Article

Wells Fargo ATMs accept donations for Japan's earthquake victims

The bank's fund-raising effort is one of the most dramatic examples of using ATMs to accept charitable donations.

March 17, 2011

Wells Fargo & Company is employing the majority of its nationwide ATM network to help raise money for victims of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The bank's decision makes the fund-raising effort one of the most dramatic examples of using ATMs to accept charitable donations.

The San Francisco-based bank, which operates the nation's third-largest ATM network, is encouraging cardholders to donate funds to the American Red Cross through 9,000 of its Wells Fargo branded ATMs. Only Wells Fargo customers can use the ATMs to donate to the American Red Cross.

The financial institution owns more than 12,000 ATMs, but 3,000 machines are being converted from Wachovia Bank, and they are not able to accept donations, said Richele J. Messick, assistant vice president of corporate communications.

Wells Fargo's use of its ATM network comes as there is growing international discussion and actual use of the machines to raise funds for charities. 

Francis Maude, a British cabinet member, has proposed allowing cardholders to make charitable donations through the United Kingdom's network of more than 62,000 ATMs. Enabling consumers to donate to charities through ATMs would "harness new technology for charitable giving," Maude said. LINK, the U.K.'s ATM organization, said the idea fits in with its strategy.

There are other examples where making charitable donations through ATMs is in regular use. HSBC Bank introduced charitable giving through its ATMs deployed in Mexico, and Servibanca, which is based in Colombia, also accepts charitable donations through its ATM network. Kontanten AB, a Stockholm, Sweden-based ATM deployer, used its ATM network to raise funds for breast cancer research.

Wells Fargo has been a leader in using its ATMs to raise funds on a regional basis to assist in disasters. In the case of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, this is the first time the bank is using the majority of its ATM network to accept donations.

"We felt because this is an international disaster, we would turn on all of our ATMs nationally to raise funds for the American Red Cross," Messick said. "We're excited about it. We're getting a good response at the ATMs." The functionality, enabling Wells Fargo ATMs to accept charitable donations, has been part of the bank's core application since 2005.

The option to make a donation is built into the transaction flow of the ATM. The bank can run a script over the network and have the feature up and running on all of its machines in 24 hours. What a customer sees during their transaction is an option off the main menu to donate to charity. By selecting that button, they can select an organization to donate to—in this case the American Red Cross is the featured organization—and then select which bank account they wish to make a donation from and then the specific amount they want to donate.

Cardholders can donate as little as $2 or as much as $249.49 to the American Red Cross, Messick said.

The ATM issues a receipt to the donor for tax purposes. The donation is made available to the American Red Cross in 24 hours. "Customers will not be charged any fees for using the service and 100 percent of the donation is sent to the American Red Cross," bank officials said.

In addition to making its ATMs available to accept donations, Wells Fargo & Company is donating as much as $1.5 million to the American Red Cross to help victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami.