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The Salvation Army Now Accepts Credit/Debit Card Donations

by Yuliya Talmazan | November 26, 2009 at 12:33 pm

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The Salvation Army donations are no longer cash only. The Salvation Army will now be jingling for your credit and debit cards. That means being out of cash is no longer a valid excuse to not donate this Holiday Season. The convenience of donating with your card seems to be affecting how much people give -- donations in cities that test drove the new technology increased from $2 in cash to $15 dollars in electronic money, according to the Salvation Army. In addition, the machines will print a receipt for people to keep for tax deduction purposes. This year, as the Red Kettle campaign kicks off this Thursday, more than 120 cities in the United States will participate. The Salvation Army claims no personal information will be stored on the machines, so donations will be fraud proof.

The overall donations are down this year in the United States and around the world, but the need for donations now is greater than ever. As thousands of people are still losing their jobs, and funding for social programs is drying out, the Salvation Army's role in ensuring help for those who need it most becomes even greater.

People swipe their cards, then put their receipt in the kettle just like they would with cash donations.

The credit card readers accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

"The Salvation Army has long been known for being a very conservative, old-fashioned nonprofit organization," said the Salvation Army's Ruth Ann Schoer. "But today we're going to come screaming into the 21st century."

I do not know if accepting debit and credit cards is exactly "21st century," but I was surprised to learn that the Salvation Army is on Twitter with rather up-to-date and interesting updates. There are even a couple of Facebook fan pages created for it. Donations to the Salvation Army can also be made online. So, it seems the charity is keeping up with the times. Why it took so long for Salvation Army to start accepting card donations is a bit of a mystery.

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Jordan Yerman

at 12:53 on November 26th, 2009

A brilliant idea, but I agree that this should have happened sooner... like in 1978.

LeaveMyIDAlone

at 22:07 on February 5th, 2010

I'm all for helping and lending a hand to those in need. I've always held the Salvation Army in a special place because of what they do. I donate anything I can to them including money whenever I can. But you have to be a little concerned with who's processing your information even with a charitable organization.

You see Salvation Army employees aren't paid all that well, many of them are volunteers and a certain percentage of them are probably serving community service. I'm not implying that these are the people handling credit card information, but it warrants some caution. Keep your credit card in your wallet and make a small cash donation or donate items that others can use.

Another company has to handle the credit card processing for them and you have to wonder how good their security is or if they've already had a security breach before and or if they did would they tell you. Credit fraud is way too easy these days, it's almost better not to have any credit.