Donors increasingly turning to digital payment methods

Increasing numbers of donations are being made without the donor even having to find their bank card, as three new reports from across the continent show.

In Germany, there is a clear generational split in this trend, according to analysis of a 5,000-person survey for the Deutscher Fundraising Verband (DFRV).

It shows that while 58% of baby boomers (born 1946-64) use bank transfers to donate, only 18% use PayPal. Meanwhile, for Generation Z (born 1996-2010), the numbers are near equal – 35% using bank transfer and 39% using PayPal.

In addition, while 9% of Gen Z are using Apple Pay, Google Pay or Garmin Pay to donate, this has only been taken up by 1% of boomers. Apple, Google and Garmin were also used by 2% of Generation X (born 1965-79), and by 5% of Generation Y (1980-95).

Commenting, DFRV managing director Larissa Probst said:

“Today, we are even more able to offer people their favourite payment options. This is important because offering more donation methods almost always means more donations.”

UK uptick

At the end of April, UK donation platform goDonate reported that 57% of the £25m total donations via goDonate in 2023 were made using a bank card, down from 61% in 2022, with the rest coming from digital wallets.

Specifically, 29% were from PayPal (down from 31% in 2022), 12.2% Apple Pay (8.8% in 2022) and 2.1% Google Pay (1.7% in 2022).

Digital wallets were also used in 16% of regular gifts.

Vicky Reeves, managing director of goDonate, commented:

“It is vital that charities offer the widest possible range of payment choices within their donation journeys.”

French preferences

Another report, analysing €369m of donations in France via iRaiser, said that mobile donations accounted for 24% of donations on the platform last year, up from 17% back in 2023, although their average value has declined from €113 to €95 in that period.

Over the same period, the proportion of donations using a bank card dropped from 85% to 83%, while PayPal giving rose from 7% to 10%. ApplePay accounted for 2% of donations in 2023, versus 1% in 2022.

Apple Pay average donations were €112, while card donations averaged €159. While PayPal gifts were considerably smaller at €99, they have grown by 10% since 2019, versus 8% growth for all iRaiser donations in that period.

iRaiser’s report also shows an increase in use of another relatively new payment method – the SEPA scheme available to EU members. It accounted for 23% of regular gifts on iRaiser in 2023, up from 19% in 2022.

Main picture by Freepik