At the start of the pandemic, the U.S. Salvation Army's holiday bell ringers had just begun accepting digital donations via Apple Pay and Google Pay through a system the nonprofit called Kettle Pay.
Then COVID-19 struck, and Kettle Pay didn't seem like enough to offset the decline in foot traffic at the shopping centers where the Salvation Army raises funds from passersby.
On top of that, demand for the Salvation Army’s charitable services spiked, and the consumers who were still shopping in person were using less cash, out of fear that it could spread the virus.
The Salvation Army responded by putting development of digital donations on the fast track. As a result, its donations doubled last year and are on track to exceed those totals this year.
Ahead of the holiday season, the Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit added acceptance of Venmo and PayPal to existing contactless payment methods at its 25,000 red kettle locations across the U.S.
It is also conducting a pilot this year to test a different contactless donation approach with Visa and the Canadian startup tiptap at about 2,000 U.S. red kettle locations. Tiptap's technology uses a tiny, NFC-wired card to accept fixed amounts of up to $20, with no need for donors to use a specific payments app.
"Lots of people don't carry cash anymore, and our research shows that when you give people a simple digital approach to donate, organizations typically see a fourfold increase in the amount of money they're collecting versus cash," said Chris Greenfield, tiptap's CEO, who founded the firm in 2018 to focus on digital technology for charitable giving.
The cards list donation amounts of $5, $10 and $20. To donate more, people can tap up to 10 times on a tiptap collection device, Greenfield said.
For the Salvation Army, the effect of adding various digital acceptance channels has so far increased total donations to the nonprofit by 100%, said Dale Bannon, the organization's national community relations and development secretary for the U.S.
“It’s been a priority to expand our traditionally cash-based program to offer more contactless options to donors and we’ve seen an incredible increase in the use of these tools over the past few years,” Bannon said.
Holiday bell ringers still take cash, but as fewer consumers carry cash in their pockets and most now have a contactless payment card or device available, contactless payment volume is growing. Bannon said it’s too early to share totals, but the Salvation Army expects to see continued, strong increases in digital payments.
Donors contributing via contactless payments receive a receipt for their contributions via email. All donations collected are distributed to local Salvation Army units based on the donor’s ZIP code.
In addition to in-person donations, in recent years Salvation Army has ramped up online contribution channels. Consumers have had the option to send donations via text for several years, and in 2018 Amazon developed an Alexa skill to donate to the Salvation Army by voice.
The Salvation Army has also added the ability for donors to contribute Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies online. The organization introduced Crypto Kettle last year through the crypto platform Engiven.
While the organization is taking in more funds, its charitable work has also increased with the pandemic. The Salvation Army estimates it will need $175 million to meet the increased demands of its constituents this year, which is 50% more than it raised last year, according to Bannon.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Salvation Army has provided more than 178 million meals and over $200 million in utility, rent and mortgage assistance, he said.
