I am in two minds about whether or not it is such an issue that cheques are being withdrawn. Being an old-fashioned kind of girl I still like to write the odd cheque so will be sad to see them go, but even I am prepared to pay with plastic or online nowadays.

During their recent appeal for Haiti the DEC had raised several million pounds online before they even launched their campaign and other development charities are reporting unprecendented levels of online giving, even compared to the Tsunami five years ago.

The reality is that the world has changed and is continuing to change at an incredible pace. And this is a good thing for charities if we chose to keep up. People responding to a disaster appeal online must be good news - charities, and therefore beneficiaries, get the funds faster and can plan and implement their response while donations made by cheque are still being processed.
 
I know some people don't yet understand how text donations work or use internet banking, but no one is talking about getting rid of cheques tomorrow. By the time they are phased out (2018) I think most of our dorothy donors will either be dead or have started texting - if not quite twittering. A lot can happen in 8 years...