The downtown region of the Virginia community is making it simpler for locals to support non-profits.
The community of Lynchburg, Virginia, now has a new opportunity to support non-profits in the area through donation meter QR codes.
These “caring meters” look like traditional parking meters but serve an entirely different purpose.
The donation meter QR codes provide the opportunity to support those non-profits even without loose change. The “Change for Change” initiative was created to give locals the opportunity to use their loose change to make donations to these organizations. Though they look like parking meters, they are simply locations in which people can drop the loose change from their pockets or wallets and deposit it inside to provide added support.
The new quick response codes have been added to those meters to make it even easier for donations to be made. Project organizers determined that making it possible for people to donate using their smartphones and mobile payments would encourage donations. After all, people are using cash to a decreasing extent. The barcodes let them donate even if they don’t have cash on hand.
Since people often don’t have cash with them, the donation meter QR codes provide a new transaction method.
“We’re realizing that a lot of people don’t accumulate change, and if they do, they often don’t bring it with them,” explained Libby Fitzgerald, Change for Change project organizer.
People who want to donate using the QR code simply need to aim their smartphone camera at it with the camera app open. When the option to follow the code to the link appears, the user simply needs to follow it and tap the screen to make a donation. All proceeds collected both in change and through the mobile payments benefit non-profits in the Lynchburg area. The donations made through this method are tax deductible, according to organizers.
“We just want to make it as easy as possible for those people who want to help out, can help out,” said Peggy Nolley, project organizer.
Both Nolley and Fitzgerald pointed out that it took around a year for the Change for Change project to 
get started. The donation meter QR codes are the latest step now that they are successfully collaborating with local businesses and city officials.
