Hole-in-the-wall donating to arrive by end of the year
LINK head of development Graham Mott said:“With more than 10 million LINK ATM transactions a day, this is a real opportunity to raise significant sums of money for good causes. LINK cash withdrawals can exceed £10bn per month in value and at its busiest the company processes over one million transactions an hour."
Banks, building societies and cash machine operators have agreed to work together on the scheme. There are over 100m LINK-enabled cards in circulation, which can be used at nearly every cash machine in the UK.
The choice and number of charities involved will be down to each ATM operator so that a diverse range of charities, including local charities and disaster appeals, can be supported. Donations will be offered as a separate menu item on the ATM screen, or as a post-transaction option.
Mott believes the success of the scheme will depend on the choice of charity. “Feedback from HSBC, which has offered customers the opportunity to donate via ATMs, says they had a good response to emergency appeals.”
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude says: “I am delighted by the support of LINK’s member banks, building societies and ATM operators for enabling charity donations at cash machines. This will make charity giving quicker and easier for so many people as they can incorporate giving into their regular routine.”
The concept of ATM giving was originally proposed in the government’s Giving Green Paper in December 2010. In March 2011, a discussion was held between the Cabinet Office, LINK, the ATM operators’ consortium, several of the major banks and independent ATM operators to discuss the issues and explore the feasibility of introducing charitable giving at ATMs in the UK.
In May 2011, the Giving White Paper specifically mentioned LINK as a case study in its section on making giving easier and the government promised to support banks and ATM operators as they “develop the design and implementation of this programme by jointly convening a roundtable with the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team and leading voluntary research organisations”.
A YouGov poll in 2011 found that 43% of people who use a cash machine at least once a fortnight said they would sometimes use an ATM to make a donation; while regular ATM users and young people in particular seem to like the idea and say they would use ATMs to make regular donations.
Allowing donations via ATMs is available in Colombia, South America, however, Mott says customers have been put off because they are asked if they want to make a donation before they can choose any other options.
