Small Cancer Charity Innovates with DIY Approach to Cashless Giving

Founded in memory of Romsey resident and mother of two, Jane Scarth, Romsey Cancer Support Centre provides emotional and practical support to people whose lives are affected by cancer including patients, carers, family and supporting friends.

The charity is small and relies on donations to continue its vital work so Give A Little’s DIY approach really appealed.

Romsey Cancer Support Centre Trustee, Sue Jones says: “We are very careful with our money. Everything in the centre is paid for by people’s efforts whether that’s time or donations to our charity shop or donations made directly and we don’t want to waste any of that money. We DIY everything we can and recycle things from the charity shop all the time.”

“We’ve always shied away from signing up to tap to donate not because we didn’t want to do it but because the upfront costs were prohibitive with big subscriptions and the cost of hardware. With Give A Little, we could try it out for free, literally using a SumUp card reader, which was on offer for £16 and with a donated Android phone. When we were confident it was working well for us, we then subscribed to Give A Little’s Premium Account for under £10 a month. That gives us the ability to tailor our campaigns and process Gift Aid, which is important and pays for itself. The reporting is really useful as well as it helps us see what has been donated and when.”

Centre Manager, Rachel Tucker describes Trustee, Sue Jones and her husband, Ray as “wonderful” as they have created a number of donation points made from recycled materials for the charity. One of the units is made from items from the charity shop including a frame, a donated phone and card reader. The frame sits on a stand typically used for recipe books so the height and angle can be adjusted and there are ports for charging the devices. 

Rachel explains: “The idea is to make it as easy and user friendly for befrienders and clients. Donations are so important to us as we’re a small independent charity. Everything we do is provided free to those affected by cancer in the Test Valley area. They can come in for counselling, complementary therapies or just someone to talk to. If people would like to make a donation, we want to make it as simple and unobtrusive as possible. Give A Little is able to do that for us and gives us the flexibility to have a donation point in the centre and one that we can take to events and use for street collections.“

Sue and her husband have also created the ‘donation pole’! Sue says: “The donation pole was born out of a need to have a device that our volunteers could use on street collections. It’s made out of plumbing pipe, offcuts of bathroom cladding and velcro that holds the devices in place so we can swap things around. The pole allows our volunteers to hold it out at a distance and people can easily donate in a Covid safe way.”

If your charity is looking to get started with cashless fundraising, why not create a Give A Little account today!