Worldline and JD Group enhance strategic partnership by enabling charitable donations with Pennies
Worldline (Euronext: WLN), a global leader in payments services, and JD Sports Group, the British sports-fashion retail company, have strengthened their existing strategic relationship by integrating an additional service to allow customers to make charitable donations using Pennies’ micro-donation application on its payment terminals.
This launch is another step in the successful strategic partnership between Worldline and JD Group, as the retail group deploys the additional charitable donations service provided by Worldline and Pennies. Currently, the product runs across 151 locations and will be fully implemented in Q3 to circa 679 stores in the UK, across JD Group including Tessuti, Size, Scotts, Go Outdoors, Black and Millets fascia.
Pennies is a leading fintech charity, that offers a digital charity box option that can be integrated into the point of sale. Worldline has long been a partner of Pennies, and both have worked together to enable millions of micro-donations to support a huge range of charities since 2011.
JD customers, when tapping or inserting their card on the payment terminal in JD Group stores, will be prompted by the application, asking if they would like to top-up their purchase by 20p for charity. This solution is entirely digitally driven and once donations have been collected, Pennies grants the majority of funds to the merchant’s nominated charity partner – in this instance, the JD Foundation.
The solution enables a faster processing of charitable donations allowing JD Group to make a bigger impact with their charitable work through the JD Foundation as they will receive and increase funds faster through more proactive customer engagement. The anticipated increase in charitable donations will support the JD Foundation Together We Can project and the group’s CSR strategy.
Worldline brings its expertise in payments services and enables the Pennies donation option by integrating it in the payments’ infrastructure. The main driver is to generate funds for the JD Foundation’s new project, Together We Can, whilst bringing the customer and store teams on the journey too. The partnership also demonstrates that Worldline is flexible, agile and can offer value-added services to vendors’ payment structures.
Guillaume Pascal, Head of Global Sales & Verticals, Merchant Services, at Worldline, said: “We are very excited by this launch. We have a long and hugely successful partnership with JD Group and this additional service we provide will assist in fulfilling their ambitions towards supporting charities. This reinforces Worldline’s ability to partner with third parties and provide additional services outside of payments.”
Traci Corrie, JD Foundation Chair and Trustee, said: “The JD Group and the JD Foundation are excited to work with Worldline on this project which will raise vital funding for women and girls in the name of Together We Can and will support both local communities and the wider supply chain. The management of the journey has been seamless and the experience of Worldline has been invaluable in ensuring the successful roll out of this exciting venture.”
Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO, Pennies, said: “Pennies’ 10+ year partnership with Worldline has seen us unlock millions of micro-donation opportunities, and we’re delighted to now be able to bring our digital charity box functionality to JD Sports brands. Giving customers a way to support the Together We Can campaign with affordable, intuitive point of sale digital donations will help JD Sports make a meaningful, positive difference. We’re proud to work with Worldline to support JD Sports and their commitment to the communities they operate in.”
Worldline and JD Group have a long-standing partnership and the British retailer continues to integrate Worldline’s enhanced payments in-store solutions in its shops across 13 European countries.
About Worldline: Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is a global leader in the payments industry and the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and acquirers. Powered by c. 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and innovative solutions fostering their growth. Services offered by Worldline include in-store and online commercial acquiring, highly secure payment transaction processing and numerous digital services. In 2021 Worldline generated a proforma revenue close to 4 billion euros. worldline.com
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ABOUT JD Group: JD Group is a leading multichannel retailer across sports fashion, premium fashion and outdoor with globally recognised brands such as Nike, adidas, Puma and The North Face, with strong private labels such as Pink Soda and Supply & Demand to provide an elevated consumer experience. JD Group is an industry leading retail business which combines the best of physical and digital retail to give a compelling consumer proposition which enables its customers to shop seamlessly across all channels. JD Group now has over 3,400 stores across 32 countries worldwide.
ABOUT PENNIES: Pennies is charity at the cutting edge of fintech, putting social purpose at the heart of business – working with some of the biggest UK brands in retail, hospitality and the paytech industry. Pennies’ ‘digital charity box’ gives customers paying by card, digital wallet and emerging payment channels, a convenient way to add a small donation to their purchase when shopping with participating retailers. Whether in-store, online and in-app, it’s a simple, affordable, data-free way to donate, with 100% of funds raised going to charity.
Pennies has enabled more than 148 million micro-donations, raising millions of pounds in much-needed additional income for charities in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Together, payment providers, retailers and their customers are helping hundreds of charities make a meaningful difference to the causes and communities they serve.
There is an estimated annual £1bn opportunity for digital micro-donations for the UK charity sector, if every card holder gave as little as 35p a week. https://pennies.org.uk
Because micro-donations matter, now more than ever.
