Case Studies
Guide Dogs Queensland
Increasingly people aren't carrying cash.
We're trying to move with the times and we're pretty excited about what this presents.
Jock Beveridge
General Manager Community Engagement, Guide Dogs Queensland
- The Challenge
- The Solution
For Guide Dogs Queensland the downward trend of cash based donations was being felt across the organisation. Jock and the team were on the lookout for creative, cashless donation solutions to bring a future focus to donation collection and to engage a younger demographic of donor, used to doing everything on their smart phone and looking for interactive experiences.
Guide dogs puppies in training receive a lot of attention when in public and each interaction presents the handler with an opportunity to talk about the importance of the cause to the engaged public. Often times this exchange results in a request to contribute on-the-spot and with no means to do so easily, we came up with a low-cost, contactless, cashless donation solution for Guide Dogs Queensland.
We embedded near field communication (NFC) and QR code technology directly into the puppy’s jackets, which upon scanning the QR Code or tapping via NFC, the donor was linked directly to our proprietary mobile donation platform to enable an on-the-spot, low-friction, mobile donation of any amount.
The embedded technology was designed to go through the wash to ensure the puppies had clean jackets and our use of a passive, low-frequency NFC chip meant the engagement was harmless to the pup.
Listen to Jock’s ABC Radio interview here.
The Salvation Army
NFC is a great company to work with.
They have been very helpful and responsive during this innovative learning experience.
Andrew Hill
General Manager Community Fundraising, The Salvation Army
- The Challenge
- The Solution
Australians are giving less and less each year however the value of individual donations has been rising. For the Salvation Army their annual Door Knock Appeal echoed this trend the only problem was their ability to accept high value donations being limited by cash collection tins and a limited number of tap and go machines.
We created a smart lanyard with QR code and embedded near field communication (NFC) technology linked to our purpose-built mobile donation platform to allow the Salvos to provide a low-cost, highly scalable, wearable donation point for their door knockers and potential donors.
This allowed the Salvos to put a donation point in the hands of their supporters at scale and enabled donors to make donations of any amount from the comfort of their home and the comfort of the smart phone device they know, love and trust.
The standard objection at a door is, “Sorry I don’t have any cash on me”. For the Salvos this year they were able to use our wearable, cashless donation technology to reply with, “That’s ok, do you have your mobile phone?”.
To our delight, we had one-off donations of $5,000 and $1,000 from donors who wouldn’t have donated otherwise.
University of the Sunshine Coast (USC)
In the couple hours we had, on 100 occasions people used the wearable tech.
That's a significant outcome.
Russell Ousley
Director USC Development Office
- The Challenge
- The Solution
The university runs its annual Giving Day as a donation drive to support student’s financial hardship. They noticed a decline in cash giving and the ongoing of engaging students in a way that makes sense to them. With a younger demographic and no easy means to donate on-the-spot, USC was looking for creative solutions and a fun and engaging way to collect.
We created USC Giving Day smart t-shirts with embedded, machine-washable QR code and near field communication (NFC) patches which could be scanned or tapped to enable an on-the-spot donation.
The university administered the wearable fundraising technology to their volunteer team leaders on the day and students responded passionately donating over 100 times in 3 hours via the t-shirts.
What’s more, when the EFTPOS point of sale donation terminal failed, donors needed only an internet connection to make donations through the smart t-shirts and the mobility of a wearable gave volunteers the ability to approach people in queues to talk about the cause and collect donations.
Wearables as an effective, low-cost donor acquisition and donation platform was born.