The Church of England is offering over 16,000 churches, cathedrals and religious sites discounted contactless payment technology.
It trialled the technology towards the end of last year and has now agreed a deal with technology providers to offer handsets at a discounted rate through its Parish Buying portal.
John Preston, national stewardship officer of the CofE, said: “There is a clear need for our parishes to introduce card and contactless facilities and we are excited to make this available through Parish Buying. How we pay for things is changing fast, especially for younger churchgoers, who no longer carry cash, and we want all generations to be able to make the most of their place of worship.
“Installing this technology means that one-off fees can be done via card, as can making one-off donations. The vast bulk of regular giving will continue to be done by standing order as we continue our trial with various technologies.”
The CofE has partnered with two financail technology companies, iZettle and SumUp, to offer the handsets to parishes.
Through the Parish Buying portal churches can buy the readers for £19.50, compared to a usual price of £29 and also benefit from a lower transaction cost of between 1.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent, compared to the usual rate of 1.75 per cent.
The CofE is continuing to look into technology that would create contactless donation plates that can be passed around the congregation.
Hospice launches contactless donation window
Welsh hospice charity, Tŷ Hafan, launched a contactless donation shop window earlier this month and says that it has already received “hundreds” of donations.
Since 10 March the charity has been accepting £3 donations via a contactless terminal fixed to the window as part of a campaign to raise funds to pay for nurses.
Rhodri Harris, digital development manager at Tŷ Hafan, said: “We recognise the importance in digital innovation to the charity sector and we are striving to push Tŷ Hafan to the forefront of digital giving in Wales. We hope that introducing Contactless technology is only the beginning of our developments in digital fundraising.”
The charity previously used donation boxes donated by Barclays to collect donations as part of a public art trail fundraising event, Snowdog Tails.
|
Related articles
