The clink of coins tossed into Salvation Army red kettles in malls and on street corners, followed by the ring of a volunteer’s bell, have become signature sounds of the holiday season. But in recent years, some of those cash donations have been replaced by the tap of a credit card to a point-of-sale unit stationed beside the traditional kettle. The bell still rings, though.

Salvation Army’s kettle campaign first made contactless payment options available in 2020, through a partnership with Burlington, Ont.-based fintech Tiptap Pay. The company makes POS units that enable people to spontaneously make a donation with their debit or credit card, or mobile wallet. 

This time of year is particularly busy for the company, said Tiptap Pay’s chief executive officer Barry Hildred.

“Our transaction volumes go way up in November and December,” he said. “It’s the season of giving, and we do have a number of customers that run programs during the holidays.”

Cash is no longer king in Canada, and charities are under pressure to adapt. Contactless payments, including tap-to-pay by card or mobile device, made up 53 per cent of all payments in Canada in 2023, while cash transactions only accounted for 11 per cent of total transactions, according to Payments Canada’s 2024 payments trends report.

The shift away from cash comes as Canada’s charitable sector and religious institutions already face donor demographic challenges. According to CanadaHelps’ 2024 giving report, the number of Canadians making charitable donations has been declining for over 20 years. Just 17.7 per cent of Canadians logged a charitable donation receipt in their tax returns in 2021, down from 23.4 per cent in 2010. And, donations are more likely to be given by older Canadians.

“One of the things charities really need to focus on is, ‘how are we gonna attract young donors into supporting the cause?’ Younger Canadians expect organizations to show up online and have a holistic digital experience,” said Nicole Danesi, senior manager of strategic communications and brand at CanadaHelps. “It’s really important for charities not to just think of a current donor who might want to donate in cash, but to start to lay the foundation for future donors because it’s only going to get more digital.” 

Some charities are embracing contactless options to reach those younger demographics and capture impulse donations that have traditionally been made in cash. The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Free Methodist Church in Canada have shared recommendations with their churches on payment terminals and tech companies that serve churches. The Salvation Army works with Tiptap in Canada and has its own “Kettle Pay” QR code donation method in the United States. 

Hildred said Tiptap works with “a few thousand” Canadian charities, roughly half of which use the machines for specific campaigns and the other half operating them year-round. 

Churches under the Free Methodist denomination can choose the donation options that work for them, said Sandy Crozier, the church’s director of generosity and stewardship. She said she’s seen a mix of QR codes taped to the back of pews, e-transfers and the use of church tech providers like Tithe.ly and Pushpay, which have online, text, mobile app and kiosk giving options. The denomination also created customizable, printed cards for churches, which allow congregants to submit IOUs on donation plates and pay online later. 

“Across the board, we’ve seen giving go up” to Free Methodist churches as a result of those efforts, particularly if people opt in to recurring donations, Crozier said. 

“It’s making it easy for people to give regularly, but also spontaneously—making it easy for them in the pews if there’s a special cause or something happened,” she said. 

Tiptap is beginning to use its data to give charities recommendations on the donation amounts that people are most likely to respond to, Hildred said. Typically, donors in places with membership and “engaged traffic” like churches give more than those in a retail setting, but across the board the average donation made on a Tiptap machine is $10. 

The company recently enhanced its product to include card-linking technology, which Hildred said is useful for religious institutions that want to issue regular donors tax receipts. In 2025, it is planning to add new card-not-present technology, including QR codes and e-commerce options, that send donors to websites to encourage people to give custom amounts or become repeat donors.

Sacha Michna, senior manager of corporate and community partnerships at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, said tap donation options have been “a nice supplement to activities but it doesn’t necessarily replace face-to-face fundraising.”

The food bank started dabbling with tap donations three years ago during the pandemic, and has run roughly a dozen tap-to-give campaigns since then, using Tiptap machines. 

When Daily Bread has offered both cash and tap donation options, Michna said cash tends to perform better. The food bank has also found that people are more likely to tap if a Daily Bread staff member or volunteer is standing by the machine. 

“I think it provides a bit of peace of mind for people, because this is still relatively new technology,” he said.