For Good Causes wants donations made with loyalty points to qualify for Gift Aid

For Good Causes is calling on HM Revenue & Customs to allow non-cash charity donations, made using loyalty points and rewards, to qualify for Gift Aid during the coronavirus outbreak. This can increase the donation value by 25%, it says.

Check out the company’s petition here.

Big hitters

Rakuten and BP recently joined the For Good Causes charitable giving platform.

This unites brands and retailers with more than 20,000 charities, enabling consumers to donate their loyalty and reward points to causes that are close to their heart.

Also recently onboard with the initiative is the Koin Rewards app, which features the likes of Neals Yard, Able & Cole, Ecotricity, Elvis & Kresse and 40 other eco-friendly and sustainable merchants.

Toby Otsuka, CEO at Rakuten Europe, commented: “In these uncertain times, charities need our support more than ever. By joining forces with For Good Causes, we can encourage our members to stay generous and make a big difference by redeeming their Rakuten Points at Rakuten.co.uk in exchange for a donation to the charities they care about most passionately.”

Lawrence Williams, Chief Technology Officer at For Good Causes, explained that his venture provides donation tokenisation on its AWS cloud-based platform.

“A series of microservices related to issuance, redemption and management of tokens work independently to deliver a scalable service capable of very high transaction rates. Brands can opt to pre-purchase donation tokens from us or utilise our APIs to enable charity selection and donation within their own customer flows,” he said.