SOS Children’s Villages and myPOS Team Up To Offer Contactless Donation Options

Financial technology has made a big difference in the way people pay and businesses accept payments. Thanks to fintech organizations, merchants these days can get their money in seconds and use it immediately. Now, one fintech is helping nonprofits do the same.

The European fintech myPOS has partnered with SOS Children’s Villages Greece to help it accept donations via cards quickly and get instant access to the funds. myPOS is known as the first and still the only fintech in Europe to offer its clients instant access to all the money that comes through card payments accepted on its platform. The company offers numerous modern payment tools, including smart and traditional POS terminals, and now it has donated some of these terminals to help SOS Children’s Villages create donation stands.

The first stands can already be spotted at select Jumbo and Starbucks stores in Athens. They accept payments via cards, smartphones and wearable NFC devices.

“We chose myPOS as a trusted partner for several reasons,” explains Maria Maniati, operations manager at SOS Children’s Villages Greece. “One is the credibility of the organization and another is the fact that myPOS has developed a system that can help us receive donations the easier way – by simply tapping a card on a POS machine. We hope that with the POS devices we’ll be able to collect more donations that can help us to continue our work for every child in need,” Maniati added.

SOS Children’s Villages has been working in Greece for nearly 50 years. It has several family-strengthening and youth programs and currently supports more than 2,000 children and adults in need. About one in three are at risk of poverty in Greece, according to ELSTAT data, which is why adopting new donation methods and financial technology is so important.

Fortunately, fintech products make the act of giving easier and empower consumers to make a difference. myPOS has a lot of experience in that direction. For one, it is empowering more than 150 000 merchants throughout the European Economic Area by giving them access to innovative financial technology without the burden of high costs. It also has a record of working with nonprofits and has previously partnered with SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania by providing 100 myPOS Mini devices across retail stores.

In Greece, myPOS is providing two types of its POS terminals – myPOS Mini and myPOS Go. Their use is of big importance because usually nonprofit organizations use plastic containers to accept donations in cash; however, these often contain coins and receipts, so staff has to waste time and effort to go through them and later pay fees to place the cash in a bank account.

With myPOS that hassle is eliminated because all of the fintech’s clients get a free multicurrency account and a free business card. In this way, clients can access their funds easily and use them right away.

SOS Children’s Villages plans to do just that. The collected money will cover part of the nutrition needs of the children living in the SOS Children’s Village Vari, 20 kilometers south of Athens.

Vari was the first location in Greece where SOS Children’s Villages began its work, and the Vari village provides a loving home for about 50 kids, who can no longer live with their parents.  Eleven SOS families there make sure the kids are loved and their needs met. The children attend local schools and are integrated into the local community.

“Every kid has the right to grow up in a family, with love, respect and security, and we find ways to make that happen,” explained Maria Maniati. “We see that fintech organizations are making financial services more accessible and efficient for everyone, so we think it’s time the philanthropy sector caught up. It is essential to implement fintech solutions, so people get a quick and secure way to engage in charitable giving, and we are happy to show how this can be done with a trusted partner like myPOS,” Maniati added.