A logo-recognition app intended to make cashless fundraising easier has been launched today.
The app, SnapDonate, is intended to enable Android phones and iPhones to recognises a charity logo, and then allow the user to instantly make a donation online, with no upper limit and a lower limit of £2.
The app has been developed by the SnapDonate Foundation, a "not-for-profit entity" set up to create the app.
The foundation said donations are handled by JustGiving and gift aid is automatically included with each donation. No fees are charged and the app does not store users' personal information. Around 70 charities are currently recognised, and the number will grow shortly.
SnapDonate is free to download now on the Google Play Store and will be on the App Store within weeks.
Cash donations currently make up around one-sixth of the value of all donations given to charities in the UK every year. But the proportion of UK transactions paid for with cash fell by a quarter in recent years and is set to plunge faster, according to research by the Charities Aid Foundation and the Payments Council.
Mark Warrick, founder and chief technology officer of the SnapDonate Foundation said the app was developed in response to a decrease in cash giving.
In 2015, the sum of all non-cash payments in the UK is set to exceed those made with cash for the first time, he said, and the drop in cash donations was damaging charities.
“The amount of money that charities are at risk of missing out on is staggering," he said. "Something has to be done now to avoid this becoming a big problem – and that’s why we created SnapDonate.
"There’s been a huge buzz around the app since we introduced it to industry experts at the Institute of Fundraising’s 2014 Innovation Conference, and several charities are already testing it for use in their own campaigns.
"I’m excited to help charities defuse this timebomb and not lose out on vital donations merely because they haven’t offered supporters a viable alternative to cash. From today onwards, there is.”
Alarm clock donations
A second charity mobile app has also been launched to enable donors to make charity donations every time they hit the snooze button on their iphone alarms. The iCukoo app works as a standard alarm clock but gives donors the option to select a charity to donate to.
Donors can pick from a selection of five different charities and must then select an amount to give each time the snooze button is pressed – from 10p to £1.
Josh Hart, partner at Chelsea Apps Factory, said: “We’ve spent the past 4 years mobilising blue chip businesses and we are now incredibly excited to be in the fortunate position where we can help some of these amazing charities with their wonderful causes.
"This is one of those opportunities where we as consumers can take something we do every day, snoozing, and, using an app, meld it with something we should be doing every day – helping others. And there's the added benefit that we’ll be snoozing guilt free from now on!”
Donors can choose to support Starlight, Parkinson's UK, the National Literacy Trust, Prostate Cancer UK, or Maggie's.
