CAF survey reveals concerns over cash shortfall amid coronavirus lockdown.
A quarter of UK charities are not set up to receive digital donations, a new poll has suggested.
Research for the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) also revealed that 20% of charities were worried about the financial impact of people carrying less cash in a bid to limit the spread of coronavirus.
According to one recent survey, use of cash in the UK fell by 50% within days of the lockdown being imposed in late March.
Cash remains the most common way to donate to charity, making up 53% of all donations to UK charities in the last year. But amid the ongoing pandemic and lockdown, charities are now being forced to modernise their funding models.
The CAF survey found that many charities have already moved towards digital donations with 41% saying they can accept donations through their own website and the same number stating they were set up to accept donations through other digital means such as online platforms.
A further quarter (24%) said they are already accepting contactless donations and almost one in five (18%) reported that they see the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to modernise and shift their fundraising towards online efforts.
However, one in 10 small charities said they could not afford to buy the technology that would enable them to take cashless donations.
Susan Pinkney, CAF’s head of research said: “These results are a true worry for so many charities relying on cash donations – which are vital to charities in the UK and so many have seen that source of income disappear overnight.
“While some have been able to adopt new technology such as digital charity collection tins, the nature of this crisis means that they are unlikely to alleviate the problem as so few people are out on our high streets at the moment.
“It is very good news that some charities are seeing this as a chance to move to digital donations, but we worry about those charities being left behind at a time when their services are in such demand.”
CAF spoke to 385 charities for the poll, which was conducted on 6-7 May.
