We’re excited to announce our partnership with Pennies, the award-winning fintech charity, to help drive digital charitable donations from businesses with on-site hospitality.

The joint partnership will offer businesses the opportunity to enable Pennies onto the mySYSTOPIA payment app, making it simple and easy for consumers to donate a few pence to charity when paying for their food and beverages, with just a press of a button.

As the leading fintech charity specialising in micro-donations, Pennies offers consumers a chance to donate to charity by ‘rounding up’ or ‘topping up’ on the payment they are making. Through these micro-donations, Pennies has supported brands to raise over £30million from over 120million consumer donations, for 650+ charities.

Chris Lyons, our Group Managing Director here at Systopia, said: “With the lockdown restrictions now easing and workplaces starting to see their people return to the office, transactions in corporate hospitality areas will start to increase again. The majority of these transactions will be cashless – cash payments have been steadily declining in recent years, with increasing numbers of consumers choosing to pay via contactless, digital wallets and mobile payments. The pandemic has simply accelerated this move.

“We – and our clients – recognise the importance of showing support for charitable causes, with consumers increasingly choosing to purchase products from companies that support issues important to them. Activating the Pennies technology onto our systems is simple – meaning businesses can easily offer their people the opportunity to donate to the chosen charities effortlessly; without having to implement any new system, hire new staff or incur additional cost. We have already installed Pennies at one of our large bank clients in London, and many more are interested.”

Our mySYSTOPIA app, which contains the Pennies ‘donation option’, is available for iOS and android smart devices, and allows users to order food and beverage options as well as pay online.  Multiple payment cards can be added to each person’s personal account, giving them full control over their spending. The app also encourages sales through loyalty schemes, where users can collect and redeem points – for example for buying the ‘meal of the week’ or for purchasing a breakfast deal.

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO at Pennies, said: “Pennies is always evolving to ensure we support changes in payments, and the increase – ever more so since the pandemic – of people carrying less cash and wishing to pay digitally. We are delighted to be partnering with Systopia, to give their customers the opportunity to join the Pennies movement and enable more people to give a little back and raise vital funds for charities who so desperately need it.”

Chris Lyons concludes: “We’re hoping that through our network of clients, we can encourage more to get onboard and enable Pennies into their existing payment system, and together raise much needed charitable donations.”

For any of our clients – or new businesses – who are interested in hearing more about enabling Pennies onto our payment app, drop us a line on info@systopia.co.uk