Davis Coffer Lyons Supports Charity Fundraiser The Pennies Foundation
May 22, 2011
Davis Coffer Lyons has today announced its support for The Pennies Foundation, an innovative charity that allows leisure operators to adopt a new way of fundraising for charities. The scheme allows customers the chance to round up the price of their food or services to the nearest pound when using a chip and pin machine or booking online.
Pennies has already been adopted by three leisure operators, Dominos, Travelodge and Zizzi, benefiting 13 UK registered charities, and further announcements on retailers joining the scheme are expected over the summer. More than 100,000 Domino’s customers rounded up their bills in the first eight weeks. Hotel chain Travelodge has also launched a version on its website, where customers are given the opportunity to round up the price of their room and food purchase to the nearest pound with just one click when booking online.
David Coffer, Chairman of The Coffer Group, said: This is a wonderful new channel for the old habit of dropping a few coins into a charity box on the shop counter, brought up to date for card and internet transactions. Harnessing the concept of micro-donations and aligning with the increasing use of cards for in-store and internet shopping, Pennies has already proved its success and I hope many more operators adopt this scheme. I’m delighted to be able to support them.”
Shoppers are given a choice every time, rather than a commitment, via a one-touch process on the credit-card machine. Whilst some donors may feel uncomfortable with donating small sums of money, the Pennies micro-donation scheme appeals by enabling shoppers to give small change privately with no fuss or hassle.
Carolyn Simons, head of business development at Pennies, said: ‘Pennies makes sense given the economic climate and the way that we pay increasingly by card or over the internet.’ Micro-donations offer retailers a great and cost effective way to differentiate in today’s climate. This fundraising approach appeals to all, but particularly under 34 year olds, where 74% say that they would give to charity through Pennies. With an estimated 13.9m people between the ages of 18 and 34 years in the UK this has the potential to encourage a new generation of “philanthropists”.
Participating operators nominate a charity or charities to receive the majority of funds raised through their outlets while the remaining funds are distributed between ten people related charities nominated by The Pennies Foundation. The Foundation is itself a charity and makes no profit as it is independently funded; the money raised through the participating retailers is entirely distributed to other charities.
Launched in November 2010, Pennies has already received some 440,000 consumer donations, raising more than £100,000, proving that micro-donations add up. The Foundation estimates that if half of the UKs 43 million card-holders gave just eight pence a week, £89 million a year could be raised.
For more information, visit www.pennies.org.uk or contact info@pennies.org.uk
