In Italy, cash donations still represent a significant portion of total donations: approximately 2.2 billion euros according to the Italy Giving Report 2024. This data highlights a market still tied to traditional methods, despite the fact that the country has already achieved 43% penetration in digital payments (Osservatorio Polimi, 2025), surpassing cash (41%).

Italian nonprofit organizations face significant logistical and technological obstacles daily: expensive hardware solutions for fundraising, difficulties in distributing traditional POS systems, and unintuitive systems for volunteers and fundraisers.

Tap to Donate: SoftPOS Innovation for Digital Donations

Tap to Donate with Tap-on-Phone technology emerges from the strategic collaboration between Cents and Mastercard, representing an innovative solution for donation digitalization. This native donation app leverages SoftPOS (Tap-on-Phone) technology to transform any smartphone into a digital fundraising terminal.

How the Digital Donation Software Works:

💡 Simplified donation process:

  • Volunteers access the app through a unique code provided by the nonprofit organization
  • Donors select the donation amount and bring their contactless card or smartphone close to complete the digital payment
  • The confirmation screen includes the Mastercard brand and can be customized with the organization's logo

A donation experience that is simple, secure, and completely hardware-free: a true revolution for fundraising events, charity booths, and high-traffic environments.

Shared Vision: Technology for the Third Sector

The Cents-Mastercard collaboration stems from a common vision: using digital technology to simplify the act of giving, breaking down technological barriers and creating scalable solutions for the Italian third sector.

This represents a shared commitment to financial inclusion and digital empowerment of nonprofit organizations. SoftPOS technology, in this context, becomes an enabling tool to increase the social impact of donations.

Concrete Results: the Performance Gap between Tap to Donate and Other Solutions

During a major fundraising event in Italian squares (activated on a national scale), Tap to Donate demonstrated exceptional results:

Performance metrics:

  • 120 volunteers involved in 30 national locations
  • 19% of total donations collected through the app
  • Superior results compared to the QR code solution deployed in 3,000 locations, which generated only 0.1% of the total

Other significant digital donation data:

  • +18% increase in digital donations compared to traditional POS systems
  • Greater volunteer confidence in using digital fundraising tools
  • Integrated dashboards for managing fundraising campaigns and recurring donations

Conclusions: The Future of Digital Donations in Italy

This case study over digital giving, presented at the Mastercard Innovation Forum 2025- Racing towards the future, demonstrates how technological innovation can become a concrete tool serving the Italian third sector.

With Tap to Donate, Cents and Mastercard aim to open a new path to accelerate the digitalization of donations in Italy, making fundraising for nonprofit organizations more accessible, effective, and transparent.