The festive season is the single most important fundraising window of the year.
Nearly a third of annual donations in the UK happen in December. Supporters are in a generous mood, communities are alive with events and charities have more opportunities than ever to connect with donors.
But we also know donors are busy, they’re shopping, rushing, juggling family commitments and being bombarded by messages. To stand out and maximise your fundraising potential, your donor experience needs to be fast, simple and effective.
That’s where our affordable contactless donation devices come into their own, each powered by Toucan Tap, the app built to help charities like yours make fundraising easier, smarter and more rewarding.
What is Toucan Tap?
Toucan Tap is our contactless donation app compatible across a range of attended and unattended contactless donation devices, built to make giving effortless. With a simple user interface, custom branding options, multiple donation modes and support for Gift Aid recovery, it helps charities elevate their fundraising whether face-to-face or in unattended environments.
Here is how our contactless donation devices can help you during the festive fundraising campaign:
1. Small Changes Create Big Impact
One of the simplest but most powerful levers in fundraising is the default donation amount.
At Christmas, people are more open to giving slightly more than usual. By increasing your default amount by just £1, you can make a significant difference:
- 500 festive donations at £5 = £2,500
- 500 festive donations at £6 = £3,000
That’s an extra £500 generated, simply by shifting the default by £1.
With Toucan Tap, you can:
- Adjust donation amounts quickly for seasonal campaigns.
- Monitor the performance of your contactless device estate through our detailed online reporting suite.
- Compare ATVs (Average Transaction Values) and donation volumes across locations and events using comprehensive performance data to guide your fundraising decisions.
This data-driven approach means you can maximise festive generosity without guesswork.
2. Adapting to Every Festive Venue
Christmas fundraising doesn’t happen in one place. You’ll be everywhere:
- On the high street with volunteers.
- At Christmas markets full of potential donors.
- Promoting your charity at concerts and carol services.
- Inside community venues hosting seasonal events.
Our Contactless devices are built for flexibility.
- Unattended devices can be used in window displays, free standing displays or wall mounted. There's so many options.
- Attended devices are perfect for face to face fundraising. Powerful and designed to last all day.
This versatility is precisely what makes our range of contactless devices the ideal festive fundraising tool to help you maximise your incoming donations, whatever the setting.
3. Data That Drives Decisions
Christmas is busy, but it’s also the perfect time to learn. Every tap generates insights that can help you plan smarter:
- Which venues generated the highest average transaction value (ATV) and highest volume of donations?
- Did weekday donations differ from weekends?
- Which festive messages converted best?
Armed with this data, you can refine your campaigns year after year, ensuring Christmas 2025 outperforms Christmas 2024.Collecting a contactless donation is one thing, generating strategic insights to guide your future direction is exactly where our solutions deliver real value.
4. Short-Term Hire, Long-Term Impact
Many charities only need extra donation devices for seasonal campaigns. Buying or renting new hardware can feel like an unnecessary expense that is difficult to justify, particularly for ad-hoc/sporadic/seasonal events.
That’s why Toucan Giving’s donation devices are available for short-term hire. This is perfect for the run-up to Christmas. You can scale up your fundraising presence in December, then scale back in January without long-term costs.
It means you get all the benefits of a professional, reliable contactless solution, with the flexibility you need.
5. Supporters Love the Experience
Donors want a quick and easy giving experience so they can continue on with their day.
Our solutions deliver exactly that:
- One tap.
- One confirmation.
- One instant impact.
- Simple Gift Aid process
At Christmas, when attention spans are short, adrenaline is pumping and potential donors are dashing around putting the finishing touches to their Christmas prep - this kind of seamless giving can make the difference between securing a donation and losing it.
6. Don’t Leave Gift Aid Behind
Did you know that £560 million in Gift Aid goes unclaimed every year? That’s funding your cause could be missing out on.
- Gift Aid can boost eligible donations by 25%, turning a £10 gift into £12.50, at no extra cost to the donor.
- When Gift Aid is built into the donation journey, up to 80% of donors opt in.
- Digital tools make it easy to capture declarations instantly, no paper forms, no fuss.
- Use clear messaging like: “Your £10 could be worth £12.50—with no extra cost to you.”
All of Toucan Giving’s solutions support digital Gift Aid capture, making it easier than ever to claim what you’re entitled to.
Final Thought
Christmas is when your charity has the most to gain. By making small, strategic adjustments like nudging your default donation up by £1, or positioning your contactless devices in the right festive venue, you can transform seasonal generosity into long-term impact.
👉 Discover Toucan Tap and our range of contactless donation devices today and make every Christmas donation count: