Pennies, the award-winning fintech charity which enables micro-donations to charity, revealed the Pennies Award winners 2024 – which recognise the individuals and partners who have made significant contributions to the micro-donation movement – at its annual Pennies Autumn Celebration Event on Tuesday, 15 October in London.
The Pennies Award winners 2024 are:
- Moto wins the Merchant Impact Award for enabling significant growth in micro-donations as a result of specific actions, driving increased consumer donations in their business and unlocking increased measurable impact for their charity partners.
- The Innovation in Technology Award recognises Stripe as the winner for being a technology partner who led significant technology innovation to enable more donation opportunities and greater charitable impact.
- Freddie’s Flowers is the winner of the Partnership Breakthrough Award for helping to rapidly accelerate growth in the micro-donation movement over the past 12 months.
- Ryan Taylor and Tom Noise from digital agency Wirebox, Rajan Patel from Stripe and Gopal Yendluri of Freddie’s Flowers are all winners of the Unsung Hero Award for going above and beyond to accelerate or support the Pennies micro-donation movement.
- The winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award is Superdrug and Marie Curie for making an outstanding contribution to Pennies and the micro-donation movement which resulted in significant positive outcomes.
Pennies CEO, Alison Hutchinson CBE, said: “Huge congratulations to the winners of the Pennies Awards 2024 who are so ably championing the power of micro-donations in demonstrating social purpose, helping charities to make a greater impact, and giving their customers an affordable way to donate without cash as part of their daily lives. To date Pennies has unlocked over 230 million micro-donations and raised over £55 million for more than 1,000 charities, and I applaud and profoundly thank our partners for playing a key role in enabling these amazing sums.”
The event, hosted by journalist Sally Bundock, focused on the role of micro-donations in accelerating social change, and featured an insightful panel session titled ‘Innovation for Social Impact: Tech for Good in Business and the Community’ with Tim Doubleday (CFO, Burger King), Nick Merriman (CEO, English Heritage), Clair Preston-Beer (COO, Greene King), and Régis Schultz (CEO, JD Sports). These industry leaders discussed how they use emerging tech to create difference and community impact in their businesses, and how they balance these with the key challenges facing national and global brands in 2024.
Clair Preston-Beer, COO, Greene King, said: “When challenges come along, it makes you more determined… this commitment to giving something back and making sure communities know we’re a force for a good is something we’re focused on and the sector is focused on. Raising money, and showing customers and our team members that we’re giving back, is a really important thing to do.”
When asked about businesses thinking about using Pennies for the first time, Nick Merriman, CEO, English Heritage added: “Don’t just dip your toes in the water – jump in, wholeheartedly. For us, Pennies is one of those rare things where it’s a win-win for everyone.”
Attendees also heard first hand from three charities, and their merchant partners, about the incredible impact of customer micro-donations: Poundland and Poundland Foundation’s support for Make-A-Wish; The Entertainer and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity; and Superdrug and Marie Curie – where just 2 minutes of micro-donations from Superdrug customers could help Marie Curie fund an hour of nursing care.
Micro-donations can be made on card payment terminals in-store and at the checkout online or in-app, when shopping with participating Pennies partners across retail, hospitality, leisure and the service sector.