An electronic charity donation scheme has been launched to collect small donations from consumers who pay for goods by card.

The Pennies 'electronic charity box' operates through chip and pin machines in the shops and websites of retailers, with funds raised going to charities chosen by participating businesses.

The first partner retailer will be Domino’s Pizza's online store, with another online retailer due on board shortly and talks underway to roll the system out to other businesses next year.

Shoppers will be able to donate between one penny and 99 pence securely in store with one press of a button and online with one click.

The can do so when using any payment or store card, with donations made on a one-off basis and without the need to give any personal information.

The donations scheme was created by the Pennies Foundation, which estimates that eight pence a week from half of all cardholders in the UK would generate £89m per year.

How the money is distributed

The majority of the money collected will be given by retailers to their nominated charity; the remaining money will be distributed by the Pennies Foundation to nine national charities including Carers UK, MacMillan Cancer Support and the NSPCC.

Domino’s will give 75 per cent of the money raised from their Pennies boxes to the Special Olympics Great Britain charity.

Exactly how the money will be distributed between retail partner’s charities and the Penny Foundation’s charities will be decided in individual agreements, but the Pennies Foundation hope to keep the 75/25 ratio as a model for the scheme. 

Chris Moore CEO of Domino’s Pizza said: “We are delighted to be the launch partner for Pennies. It’s such a simple idea that I can’t believe it’s not already a common fundraising method.”