Milton Keynes Museum Installs Contactless Donation Points to Raise Funds for New Galleries
While many of us have visited the UK’s national museums, which are funded by the government, over half of our museums are independent and rely on other means of funding including donations from the public. Milton Keynes Museum is one of those and they have recently installed three contactless donation points to help raise funds for an exciting new expansion.
8 December 2022Liz McCaffry Payne, Head of Development at Milton Keynes Museum explains why donations are so important to the museum and how they are using Give A Little to collect cashless donations:
‘Milton Keynes Museum is a social history museum that tells the story of the people who lived in the area before the new town was built. People tend to think that Milton Keynes doesn’t have any history but over 50,000 people lived here before the new town was built and the museum tells their story.’
The museum prides itself on being a really hands-on experience and visitors are invited to interact with the many volunteers who staff the museum. Visitors can try out the pianola or cook toast on the open fire in the Victorian kitchen or listen to the music boxes in the music room. There is also a street of original shop fronts that visitors can walk through, which were saved from the area before the new town was built. These range from a traditional sweet shop to a chemist and ironmonger. Other highlights include artefacts like an original Albion iron hand printing press, the Wolverton to Stony Stratford steam tram car and the telephone collection, which has working examples of hand-operated switchboards from different periods.’
Like all other charities, Milton Keynes Museum is exploring ways of adapting to people no longer carrying cash. Liz was keen to give visitors a way to make contactless donations as they go through the different galleries: ‘We have some really exciting plans for the future at the museum. Next year is our 50th anniversary, and we’re raising the funds for two new galleries. We needed an easy way for people to donate without cash and we were looking for a simple solution that was easy to use and cost effective and Give A Little was the obvious choice. We have put three contactless donation points in the museum, one in the cafe, one in our admissions area and one in our temporary gallery space. We can also move them around and use them at events. We have a really varied events programme including heritage open days and our popular Victorian Christmas.’
On what she likes about Give A Little, Liz adds:
‘I really like how simple Give A Little is to use and the fact that you can easily collect Gift Aid data. It’s a fuss-free way to collect contactless donations!’
For more information about Milton Keynes Museum, please visit
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