Guildhall Art Gallery Adopts Cashless Fundraising

Guildhall Art Gallery, which was opened in 1886 to display the City of London Corporation's growing art collection, has for the first time adopted cashless fundraising to give visitors a way to make contactless donations.

Written by Vicky Hewlett April 13, 2023

has installed two CollecTin contactless donation boxes, which use Give A Little software, as part of its Pay What You Can strategy. One CollecTin is situated at the entrance in the shop and the other is at the end of the temporary exhibition, which is currently 'The Big City: London painted on a grand scale'. The display, which is open until the 30th July 2023, celebrates monumental painters of the capital and showcases some of the largest paintings in the Gallery’s collection.

The permanent Gallery features a rich variety of Victorian paintings, which span the years of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901). The Gallery also houses a collection of London paintings, which date from the 17th century onwards and provide a vivid record of events including The Great Fire of London in 1666 and the Frost Fair of 1739. 

In 1988, Museum of London archaeologists discovered that the capital's only Roman amphitheatre was located in Guildhall Yard. Visitors to the Gallery can now see the surviving remains 20 feet below the modern pavement, which include a stretch of the stone entrance tunnel, east gate, and arena walls. 

George Hunt, Guildhall Art Gallery Visitor Experience and Volunteering Manager explains: ‘It was important for Guildhall Art Gallery to have a contactless donation option as it allowed us to maximise the impact of our Pay What You Can scheme for our current temporary exhibition. We noticed that visitors are carrying less cash these days and the CollecTins with Give A Little gives visitors an easy way to donate by card to make a contribution to support the exhibition, our education and our conservation programmes.’ 

On why they chose Give A Little, George adds: ‘We chose to go with Give A Little because it allows us to experiment with different donation amounts and we really like the ability to create eye-catching fundraising campaigns with images and video. The remote reporting tools built into Give A Little give us a way to demonstrate the value of what people are able to give, and also monitor average donation values and whether people give more at the entrance or exit. Give A Little gives us everything we need and is a great package overall.’

is a great place to visit for all ages and is open daily from 10.30am to 4pm.

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