Welsh arts hub chooses Give A Little’s DIY approach to collect contactless donations

Fran Reid, Chapter’s Fundraising Assistant, explains: 

“Chapter was established in 1971 and has grown to be an arts centre at the beating heart of the Cardiff community, with over half a million people coming through our doors each year. Within our building there are two cinemas showing independent films, two theatre spaces and an art gallery through which we commission and present thought-provoking exhibitions and events by contemporary artists.

We’re proud to be home to a dynamic community of over 50 resident companies and artists, producing some of the most exciting work in Wales and the UK. Ranging from animation and graphic design, film and television to performance and visual art, our creative community are at the heart of everything we do. 

Our community larder is for those on our doorstep who are struggling to make ends meet, and we help mitigate holiday hunger by providing free packed lunches during the school holidays. We work closely with our D/deaf community, hosting a monthly Deaf film club and our annual Deaf Gathering Festival which is a Deaf-led festival showcasing Deaf artists bringing together Deaf and hearing audiences to explore and improve access to creative opportunities. 

Most of our charitable income comes from trusts and foundations but we were very keen to find ways to increase donations from individuals, and to increase awareness amongst our customers that we’re a charity.”

On why Chapter chose Give A Little, Fran continues: 

“We wanted to increase the number of ways people could donate and part of that was getting a contactless giving device. We have a cash donation box which raises around £500 in change each year, but as people are carrying less cash nowadays, I researched a number of contactless giving options, compared pricing, and Give A Little came out on top in terms of affordability. We also really liked Give A Little’s business model and support for small charities, with its free option to use basic features. We opted for the Lenovo tablet, DIY donation frame with Stripe WisePad 3 card reader and we’d already covered our set up costs within the first three months. 

I move the device around the building depending on what’s on, including in the gallery where our exhibitions are always free to enter. We have also experimented with QR codes at specific free community events - they’re easy to use with Give A Little and very affordable to display on the walls and on toilet doors etc.”

Fran has used the Give A Little software to design creative, bilingual fundraising screens:

“All of our communications are bilingual, so we have created a slideshow that flips between English and Welsh and the ‘post-donation’ screen says thank you in English and Welsh. It’s great to have the flexibility to design as many campaigns as we need, and to be able to use a slideshow approach to display both languages and our charity branding. When designing the campaign for our Deaf Gathering Festival, we got one of our BSL interpreters to sign a thank you video, which is displayed after a donation is made.”

Fran has lots of ideas to get even more out of the Give A Little platform:

“One of our technicians is building a stand which we can use as a fixed donation point with a lot of clear messaging around it explaining why we need donations. We’ll place that by the main doors so it will be interesting to see how people respond. We are also looking into the possibility of our volunteer ushers using Give A Little Tap to Pay after a performance, so they can take donations directly on their phones without the need for a card reader. All in all, it’s been a great start and we are really looking forward to doing even more with Give A Little this year.”