Cultural education charity Shakespeare Schools Foundation (SSF) held its first ever stand-up comedy night in June in aid of its transformative work with young people nationwide. The event, A Man Walks into a Bard, took place in the heart of the London at The Comedy Store and featured a host of well-known comedians.

Another first for SSF was the introduction of a tap+DONATE box to the event, offering an additional way for the audience to support the charity. In 2016, 92m contactless cards were in circulation and by June 2016 alone, £1.9bn worth of transactions were taken on contactless cards. Its been two years since that data was published and with the introduction of Apple and Google Pay, the charity sector has to adapt to new ways of making giving easier for its audiences. SSF recognised this and reached out to networks in order to trial the contactless giving function.

Registered charity National Funding Scheme (providers of the DONATE service) provided the tap+DONATE box. DONATE provides a range of mobile fundraising tools to maximise fundraising campaigns,  enabling UK consumers to donate via touch, SMS text or online.

On the night of the comedy event, SSF used the unit to collect donations, with the host dubbing it ‘The Tapper’ and encouraging audience members to use it to donate and then pass it to the person next to them. The sell-out audience of 370 people donated £103 in cash, but £515 from contactless donations.
“SSF are excited to develop its use of ‘The Tapper’ at events in the future providing its diverse audiences and range of stakeholders the option to give via contactless payment and not replying plainly on cash donations in a bucket,” said SSF events manager, Georgie Brehaut.