Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that a new charitable giving feature has been added to the Popmoney(R) personal payment service, enabling consumers to donate to hundreds of charities directly from their online or mobile banking account.
United Way, the largest privately supported nonprofit in the world, is one of the first national charities accepting donations through the service.
"Popmoney provides our donors with an easy, convenient way to contribute to United Way," said Paul DeBassio, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, United Way Worldwide. "Digital donations are in sync with people’s fast-paced, modern lifestyles, and eliminate the hassles of writing a check or filling out and mailing in a form."
Using Popmoney, consumers can quickly and conveniently donate to the United Way or another participating nonprofit organization, which can be identified using a search feature within the service. Transactions are processed using bank-grade technology that helps keep the transfer secure. Because donations are made directly from the donor's online or mobile banking account, they do not have to share their account information with the charity, further enhancing security.
For charities, contributions received using Popmoney are more convenient to process than checks, and more cost-effective than card payments. Consumers that send donations using the Popmoney charitable giving feature receive from the charity a record of their electronic transactions to be used for tax purposes, an important consideration for tracking contributions.
According to the National Philanthropic Trust, individuals in the U.S. make 2.6 billion charitable donations each year, donating more than $241 billion.
"The 2014 Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey revealed that consumers have a real appetite for utilizing person-to-person payment services for charitable donations, with 38 percent of respondents who had used such a service saying they had used it to make a donation in the past year," said Tom Allanson, president, Electronic Payments, Fiserv. "Consumers are looking for easier, faster ways to complete tasks in their day-to-day life, including donating to their charity of choice, and Popmoney makes this possible."
Popmoney is offered at Popmoney.com, through apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, as well as through the online or mobile banking sites of more than 2,400 financial institutions. Users only need a recipients' name and phone number or email address to send funds.
The Popmoney charitable giving feature is currently available at Popmoney.com. Nonprofit organizations interested in accepting donations via Popmoney can visit www.popmoney.com/charity.html for more information.
Fiserv also recently launched Popmoney(R) for Disbursements, a service that streamlines, electronifies and speeds the currently check-dominated process used by businesses to send payments to consumers.