Whitepaper: Contactless Donation Devices in a Cashless Society

An analysis of payment behaviour, giving behaviour and deployment settings in the United Kingdom charity sector

DonorDynamics, Hardware partner of Give A Little, London.
2026

Abstract

The use of cash in the United Kingdom has fallen below one in ten payments. For organisations that raise part of their income through physical collection, principally the charity sector, this creates a structural mismatch between the willingness to give and the means of payment a prospective donor carries at the moment of asking. This paper brings together the relevant UK data on payment and giving behaviour, reviews the available evidence on the effect of contactless giving on the size and frequency of donations, and examines where physical contactless donation devices add the most value. It gives particular attention to Gift Aid, a UK mechanism for which point-of-donation devices can automate declaration capture, and to deployment within hospitals and NHS charities in support of medical research. The evidence points consistently to higher and more frequent giving where contactless payment is enabled at the moment itself.

Keywords: contactless payments; fundraising; giving behaviour; donation devices; Gift Aid; NHS charities; accessibility; charity sector

1. Introduction

The way the United Kingdom pays has changed profoundly within a decade. The electronic payment has become the norm and cash has been reduced to a small minority of transactions. For most of the economy this is a matter of convenience and efficiency. For organisations that raise a share of their income by asking people in person for a contribution, with the collection tin, the bucket or the donation point, it is a more fundamental problem. The request is made at a time and place where the prospective donor no longer carries the means of payment being asked for.

This paper examines the role that physical contactless donation devices can play in this context. It considers, in turn, the decline of cash and its implications for traditional fundraising, the evidence on the effect of contactless giving on the size of the gift, the explanations for that effect, the significance of the in-person moment, the particular relevance of Gift Aid, the principal deployment settings, the design requirements that equipment must meet, and the considerations that arise on implementation. The analysis focuses on the United Kingdom, but the underlying mechanisms apply more widely across the European charity sector.

2. The Decline of Cash in the United Kingdom

The shift towards digital payment is no longer a forecast but a measured reality. In 2024 cash fell to around 4.4 billion payments and, for the first time, accounted for less than one in ten of all payments made in the UK, roughly nine per cent. That share stood at twelve per cent in 2023, twenty-three per cent in 2019 and forty-eight per cent a decade earlier. Card payments now account for the majority of transactions, with contactless debit and credit card payments alone reaching close to nineteen billion, around three in five of all card payments.

More telling than checkout behaviour is what the change means for what people actually carry. More than half of adults are now registered for a mobile wallet, and half of the adult population used mobile contactless payment at least once a month in 2024, the first time regular mobile payment use reached that level. Almost a third of UK adults are described as living largely cashless lives, and only a small minority, in the order of two per cent, rely mainly on cash. The trend is not confined to the young: among the over-65s, contactless adoption has been growing fastest for several years. The coin in the pocket, for decades the basis of street and door-to-door collection, has largely disappeared, and the decline is forecast to continue.

3. Implications for Traditional Fundraising

The consequences for physical collection are direct. A collector who offers only a sealed tin reaches, by definition, only the donor who happens to be carrying coins. Everyone who is willing to contribute but holds no cash is left out. This is not a matter of declining willingness but of a payment method that no longer matches everyday practice. National giving research confirms the pattern: cash remains one of the more common ways to donate in any given month, but its use is falling, and the overall donor base is shrinking even as committed donors give more.

The missed contribution is hard to observe at the level of an individual donor, but across a full collection period and many thousands of collection points it accumulates to a substantial sum. The core of the problem is therefore precisely defined. It is not the physical act of asking that has become obsolete, but the physical means of settlement. It is at exactly that point that contactless donation devices intervene.

4. Empirical Findings: The Effect on the Gift

A natural assumption is that contactless payment increases convenience but leaves the size of the gift unchanged. The available UK evidence suggests otherwise. The contactless giving platform with which DonorDynamics partners reports an average contactless donation, made with a card present, of just under ten pounds, against an average online donation many times higher. Over seven hundred thousand cashless donations were made through that platform in a single year, with donation numbers growing rapidly year on year; the platform reached its second ten million pounds raised in eleven months, against three years for the first.

The pattern is echoed in the place-of-worship sector, where contactless giving is now well established. Across UK Catholic parishes, contactless giving in 2025 amounted to roughly ten million pounds across close to one million individual donations, with a median and most common gift of five pounds and an average just above ten pounds. One diocese reported raising more than six hundred and fifty thousand pounds over four years through contactless terminals in its parishes, at an average donation of just under twelve pounds. These figures are not built on a handful of large gifts; they reflect sustained, everyday participation from a broad base of donors.

Sources: contactless giving platform statistics; reported UK Catholic parish giving data; results reported by a Catholic diocese. Figures relate to different periods and settings and are indicative.

The common thread is that contactless donations cluster well above the loose change a cash donor typically gives. The figures originate from different periods and contexts and should be read as indicative rather than as a controlled comparison. The underlying development, a steadily falling level of cash in circulation among the public, has only strengthened over the period in question, so it is reasonable to expect the gap between cash and contactless collection to be widening rather than narrowing.

5. Why Contactless Giving Raises the Gift

Three connected mechanisms account for the higher average gift under contactless collection. First, the physical constraint disappears. The donor is no longer limited to the coins that happen to be in a pocket, but can give the amount intended. Second, preset amounts act as an anchor. A choice between, for example, five, ten and twenty pounds steers the contribution upward relative to what loose change usually yields. Third, the action is familiar and quick; the same tap that people make several times a day in shops invites no hesitation and feels secure.

These mechanisms reinforce one another. Removing friction raises the proportion of would-be donors who complete the action, while the anchoring effect of preset amounts raises the average value of each completed gift. The combined effect explains why not only more people give, but the individual gift is larger.

6. The Significance of the In-Person Moment

Online giving is substantial and will remain so. That does not, however, explain why the in-person gift is gaining importance precisely now. The answer lies in the moment. People give most readily when they are moved, and that rarely happens in front of a screen. It happens on the street during a collection, at a sponsored event, in a museum at a story that lands, in a place of worship after an appeal, or in a hospital through the experience of the care that a person or their relative receives. At those moments the willingness to give is at its greatest and the attention undivided.

The risk is that the moment passes unused. Between the intention to give later and the gift actually made lies a considerable gap. The contribution that cannot be made at the moment itself, for want of cash and a device, is in most cases lost for good. A physical donation device captures the gift exactly where engagement arises, without asking the donor to remember anything or complete a form. Two further properties set it apart from the online channel: a fixed installation works unattended, including outside campaign and opening hours, and a well-presented, recognisable device bearing the organisation's name strengthens trust at the moment of giving.

7. Gift Aid: A Structural Multiplier

A feature specific to the United Kingdom makes in-person digital capture particularly valuable. Through Gift Aid, charities can reclaim an additional twenty-five per cent from HM Revenue and Customs on eligible donations from UK taxpayers, at no extra cost to the donor. A cash tin captures none of this, because it records neither the donor's intent nor the declaration required.

The effect is material. On the partnered cashless giving platform, around three in ten donations were Gift Aided. Automating the declaration at the device turns each eligible tap into a larger net gift and reduces the administrative burden of reclaiming the relief later. For UK organisations this is a decisive advantage of digital in-person capture over the anonymous cash collection it replaces, and it compounds the higher average gift discussed above.

8. Deployment Settings

A donation device is not a solution for a single situation but a family of installations for the places where organisations and the public meet in person. The value differs by context, but the underlying pattern is the same everywhere: the contribution that would otherwise have been lost for want of cash is now made after all.

8.1 Street and Door-to-Door Collection

For street and door collections a contactless installation with preset amounts makes the difference. The donor without coins can still contribute, the average gift rises, and no tin of cash need be carried on the street.

8.2 Events and Sponsored Activities

At a run, a gala or a benefit, engagement and attendance are both high. A free-standing installation at the start, the finish or the reception point captures contributions at the moment of enthusiasm, without queues or paperwork.

8.3 Museums, Heritage and Visitor Attractions

A fixed donation installation at the exit replaces the traditional donations box. Visitors who have just experienced something of value give, with a single action, an amount that reflects their appreciation, even when they carry no cash.

8.4 Places of Worship

Collection in churches and other places of worship is shifting with society, and this is among the best-evidenced settings. A discreet wall or desk installation enables giving by the growing number of attendees who no longer carry cash, while preserving the anonymity valued in this context and capturing Gift Aid where the donor consents.

8.5 Hospitals and NHS Charities

Hospitals are a distinctive and, to date, under-used setting. Many NHS hospitals are supported by an associated charity, such as Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity or The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and by the national umbrella body NHS Charities Together. While the NHS funds the day-to-day running of these hospitals, the associated charities fund medical research, equipment and patient and staff support that fall outside core budgets. Diversifying income beyond a limited number of large donors is, for these charities, a recognised priority.

The hospital offers three favourable conditions at once. Emotional engagement is high, because patients, relatives and visitors experience the value of the care at first hand, a pattern long known in fundraising as grateful-patient giving. The daily footfall is large and sustained, comprising patients, families, visitors and staff. And trust in the institution is, by its nature, considerable. A contactless donation installation can convert that engagement into a concrete contribution at the moment itself, with the Gift Aid declaration captured in the same action.

Suitable locations include the main entrance and atrium, reception, the waiting areas of outpatient clinics and treatment centres, and the immediate vicinity of an existing fundraising or charity desk. A preset destination, for example cancer research, children's research or cardiac research, makes the contribution concrete and raises willingness to give. The appetite is evident in the national picture: health causes, including hospices and medical research, already receive the largest share of public giving in the UK. In this way a hospital charity can not only offset the structural decline of cash, but use the physical footfall as a stable, broadly based source of income for medical research.

8.6 Reception, Entrance and Visitor Centres

At the reception of an organisation, an animal rescue centre or the visitor centre of a nature site, a fixed installation accepts contributions day and night, including when no staff are present.

8.7 Retail and Public Space

In partnership with retailers or at busy locations, a prominent installation gathers small, frequent contributions from passers-by. In functional terms this is the digital equivalent of the spare change that once went into the collection box.

9. Design Requirements for Donation Devices

Not every device with a payment function is suitable for gathering contributions over a long period, unattended and in public. Practice imposes a number of requirements that determine whether an installation genuinely raises more than a passive collection box.

Contactless payment as the starting point, not an addition. The action must be as short as possible, and preset amounts steer the gift and raise the average.

Reliability and continuous availability. An unattended device must operate for months without supervision, recover by itself after a fault or power interruption, and be locked to a single task. Remote management avoids costly visits to the site.

Accessibility for everyone. In the United Kingdom, accessibility is governed by the Equality Act 2010, which requires reasonable adjustments so that services, including payment, can be used by disabled people. For organisations that also operate in the European Union, the European Accessibility Act applies. Accessible design is both an obligation and good practice: a device that works for everyone also captures more gifts.

A clear separation of responsibilities. The hardware and firmware, which must be robust, secure and certified, are kept separate from the donation and payment software, which is provided and maintained by a specialist platform. This separation keeps the whole secure and certifiable.

10. The DonorDynamics Platform

DonorDynamics designs and manufactures contactless donation devices for the charity sector in the United Kingdom, the wider European market and beyond. The principle is a single, reliable hardware platform in several form factors, for every place where an organisation meets its public. The donation and payment software is provided by Give A Little in London, with which DonorDynamics has a partnership, so that each layer rests with the party best placed to provide it. The product family comprises five forms.

CharityTab. A versatile donation installation that can be mounted against a wall or, by way of a standard 75 by 75 millimetre VESA fixing, in almost any configuration, suited to a desk, an entrance or a fixed position.

CharityDesk. A compact installation for reception, entrance or counter, accepting contributions with or without staff present.

CharityWall. A discreet fixed installation for museums, places of worship, hospitals and visitor centres, available day and night.

CharityStand. A free-standing floor installation for halls, events and busy spaces.

CharityPole. A robust form for long-term placement in locations with heavy footfall.

11. Implementation Considerations

The move to contactless giving need not be large in scale or costly. For most organisations a focused start is preferable, at the location with the highest engagement and the greatest footfall, followed by expansion on the basis of measured results. Three principles are decisive. First, the choice of the right moment matters more than the number of locations; a single installation at a high-engagement point generally raises more than several at quiet ones. Second, during the transition it is advisable to continue accepting cash alongside the contactless option, so that no one is excluded while the cashless group grows of its own accord. Third, the adjustable parameters, such as preset amounts, the destination and the placement, should be measured and refined, after which expansion follows to the installations that prove themselves.

12. Conclusion

The decline of cash in the United Kingdom has placed traditional physical fundraising under pressure, not because the willingness to give has fallen, but because the means of payment being asked for is absent at the moment of asking. The available UK evidence points consistently to higher and more frequent giving once contactless payment is enabled at the moment itself, and Gift Aid multiplies each eligible gift by a further quarter. The in-person moment, precisely where engagement arises, therefore remains a valuable and partly untapped channel. Across settings as varied as the street collection and deployment within hospitals in support of medical research, well-designed contactless donation devices offer the means to realise the contribution that would otherwise have been lost.

References

1. UK Finance. UK Payment Markets 2025 (figures for 2024).

2. UK Finance. UK Cash and Cash Machines 2025.

3. Charities Aid Foundation. UK Giving Report 2025 and UK Giving Report 2024.

4. HM Revenue and Customs. Gift Aid guidance for charities.

5. Give A Little. Cashless donation statistics, 2022 and 2023.

6. UK Catholic parish giving data, 2025, and results reported by a Catholic diocese.

7. NHS Charities Together; Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity; The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Public information on NHS charity fundraising for patient care and medical research.

DonorDynamics,

donordynamics.net. Hardware partner of Give A Little, London.