There are plenty of examples of how donating to charity has used technology to digitize its mechanics from the last few years. If anything, the global COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced and solidified the practice of contactless giving that already existed around the world.
Thomas Kane is a Chicago executive with over 20 years of experience in financial services. He is not blind to the trend of many charities “going tech” recently, and will likely continue to do so.
“Over the past two decades, we have witnessed a real increase in technology solutions that help nonprofits and community organizations leverage data and efficiency and manage teams,” says Thomas Kane.
“Nonprofits and charity organizations have started to streamline their operations through software solutions, using data to create more efficient processes and free up time,” Kane continues.
COVID-19 Cemented the Existing Trend of Donating Digitally:
The phenomenon of charities requesting donations via email and text rather than by asking people to patronize and donate to brick-and-mortar charities like Goodwill and the Salvation Army started to evolve naturally as money transactions went online for all of business.
A little over a year ago, the world woke up to the realities of surviving amidst a worldwide pandemic, with the United States quickly emerging as its new epicenter.
Charities going digital became an even more important move to make. Country after country went into lockdown, and people starting working from home and staying at home period.
The only way for charities to continue to gain revenue was via technology and credit cards.
On the plus side, nearly any charity in existence is able to make donations contactless.
Today, a donor merely has to scan a QR code on a charity website or press a “Donate” button on a website or mobile device, and their credit card or debit card will automatically transfer the chosen amount of money to the selected charity. That kind of ultrasimple giving is beneficial to charities and businesses alike in a pandemic environment.
Mere months before the coronavirus swarmed out of Wuhan, China, and went across the globe, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, partnered with charity solutions firm TAP London to roll out over 100 points of contactless donation in the area that winter.
Technology is Helping Arrest the Problems that Come With Giving:
Distrust of charities has been around for a long time. People no longer trust charities to actually use the revenue they pull in for the charitable causes they claim to support.
But financial platforms that use technology as a foundation are solving trust issues with charities by introducing cryptocurrency exchange and information service Blockchain into the charity space, said a March 2021 Charity Digital Exchange article.
In some charity donation niche spaces supported by Blockchain, donors are now able to trace donations made to their preferred charity, and they can implement rules and guidelines about how that money is allowed to be used by the charity.
Users also have the ability to retract their gifts should it be discovered that a given charity does not follow the dictates that have been laid down by the givers.
Kane echoes both the reality of inherent problems that come with giving to charities without necessarily having accountability and the fact that the solution is coming via technology.
“I think convenience has something to do with it, but technology has also provided easy tools for researching and funding charitable projects and organizations,” he said. “Now, donors have more options for how and where to give, and they can even track their donations if they choose to.”
Kane went on to point out that the ability to collect smaller donation amounts from a greater number of people is significant in terms of technology affording more opportunities for charities to gather funding for causes both today and in the years to come.
