Make your Christmas a cracker with contactless donations!

While the cost of living crisis may be influencing charitable giving, the Christmas spirit and the desire to help those in need often prevails, leading many individuals to contribute what they can to support causes they care about. 

Make the most out of the yuletide spirit by giving your donors an easy way to make a cashless donation whether that’s via a QR code or a contactless donation box. December tends to be the biggest month for our community of charities and the amount donors are giving through Give A Little just keeps growing. The value of cashless donations made through Give A Little increased by a

in December 2022 compared to December 2021! It was the busiest month of the year and shows that generosity, and the desire to help others is still high during the festive period. And importantly,  it also confirms the rapid rise in cashless fundraising. 

Donating to charities at Christmas encapsulates the true essence of the season – giving without expecting anything in return. 

Read on to get tips on how to make your charity’s Christmas a cracker with contactless donations.

Give a Little incorporates a host of contactless donation options that you can use in so many different ways - Contactless donation boxes, fixed donation stations, DIY points of donation, online fundraising and QR code donations. You can mix and match these throughout your cashless fundraising.

Set up a campaign for general festive fundraising, or create specific appeal campaigns highlighting using wording, imagery and video on the Give A Little app.

Various charitable organisations launch specific Christmas-themed appeals, whether it's providing meals for the homeless, gifts for underprivileged children, or

, these initiatives thrive on the goodwill of donors during the festive season..

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Ask existing, and new local companies if they can support your charity by holding an easy festive event - a Christmas jumper day, a lunchtime carol service, a festive bake sale (mmm mince pies) or Christmas quiz. Some can even be virtual!  Consider

if you can, or provide them with a url for online fundraising, or QR code donations to make their donations hassle free.  You can even create a co-branded campaign on Give A Little to make them feel really special. 

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Ask local businesses if you can collect QR code donations in their Christmas themed window displays, or on a poster within their shop. Arrange a supermarket bag pack or collection, or maybe a

to cheer up the frazzled festive shoppers and take along your contactless devices. Use Give A Little’s fundraising campaign customisation to create an eye-catching and festive campaign to really grab potential donors' attention and get the work of your charity across too. 

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“If you don’t ask, you don’t get” ask your existing donors and fundraisers if they can include your charity in their Christmas activities - a festive dinner party, a cheese and wine night, a christmas jumper party a donation collection alongside their locally famous, wildly over the top decorated house. You may have pub landlords, restaurateurs, business owners who can come up with their own events with customers, but if you don’t ask, it might have not been something they’d considered.

By using Give A Little online donations and QR codes, nobody has the pain of collecting and storing cash, and charities also benefit from being able to collect Gift Aid declarations and marketing opt-ins with ease. 

If they’re a well known volunteer/supporter, consider empowering them to use our new

, they’ll be able to use their Android smartphone to collect donations that go directly into your bank account.

You can create a general fund campaign for all your supporters, or even go bespoke, creating individual campaigns for those with big ideas!

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Give A Little allows you to create a Christmas Web campaign in minutes and then share the link on social media, and in print using QR codes. Online and QR code donations give donors a quick and easy way to donate using their digital wallet* as well as debit and credit cards. 

Make a quick end of year ‘Thank you/Merry Christmas from the team’ video and post it on social media with the campaign url alongside it.  Add your QR codes to printed newsletters or Christmas cards turning them into contactless donation opportunities. 

The beauty of social media means that your followers can also share your posts, meaning you may get more donations from people you would never have reached otherwise. Make your asks compelling, and your thank you genuine.

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This one is surely a given - if you are hosting

events this Christmas,make sure you charge up and take your contactless donation boxes along, again, creating specific campaigns which not only look in keeping with your events/appeals, but also mean you can track the income for each particular event. Consider using Give A Little’s ‘lists of campaigns’ feature if you have more than one income stream to collect for. 

Using your contactless devices along with the branded campaigns you create through your Give A Little account gives your donors the reassurance and confidence in knowing they are making donations to a genuine cause. 

And importantly, for

of the above, don’t forget you can create an engaging thank you screen with Give A Little  - make the donation experience a fun one, maybe an animation or GIF that will put a smile on your donors’ faces and mean they don’t forget you.

If you need some help setting up your Christmas campaigns, please contact the team at

 

*digital wallet- (ApplePay and GooglePay) for online and QR codes require a Stripe integration