Changing the way you donate this holiday season

When you think of charities, you may think letters in the mail, phone calls or people approaching you. But in today’s day-in-age, the way that organizations are getting through to people is much different. Throughout the year, non-profit organizations reach out worldwide seeking donations. But the days of mailing your check in may be fading fast.

47 ABC spoke with Major Vic Tidman, commanding officer at the Salvation Army in Salisbury and he says, “For instance people have been used to getting for years that letter in their mailbox asking people to send us a check but people do checks less and less in this age.”

The new trend? Mobile payments. Major Tidman at the Salvation army says as times have changed, they’ve had to adapt and increase ways that people can donate.

Tidman tells 47 ABC, “We have tried to have a presence on the internet. Today for example if you press a donate button at any salvation army website anywhere one of the things you do when you fill out the form is you put in your zip code so if its one of our zip codes than the money gets directed here.”

With smart phones seen everywhere these days the donation process can be quick and easy. A common app that many are using is Pay Pal.

Tidman tells 47 ABC, “That’s becoming more and more important because of the younger generations, I myself have to talk about the younger generations, are much more comfortable with doing things from their phone.”

Clam Lorenz is the general manager for social innovation at PayPal. He says more than 400,000 charities worldwide received around $5.7 billion in payments through PayPal just over the last year .

Lorenz tells 47 ABC, “For an accelerating amount of people, mobile devices are how we get information, there’s a large segment of the population that doesn’t even go online via desktop. Having a presence in Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest is important because that’s where your next generation of supporters will be.”

And like Tidman, he agrees that you’ve got to reach the younger generation, to stay relevant in the future.

Tidman tells 47 ABC, “the coming up generations that are going to be in charge here very shortly – that’s the way that they’re used to working so we want to have a presence there also as well as our more traditional presence.”

But if you do plan to donate via your cellphone or computer, Tidman warns, be careful. Tidman says always use a credit card rather than a debit card because you have some protection from their bank that way.

Tidman tells 47 ABC, “Always make sure that you’re using a legitimate website, most of the time for the salvation army its more than one click. It’s a thousand different ways that bad people are out trying to do bad things to get your money.”

Tidman also says most of the time, if you’re donating to the salvation army directly, they’ll usually send you through a website first and then to a donation page.