Currensea, which has created a money-saving debit card linked to existing bank accounts, has created a new Head of Charity and Corporate Partnerships role to develop its ‘powered by’ offering for charities and corporate partners.
Rory Maclean has joined Currensea from Givergy, an award-winning fundraising platform, where he was Head of Sales and responsible for helping hundreds of charities and corporates maximise their fundraising at events and online. Prior to this, Rory was also Business Development Manager at Givergy, a former winner of the Institute of Fundraising’s Best Digital / Tech Partner award.
Rory’s focus at Currensea will be centred around the development and expansion of the fintech’s ‘powered by’ offering which launched in 2021 and allows charities to issue branded cards to their supporters so they can roundup UK spending to the nearest 5p or convert savings made on overseas spending into charity donations.
As the average person makes 380 debit card transactions per year in the UK*, the ‘powered by’ programme offers charities a unique additional revenue stream, with potential donations of almost £24 per person, including Gift Aid, from roundup spending in the UK alone.
Abroad, Currensea’s card offers customers savings of at least 85% on overseas transaction fees – customers can then opt to donate all or part of these savings to charity.
The most recent partner of the ‘powered by’ programme is St Martin-in-the-Fields Trust, a charity supporting the work of the iconic central London church including helping women move away from homelessness.
Rory Maclean, Head of Charity and Corporate Partnerships at Currensea, says: “This is a really exciting time for Currensea as well as our charity partners. ‘Powered by’ is a unique offering in the sector, making it quicker and easier for donors to support the causes they care about, without the need for charities to invest huge amounts of resource in developing their own in house financial or technology arm. I can’t wait to see charity branded cards being used around the world!”
James Lynn, Co-Founder of Currensea, comments: “Rory is a fantastic addition to our team at Currensea, bringing a wealth of expertise in supporting charities to scale up their fundraising activity and access additional revenue streams. He’ll play a pivotal role in expanding our partnerships to ensure that more charities across the UK can increase their donor base.
“Our ‘powered-by’ programme is something we’re hugely passionate about and believe it’s innovative option for customers looking for more control over how they spend their money. Rounding up spending is a simple way of giving back to our community, with a small contribution making all the difference. For charities, it unlocks the potential for engaging with a brand-new supporter base and an opportunity to drive donations.
“The programme is a perfect example of the opportunities embedded finance can offer charities – there’s no need to spend huge amounts developing a tech approach, instead partnering with innovative fintechs to reap the benefits of streamlining the donation process.”
As background, Currensea allows its users to access the best foreign exchange (FX) rates at only 0% to 0.5% above the FX base rate. With high street banks typically charging 3%-5% per transaction abroad, Currensea saves at least 85% on every transaction abroad by cutting out the normal fees. For example, a user spending $1500 while visiting the USA can choose to contribute 50% of their savings – over £20 – while still saving money on foreign exchange.
The Currensea card uses secure technology called open banking – a secure data-sharing approach between financial institutions – to connect directly to someone’s bank account with their approval, allowing travellers to make overseas transactions directly from funds in their current account, whilst avoiding high bank fees, and UK users to use the round-up function.