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Salvation Army Red Kettles Take Credit Cards

By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-805798.mp3

Dallas, TX – In these tough times, donations to charities like the Salvation Army are down. But in North Texas, the nation's second largest charity hopes to blunt the downturn. In an experiment that could become a national model, some DFW red kettles now take credit cards. As KERA's Bill Zeeble reports, that doesn't mean people are ready to use them.

Holiday foot traffic is busy at the upscale North Park Center. The Salvation Army counts on that. Three red kettles hang from stands throughout the mall. Each has a little red wireless credit card machine attached to a tripod leg. The Salvation Army's Patrick Patey stands near one of them.

Patrick Patey, Salvation Army Public Relations manager: As we go more and more to a cashless society, we recognized that if we don't adapt with the times, our red kettles are going to be something that, one of these days, will just simply be relics of the past. And they've been cash dependent.

Patey says the Salvation Army is dependent on the kettles. Last year, 500 DFW buckets filled with nearly $2.5 million in coins and bills. It's the Salvation Army's biggest public fundraiser. But for a few years now, organization leaders have seen what mall shopper and mother Christi Clark acknowledges.

Chisti Clark: A lot of times people don't have cash with them

Clark needed change from a nearby store so her 3 year old could drop it in the kettle. She never noticed the attached credit card machine. They make sense to her.

Clark: If they want to make a donation it would be a lot easier for them to just whip it out instead of trying to get cash.

Patey says the credit card machine is safe and easy.

Patey: You swipe your card, enter your information, it's sent directly to the credit card processing company electronically, encrypted three times and it's very, very secure.

We decided to try it. Patey thought there was a minimum, but there wasn't. The machine accepted a 50 cent charge, followed by a donation of $3.50. For some donors, like Ginny Littlefield, ease and security mean little.

Ginny Littlefield, donor: I would never swipe my credit card. I'm not going to go into debt for it, you know? I don't want a bill from it. But if I have a spare dollar in my pocket, I don't mind giving it.

Changing that century-old tradition of dropping money in the kettle may be tough. One bell ringer says a donor or two have given $50 or a $100 on a credit card, but others report no credit card donations. That doesn't surprise Southern Methodist University marketing professor Dan Howard.

Dan Howard SMU marketing professor: It's very inconsistent with the image of a bell ringer. It has a corporate image, a tinge of profitability and marketing, and that's not how consumers look at bell ringers of the Salvation Army. That's a major disadvantage, so people won't be looking for these machines. They don't know about them. It would be a mistake for them to advertise on TV or radio, these machines. "Hey kids come on down, now you can use your credit card!"

The Salvation Army wants people to know bell ringers do not ask for money. Professor Howard also says the organization's credit card move is actually a good step consumers will get used to. It might even raise the average donation.

Howard: This kind of pumps things up as well. I mean how many people will pull out their credit card and say "I'll give you a buck." No, that's not how it works.

The Salvation Army says the next step might involve building the credit card machine right into its red kettles. Bill Zeeble KERA news.
Bzeeble@Kera.Org