Helping supporters give: An introduction to handling card donations

As cash usage falls, we often receive questions from churches and charities who are considering facilitating cashless donations.

In this blog, we discuss some options for organisations as they seek to make giving as easy as possible for their supporters.

What to ask yourselves beforehand

• When do you want to take cashless donations (for example, at special events, a café, Sunday collections or mid-week)?
• Will the card reader be supervised or do you want something you can leave out in a particular location?
• Do you want to capture donor information for Gift Aid claims?
• Do you want donors to be able to choose ‘products’ or select their donation amounts themselves?

The options broadly fall into two main categories which are considered below.

1. Simple portable card readers, for example, SumUp or Zettle reader

The basic versions work alongside a smartphone app, so you will need someone with a smartphone or tablet to be on duty with the card reader and they will need to have the app downloaded on their device. You can set up multiple users to administer this and different products in the app.

More expensive versions will connect directly to your Wi-Fi. These could be passed around during a church service for example, but users will have to manually enter their donation amounts.

In both cases, there is an upfront cost for the device. After that it’s on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, with a transaction fee being charged to each donation.

Pros

• Relatively cheap and reasonable fees.
• Will link to some accounting software packages so that the transactions are automatically imported.
• Those connected to a smartphone can be set up with various ‘products’. This can be useful for toddler group donations, event costs or hall hire fees for example.

Cons

• No donor information is captured. If donations are small (<£30) you can claim GASDS (Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme), but for larger donations any Gift Aid claims would have to be collected separately and the claims made manually.
• Someone is needed to operate the devices, especially those that connect to a smartphone app and are not suitable to be left unsupervised.

This solution would work well if you will have someone on duty to collect payments and you don’t want to invest too much at this stage. It would be suitable if you plan to use it for events and activities, especially if most donations are likely to be one-off and small, or not eligible for Gift Aid.

2. Standalone donation terminals for example, CollecTin, Dona, Goodbox.

These are self-contained units which basically house a touchscreen and a card reader, sometimes in a secure stand. They use donation software such as Give A Little and payment processors such as SumUp or Stripe. They will capture donor information and Gift Aid declarations. Donors can easily operate the unit themselves to choose a donation amount or product.

Pros

• Self-standing and easy for donors to use unsupervised.
• The more robust units can be left unattended, such as if your church is open during the week.
• They can record donor information and Gift Aid declarations.
• Many work offline or with multi-network SIMs and they usually accept Chip & Pin as well as contactless.

Cons

• More expensive, usually with a hardware cost and monthly fee as well as transaction fees.
• The initial set-up may take a little longer.

Conclusion

As we increasingly move towards a cashless society, the ability of churches and charities to take card payments can have a significant impact on their ability to raise funds. In addition, cash handling is often a weak control point and moving to contactless payments can improve financial controls. With a variety of options available, you should be able to find a solution which will suit your needs.

June 2026

Further reading: Our blog Using QR codes for charity and church fundraising discusses another option for reducing cash giving.