they pay for their purchases, including Superdrug, JD Sports, Domino’s, Poundland, Currys, Greene King and Travelodge. Pennies also collaborates with over 30 top tier payments and technology partners, who integrate micro-donations into their product offerings, including Ingenico, Shopify, Verifone and Worldpay.