“I thought to myself, there has to be a better way, and it would be great to have a service which allows you to give money to lots of charities in one go, and that’s when I came up with the idea of DonatePal.”
“I thought to myself, there has to be a better way, and it would be great to have a service which allows you to give money to lots of charities in one go, and that’s when I came up with the idea of DonatePal.”
Based on the latest FinTech, two brothers have stepped in and changed the game for how we donate to charities. Launching their new app, DonatePal, they have created a simple and easy way to donate to multiple different charitable organizations simultaneously – and at no cost to the charities themselves.
The founder of DonatePal, Umar Sheikh, explained that he came up with the idea during Ramadan when trying to donate to multiple different charities himself:
I just found the whole idea of logging onto multiple websites, filling in loads of online pages, and going through numerous security checks really tedious. I thought to myself, there has to be a better way, and it would be great to have a service which allows you to give money to lots of charities in one go, and that’s when I came up with the idea of DonatePal.”
Umar’s brother Shan, who is now the COO at DonatePal, was going through similar thoughts at the same time – and noticing that so many others were facing difficulties and frustrations when it came to donating to multiple different charities at the same time, especially during holy months like the one of Ramadan.
Shan also explains his motivation behind DonatePal:
I was setting up multiple standing orders and direct debits to different charities – I like to give a little each day rather than monthly. I found it frustrating and wondered why there wasn’t anything out there that could make the process simpler…little did I know that my brother had the same idea and had started developing a solution.”
The Birmingham-based brothers explain that by using the latest FinTech opportunities, they have managed to keep the costs low – this means that no charge is passed onto the charities themselves. A small transaction fee is passed onto the user for making a donation, however, this charge remains much lower than what other platforms charge normally.
Umar, who has more than a decade of experience as a software engineer, ensures that the users of DonatePal are able to donate to a wide variety of different charities by having their payment details saved, with options of making a one-off or recurring donation. Everything is enabled to ensure ease of access as well as transparency during the process.
Both brothers believe strongly in connecting on-the-ground charities with the reality of our digital world today. Shan explains:
We know from previous fundraising reports that 92% of Millenial and Gen Z are more likely to donate using a mobile device. So, we took that on board and createad a dedicated mobile app, allowing users to donate on-the-go. This is important even more so during this difficult time when we are facing COVID-19.”
The brothers are now looking to expand DonatePal, and have registered with Penny Appeal. They hope that they can include an even wider range of charities on their app, in the hopes that this can also help encourage more people to get involved in charity-giving.
Find DonatePal on Playstore or Applestore, or by clicking here.
