Comic Relief continues partnership with GoCardless

UK-based charity Comic Relief and bank payment company GoCardless have extended their partnership until 2026.

The relationship enables Comic Relief to use GoCardless’ Direct Debit capabilities to collect recurring donations throughout the year.

The extended partnership, which first formed in 2019, reflects a growing trend of leveraging Open Banking technologies as a means to broaden fund collection beyond Comic Relief’s annual Red Nose Day campaign.

Despite tightening purse strings amid the cost-of-living crisis, the findings of recent research by GoCardless illustrate that 37% of respondents still intend to donate to charity, while a notably higher 52% said they would repeat donations if the process was quick and simple.

Georgina Persson, executive director of operations at Comic Relief, said: “We are delighted to be able to continue working with GoCardless to ensure making online donations to Comic Relief is as simple and seamless as possible for our generous supporters.”

Meanwhile, GoCardless’ chief customer officer and managing director for UK and Ireland, Pat Phelan, said that the partnership genuinely contributes to “payments for good” by offering high flexibility, which leads to increased overall donations.

“We know that recurring donations are better when financial pressures increase – giving little, but often, goes a long way,” he added.

At the start of this year, GoCardless became the exclusive Open Banking payment provider of online donation platform JustGiving in an extension of their existing partnership, for the collectiob of instant, one-off gifts, and its direct debit capabilities for recurring donations.