Driving Golf Day Fundraising with the Give A Little Champion App

By inviting staff and volunteers to use the Give A Little Champion App to collect contactless donations on their smartphones, DEBRA replaced fragile payment setups with a seamless, stress-free experience. Coupled with four CollecTin More contactless donation boxes, the team transformed how they capture event donations and Gift Aid.

Choosing Give A Little

To find a reliable way to boost event income and modernise their operations through cashless giving, DEBRA evaluated their options carefully through a formal tender process before making a decision.

Cy Grove, Individual Giving Manager at DEBRA, outlines how they selected Give A Little:

"We were looking for ways to boost income at our events and in our offices as well as a way to capture Gift Aid declarations digitally. We settled on Give A Little after a short tender process and invested in four CollecTin More contactless donation boxes which we set up in our reception and used at events"

The Breakthrough: Transforming Event Golf Days

DEBRA’s fundraising golf days are packed, all-day events running from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. They involve taking a payment at registration for the day’s games on arrival, running raffles and auctions and securing direct donations.

When their traditional point-of-sale terminal crashed unexpectedly right at an event, the team set up the Give A Little Champion App on their phones - and income instantly skyrocketed.

Cy Grove, DEBRA, Individual Giving Manager, explains:

"Our main point of sale account went down and it was like, 'Holy moly, we have no other way of taking money.' And I said, 'Actually, we do. We've got Give A Little. Let's give it a go and see if this works.' So that’s what we did and it just worked really seamlessly. So that's why all of a sudden our income through Give A Little has skyrocketed. Using Give A Little worked really, really well for us to the point where we can now consider using it for other Major Events."

Why the Give A Little Champion App Works: Intuitive & Gift Aid Ready

The Give A Little Champion App solved three major pain points for DEBRA’s event operations: volunteer setup, admin overhead, and capturing Gift Aid.

1. Zero Volunteer Friction

Cy: "We needed something that's reliable, easy to use for volunteers that found using our existing card readers difficult. When we showed them the Give A Little Champion App, we said: 'Look, it's so intuitive. It's on your own phone. You're not going to break it or anything like that... all you've got to do is like press go and it'll take someone's donation.'"

2. Eliminating Paperwork & Excel Spreadsheets

"When I first started at DEBRA, a lot of the processes were on paper and Excel... using Give A Little enables us to get rid of the paper and almost all the Excel Sheets, which is really, really handy."

3. Instant Gift Aid Declarations

"Before we started using Give A Little, we had to take payments and then send donors to a separate website to opt-in to Gift Aid. But now Give A Little allows us to do that at the point of donation and our returning supporters are remembered in the system so they don’t have to keep opting in every time they donate.”

Looking Ahead: Rolling Out Across the Charity

Following their success on the golf course, DEBRA plans to roll out the Give A Little Champion App across all their major fundraising streams, including large gala dinners, challenge events, corporate partners, and their extensive retail network of shops.

Cy: "Although cash is still used, having a reliable payment solution is absolutely vital to a smooth supporter experience; having one that can go further with gift aid is a huge bonus for us."

The Verdict: Why recommend Give A Little?

Cy sums up:

"I would recommend Give A Little to other charities due to its ease and reliability. It's really intuitive for us as users and for donors. The campaigns look great, the devices look great, and the donation process is extremely slick. Really, really slick. So, yeah - I would say, just use it!"