The Amazon Dash button, a large push button that automatically makes purchases from Amazon.com when pressed, has made shopping online easier (and more satisfying) than ever. More than that, Amazon and Save the Child have made it easier for the average consumer to give.
The United Kingdom-based Save the Children charity is attempting to replicate that experience, but for charitable donations. The prototype is a large red and white button. When pressed, it automatically sends a predetermined amount of money to Save the Children.
The charity hopes to increase donations through the button, by providing an easy way to make spontaneous donations. Donors stirred to action by news of some tragedy, or simply in the mood for a random act of kindness, can immediately satisfy that instinct in support of a good cause.
The button was developed by The Iris Nursery, which is responsible for many exciting innovations, including the ‘Easy Order’ button, which is similar to the Amazon Dash button or the Save the Children button, except that it automatically orders a Domino’s pizza.
With the introduction of the button, Save the Children especially hopes to appeal to younger donors, who want a more tangible and immediate way to donate. While making an online donation can do a lot of good, it can also be frustrating, time consuming, and ultimately unsatisfying. More than 60% of would-be donors drop out of the online donation process part way through. This is especially an issue with those making small, one-time donations, which often do not seem worth the effort. Meanwhile, while recurring donations are more convenient, donors making contributions this way feel even less satisfied and less engaged in the work of their chosen charity.
The button demonstrates once again the forward-thinkings of Save the Children, which has a reputation for harnessing technology to make donating faster and more appealing. It was one of the first organizations to adopt donations via mobile and partnered with Visa to pilot contactless donation tins.
This is not the first charitable Dash button that we’ve seen. Earlier this year, programmer Nathan Pryor reprogrammed an Amazon Dash button to send money to the ACLU and made his script available, so that others could set up their own Dash buttons. But Pryor’s was an unendorsed do it yourself project, and he was not able to guarantee its security or effectiveness. The Save the Children button, on the other hand, is official and probably safer. As an added bonus, you don’t have to program it yourself: setting it up is only a matter of filling out a form online, similar to the forms used to make regular online donations, except that it only needs to be done once.
John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision, is a marketing industry executive with more than thirty years of experience. He’s held executive positions at numerous institutions after graduating from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, as well as earning an MBA from Columbia Business School. Please visit http://JohnPartilla.net, http://JohnPartillaNYC.com, and http://JohnPartillaMedia.com to learn more. Also, find him on LinkedIn.