Pennies will return as the Gold Charity Partner for Retail Technology Show 2026, marking a decade of partnership between the charity and the retail industry event.
Over that time, the partnership has helped generate more than £65 million for charities through 275 million digital micro-donations. Those donations have supported more than 980 charitable organisations and form part of the more than £78 million Pennies has raised overall since its launch in 2010.
The figures highlight the scale micro-donations have reached as retailers and hospitality groups add small charitable contributions to digital and card payments at checkout. Pennies works with merchants and payments providers to give customers the option of adding a small amount to a purchase in-store, online or in-app.
Its network has also expanded sharply in recent years. Since first attending the Retail Technology Show in 2017, Pennies has grown from about 60 partners to more than 200.
More than 15 of its technology partners will also be exhibiting across the show floor, underlining how closely digital giving is now tied to payments systems and retail software suppliers.
Growth in giving
Pennies has built its model around low-value donations made at the point of sale, aiming to replicate the small cash gifts once common at shop counters in an increasingly cashless market. It says consumers still prefer to give little and often, even as physical cash use declines.
That shift has become a broader issue for charities as digital payments replace notes and coins in everyday spending. For retailers, the model offers a way to collect charitable donations within existing payment journeys without requiring customers to make a separate transaction.
Pennies expects around 345,000 micro-donations to be made through its retail and hospitality partners during the two days of the Retail Technology Show, raising more than £85,000 for charity. Although that forecast reflects activity across its wider network rather than only at the exhibition, it offers a snapshot of the transaction volumes the model now generates.
Its partner base spans retail and hospitality, where high transaction volumes can turn very small contributions into sizeable fundraising totals. The model has attracted support from brands looking to connect charitable giving with routine consumer spending.
Retail link
The long-running relationship with the Retail Technology Show also reflects the role industry events play in connecting charities with software suppliers, payments firms and merchants. The exhibition has helped Pennies build links with retailers, hospitality operators and the technology partners needed to embed donations into checkout systems.
That reliance on the payments ecosystem is central to how the model works. Adding a donation prompt to card and digital payments requires co-operation between merchants and the providers behind tills, payment terminals, eCommerce checkouts and apps.
Alison Hutchinson, chief executive officer of Pennies, highlighted the role the event has played in that development.
"The Retail Technology Show continues to play an important role in championing the micro-donation movement. As Pennies marks 15 years, it's incredibly meaningful to reflect on the strength of partnerships like this one. Over the past decade, the show has connected us with forward-thinking retailers, hospitality brands, and the technology and payments partners who help us to make digital giving possible. Together, we're proving that small, everyday donations can deliver significant, lasting impact for charities across the UK, Ireland and beyond," said Hutchinson.
Pennies' wider figures suggest the approach has moved well beyond a niche fundraising tool. Over the past 15 years, it has worked with more than 200 brands and raised more than £78 million for more than 1,120 charities.
That total exceeds the amount linked specifically to the Retail Technology Show partnership, indicating that the event has been one of several routes for extending the model across merchants and payments groups. Even so, the £65 million raised during the 10-year association points to the importance of the relationship in Pennies' growth.
As digital payments become standard across stores, restaurants and online shopping, the market for checkout-based charity donations is likely to remain tied to retailers' willingness to integrate them into customer journeys. Pennies' expansion from 60 partners to more than 200 since 2017 shows that more businesses are prepared to make charitable giving part of the payment process.
Through the Retail Technology Show partnership alone, Pennies has now enabled support for more than 980 charitable organisations.