The Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) has begun trialling contactless payments donations at Farmer Copleys in Pontefract, thanks to Yorkshire Payments.
The electronic device, the Good Box, accepts contactless donations offline, enabling the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to fundraise in more locations, particularly rural areas where there maybe be little or no mobile signal or WIFI. The high tech touch screen allows donors to increase or decrease their donation amount with ease, accepting payments of up to £30.
The Good box has been kindly donated to Yorkshire Air Ambulance for a 12 month period free of charge by the Brighouse based company, Yorkshire Payments. The YAA will trial its success within the organisation, with the hope of rolling out more contactless donation boxes in the future and enticing a new generation of donors, for whom contactless donations are more convenient.
Farmer Copleys are long standing supporters of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and have hosted many YAA events over the years. Their farm shop and café is popular with Yorkshire Air Ambulance supporters making it a perfect place to test the new products viability.
Since the beginning of lockdown, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance have lost an estimated £420,000 from cancelled events and fundraising activity and it has become increasingly important to look for new methods of fundraising. The new contactless boxes are an innovative way of bringing fundraising to rural areas, whilst keeping donors and staff COVID safe.
Katie Collinson, Corporate and Partnerships Manager for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said: “We are incredibly grateful for Yorkshire Payments support in helping us move our contactless giving forward and with the rise in contactless payments due to COVID-19, we hope the device will prove very popular with supporters.”
James Howard, Managing Director of Yorkshire Payments, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and to provide our technology to such an iconic landmark and well renowned establishment such as Farmer Copleys.
Yorkshire Payments has identified a need to provide contactless and digital donations in the marketplace as fewer consumers are carrying cash, and the coins they do carry tends to be spare loose change. The charity sector right now has been significantly impacted by the pandemic and is in there is a desperate need to change consumer behaviour and habits to help support great organisations like The Yorkshire Air Ambulance to continue to operate.
We are proud to partner with this wonderful organisation and will do all we can to maximise the fundraising they do through alternative methods, such as contactless card payments, smart watch devices and smart phone payments.”
Yorkshire Air Ambulance serves 5million people across Yorkshire and carries out over 1,500 missions every year. The charity operates two, state-of-the-art Airbus H145 helicopters and needs to raise £12,000 every day to keep saving lives.
