The Mayor of London has launched Penny for London, a contactless giving service powered by Barclaycard, aimed at Londons commuters.

The scheme allows travellers to add a small charitable donation – as small as 1p – onto the cost of each journey they pay for with their contactless card, which will go to the Mayors Fund for London and partnered non-profits.

Penny for London was announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson, at an event in London Bridge station this morning.

“With around half of all the UKs contactless spend made here, London is the contactless capital,” said Johnson. “In the future, as increasing numbers move from cash to card, we hope the contactless collection tin is adopted by all Londoners to help ensure charities continue to thrive.”

The service currently only works with Visa or MasterCard contactless credit and debit cards, rather than mobile contactless payments – which have been trialled on the London travel network, but not officially rolled out – or the Oyster card.

Travellers can opt in using a mobile site, set how much they want to give with each journey and set overall caps on their donation amounts.

The Penny for London scheme is also in talks with a number of major retailers to widen its scope beyond the London travel network, so that people can make donations with contactless purchases they make in store.