MasterCard and WFP in digital donation tie-up
MasterCard has developed a platform for online retailers that offers consumers the chance to donate to the World Food Programme (WFP) directly at check-out as part of a wide-rangingpartnership with the anti-hunger charity.
The payment services provider claims the application programming interface (API) removes the current need for retailers to reconcile and distribute the money to charities themselves when offering the option to donate at point of purchase and simplifies the process for consumers who will not have to leave the site to contribute.
The platform is also being sold to MasterCard’s retail partners on the data capture opportunities it presents. Donations will be tracked and credited to both brand and consumer providing them with data on customers who have donated to the WFP using the API.
Pierre Guillaume Wielezynski, head of web at the WFP, told Marketing Week retailers holding the data will have an opportunity to “bring philanthropy into the marketing conversation”. He adds a trial in Poland and the Netherlands saw participating retailers offer discounts to consumers that donated.
“At the moment, when you make your donation you feel good for 30 seconds but there is no record no trace and from the merchants point of view there is no record for them to use that donation from a marketing sense to start a new conversation with the consumer. With the API you will know so when the consumer shops again you can offer discounts. A do-good score, a karma score, why not be rewarded for it [making a donation]?, he says.
It is not yet known which retailers will take part in the scheme, due to rollout in 2013.
The partnership will also see development of an initiative to provide “digital food” to poverty stricken parts of the world. MasterCard is to provide the digital infrastructure to allow the WFP to provide food vouchers to the needy via mobile phones or bank cards rather than shipping it and handing it over.
MasterCard is to launch a series of marketing campaigns globally to promote the initiative. Gaetano Carboni, general manager for global products and solutions at MasterCard, says: “We don’t want to limit the initiative to CSR we want this to be a pillar of our image and pillar of our marketing campaigns country by country.”
