The PayPal-owned Venmo has today announced two updates to its peer-to-peer payment app, with the ability to give to charities via Venmo and the redesigned experience of sending money.
The latter will enable you to understand better the amount you’re sending and who you’re sending it to and improve the capability to pay or request multiple payments in one go. The new features will be accessible for all Venmo users on the two platforms iOS and Android. Venmo says that the donation feature will be expanded to include additional features in the future.
At first, Venmo users can search through authentic charities in their community or browse by categories for charities, including items like pets and animals, disaster relief, and education. Then, customers can donate to the charity of their choice using their Venmo balance either through a debit or credit card or linked bank account. In the days ahead, Venmo users will also be allowed to share the donation with their acquaintances to inspire others to donate and the corporate notes.
Venmo, the parent company of PayPal, has offered the same charitable giving option in its application since 2016; it connects its users to the thousands of accredited charities available via PayPal’s PayPal Giving Fund. The fund accepts the users’ donations, sends receipts to donors, and transfers the money directly to the charity’s PayPal accounts. Venmo is, in turn, been focused on payments via peer-to-peer and, in recent times, enabling users to pay small businesses as well as other small-scale sellers.
But, in October, PayPal announced that charities could set up an account on Venmo to extend their reach beyond the PayPal community and access the Venmo user base of around 90 million people with an upcoming feature in the app. In the announcement, the company said that 61 percent of donors are likely to learn about charities through the word of mouth of relatives and friends. This is why a more social Venmo application is a good idea.
To take advantage of the new function, Venmo users can tap on the search bar near the bottom of the page and choose”Donate” from the menu “Make a donation.” They then can go through the “Find a Charity” page which allows them to select a charity that has been confirmed by PayPal and find out more about the organization and the cause.
Then, if they’re ready to donate, they’ll click”Donate” and tap the “Donate” button, enter an amount, and write down a message. Then, they’ll be able to donate to motivate their friends.
Transaction charges will be, at present, fixed at 1.9 percent plus $0.10 for charity profiles on Venmo and do not include any additional setup charges or monthly fees.
The new donation experience for charities will be available to all users today. In addition, the “send money” redesign is rolling out today “send money” redesign is being released today, but it will be accessible to all users in the next few weeks.
