Verifone , a world leader in payments and commerce solutions, and Pennies, the digital charity box, today announced that their partnership has reached a significant milestone by helping to unlock £1million for charities in the United Kingdom.

The Pennies application works by allowing consumers to donate small sums to charity - always under £1 - by ‘rounding up’ or ‘topping up’ when paying by card in-store and online. Retailers using Verifone’s devices and managed payment service can enable donations as a seamless part of the payment process. Participating retail partners include ASK Italian, Zizzi, Notcutts, and Evans Cycles.

Approximately 37,000 donations are made each week via Verifone’s merchants, with an average donation value of 23.5p. To date, over 4,400,000 micro-donations have been made across the partnership totaling more than £1million. These funds have supported more than 20 charities so far including Cancer Research UK, Together for Short Lives, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, and Cyclists Fighting Cancer.

June Felix, President Verifone Europe said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Pennies where our technology is helping good causes. Verifone is proud of our ability to innovate and add value for merchants at the point of sale. Here we are showing how our products and services can be used to benefit consumers, retailers and charities alike.”

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO of Pennies said: “Verifone has helped Pennies to collect more than 4 million micro-donations through its retailers such asZizzi, ASK Italian and luxury brand Gieves & Hawkes. We’re currently working with Verifone to integrate the digital charity box into the next generation of in-store payment devices. We’re thrilled with all we have achieved so far, and look forward to giving more digital small change a big purpose for millions more customers.”

To find out more about how Pennies and Verifone collaborated with UK restaurant chain Zizzi’s to enable charitable donations please visit Verifone’scase study.