Rainbows Hospice goes contactless with Give A Little’s DIY Approach

Gary Farnfield, Community Fundraiser at Rainbows, explains why they wanted to add Give A Little software to the SumUp card readers they were already using:

“We were already using SumUp card readers as a standalone donation option and we found that it takes time to chat to people, ask them what they would like to donate and then enter the amount on the reader. We had an event coming up called Rockin’ for Rainbows where local rock choirs were going to perform to an audience of 850 people, so we knew we wouldn’t have the time to do this. SumUp machines are great but using them with Give A Little opens us up to a new way of donating and getting more donors.”

“We looked at a few providers and Give A Little seemed to be the best out there for us. We really liked that we could use the Give A Little App with SumUp readers, personalise the screen with our branding and give donors the option to choose what they would like to donate themselves. Give A Little has made our cashless donation process so much quicker and easier and people have tended to give us more too, as they can choose what they want to give. We decided to display a £3, £5, £10 and £20 as well as the ‘choose your own amount’ option and most donors choose to bump up to £5 or £10, which they are less likely to do when giving with cash or using the SumUp machine as a standalone device."

On why Rainbows opted to go with Give A Little’s DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach to build their own points of donation, Gary adds:

“Give A Little’s DIY option appealed to us because we didn’t want to spend a lot on standalone systems when we didn’t know how successful it would be. We already had some Android tablets and the SumUp card readers and our IT team bought some cool, robust cases, which have a velcro strap on the back so we easily can hold the tablet and the SumUp machine or have it nearby. We have signs at our events like car shows that say ‘you can make a contactless donation here’ - We can easily hold the tablet with the velcro strap and donors simply tap and it’s done! We haven’t spent as much but the whole setup looks really professional.”

On how his colleagues and volunteers have responded, Gary said:

“I’m driving everyone Give A Little mad at the moment as I’ve been saying let’s use it, here, there and everywhere. When our volunteers have seen the Give A Little App - they have said, ‘wow’ we’ve been missing a trick!”

Gary adds: 

“ I’m really excited to start enabling Gift Aid on our Give A Little campaigns as it’s an easy way to make a bit more. I’m keen to do this for our supermarket collections when we have a bit more time to talk to people. We operate in a really large area covering the whole of the East Midlands so there are lots of other sites in the community where we can place donation points. We will have the donation stations at our upcoming abseil event at Derby Cathedral as well as our golf days and we’ll definitely have them at our Christmas concerts. We’re also planning on taking the Give A Little App and SumUp reader to our corporate supporters and charity of the year presentations. We would previously have just taken the SumUp card reader and now our donation points look so much smarter with our branding. We may look at installing some in our charity shops - there are so many opportunities. I’m also interested in looking at some of Give A Little’s other features and products like Tap on Phone.”

On why donations are so important to Rainbows, Gary explains:

“We get around 13% of our funding from the government and the rest is made up from donations from the public. We wouldn’t be here for our families if we didn’t have supporters and adding the ability to collect cashless donations is an important part of our fundraising.”

Gary sums up: “ If you Give A Little, it will make a big difference to us!”