PayPal is rolling out an update to its mobile application which it hopes will put charitable giving in the forefront of customers’ minds. With a new button that appears at the bottom of the home screen of its app – below options to order ahead or pay in-store – PayPal users can support a favorite cause through an in-app donation.
The button connects users to the tens of thousands of PayPal Giving Fund certified charities, and is the first time that PayPal has made it possible to donate directly through its mobile app, the company says.
Before, you could make Giving Fund donations online. Charities could also use PayPal’s “donate” button on their own websites to encourage giving. However, in-app donations were never part of PayPal’s own app experience until now.
The charities will receive 100 percent of every donation, PayPal also notes.
Mobile giving has been on the upswing, which is why PayPal made this change, it explains. Last year, 38.7 million people donated $6.6 billion to charities through PayPal, and 23 percent of these were on mobile devices. That’s up 33 percent from 2014.
world record for most money raised online for a charity in 24 hours, as part of PayPal’s #GivingTuesday campaign. Users then raised $45.8 million for various causes.
