Sometimes, it’s nice to give things away to others. When you have been blessed with money, health, and happiness, giving to the less fortunate can be very rewarding. However, in the past, being able to identify worthy causes (and then make charitable donations) was extremely difficult.
Now thanks to technology though, it’s never been easier. There are various charities with websites that you can donate directly to, as well as crowdfunding sites that allow you to donate directly to people’s causes.
This post will tell you all of the ways that technology has made charitable giving easier.
Processing Offers
Some payment processors give people making international transactions the opportunity to donate money to charity. Others are offering people lower fees when they send money to war-torn countries, like Ukraine. By lowering their fees, they ensure that people in such places receive as much money as possible.
An example of this is Wise’s transfer fees to Ukraine, which have been significantly lowered. The company has reduced their fees for people sending money to Ukraine. Other transfer services have introduced similar schemes.
It is also sometimes common for transfer services to ask people if they want to round up their transfer to the nearest whole number, and then donate that extra portion to a charitable cause. By doing all of these things, payment processors can encourage people with no real interest in charitable giving to make donations.
Faster Advertising
When a worthy cause arises, charities are able to advertise it a lot faster using social media than they would’ve been able to two decades ago. Before, charities relied on word-of-mouth, monthly newsletters, and television adverts.
These things could take months to generate or be released. Now, however, charities can make a single post on social media and can be trending in as little as an hour. Faster advertising and greater reach make it easier for charities to make money. They also make it easier for people interested in supporting charitable causes to give money.
Independent Fundraisers
However, it’s not just large charities and companies that are able to raise money. Now, anybody can start their own fundraiser. Whether or not one’s fundraiser takes off depends on its reach, exposure, and if it’s a worthy cause.
Platforms allow individuals to create their own fundraisers and then market them, keeping most of what their fundraiser generates. Fundraising platforms do take a small fee from each fundraiser, to keep themselves running.
The use of fundraising platforms means that charities no longer have to represent people or generate interest in a cause, people can do it independently.
Allowing Micro-giving
Many years ago, charities did not give people the option to make small donations. Donations were usually made by cheque, and charities had fixed amounts that could be sent (i.e., $10, $100, $1,000). Now, however, people can give however much they want to – or can afford to – to charities.
Online charities give people the opportunity to send however much they want. The giving box on most charitable sites is now blank. People can input a number that’s comfortable for them. This means more people are able to give because by limiting how much could be sent, charities limited who could send money.
More Secure Payments
Modern technology has made sending money to charities a lot more secure. In the past, people sent money in cheque-form, through the mail. It was common for people’s cheques to be misplaced or stolen. Now, however, people’s transactions are processed immediately, directly to the charity’s bank or payment processing account.
While it is true that cybercrime is more dangerous than ever, most charities take measures to protect against it. Payments are always encrypted, and charities employ managed security services to introduce safeguarding measures, designed to repel and block cyberattacks. When you send money to a charity today, you don’t have to worry about it being stolen.
Donation Tracking
However, if you do worry about your money being stolen or have doubts about whether or not your money’s reaching the cause that you’ve donated money to, many charities will now allow you to track your donation.
This is especially true if you have made a donation using cryptocurrency, because of the Blockchain. It is worth noting that not all donations actually go where they are supposed to, sometimes they go on things like admin fees and employee salaries, in order to keep the charity running.
Technology has made charitable giving a lot easier, for charities and for people interested in making donations. It’s also a lot safer to give money away today, too. However, before donating money always research the cause, just so you can be sure that it is genuine.
