One million people have rounded up their pizza, toy and travel purchases to the pound for charity in the first year of the Pennies scheme.

In an event in London this morning marking the first anniversary of the initiative, Alison Hutchinson, chief executive of the Pennies Foundation, revealed that just over £250,000 has been raised by those million transactions. 

The Pennies scheme, launched last year by the Pennies Foundation, involves customers using cards for payments rounding up their purchases to the nearest pound with the change going to the charity of the retailers’ choice.

Twenty charities have been supported by Pennies in its first year, but Hutchinson said this could increase to as many as 43 in the new year.

The scheme originally launched with a partnership with Domino’s and expanded over the year to include round-to-the-pound schemes at Travelodge, Zizzi’s restaurants and The Entertainer toy stores. This morning Hutchinson announced that six new retailers have come on board and indicated that more, including the Carphone Warehouse, are due to come online in the new year.

The rate of customer take-up at the various retailers has been mixed; at the Entertainer more than half of customers rounded up, while at Zizzi's restaurants the rate is about one in four and at Domino’s it is one in ten.

Shelter charity shops signed up to Pennies

Shelter was today announced as the first charity retailer to sign up to the Pennies scheme, and Hutchinson said that she expects the facility to be live in Shelter charity shops in the coming weeks.

Hutchinson also announced that Pennies has partnered with Simply Tap, a smartphone application for mobile-based purchases, which will see the donation service enabled on mobiles.

Hutchinson said: “Clearly it’s early days, but we believe that 2012 could prove a real turning point for micro-donations.”