National Portrait Gallery
Ben Widdows
CEO
The National Portrait Gallery has doubled visitor donations
Last year, the National Portrait Gallery launched a campaign to increase onsite fundraising. As part of this, they upgraded their existing contactless devices to GWD Donation Stations and we were thrilled to support this initiative.
One year on the improvements have been dramatic, with visitor donations growing over 100% in just 12 months. These increases were the result of a number of different measures, so I visited the gallery to meet with Rebecca Redclift, their Campaign Manager, to find out the secret to their effective campaign and what other factors contributed to such a resounding success..
This dramatic improvement wasn’t down to just one change, a range of things contributed to the large fundraising gains: direct and consistent visitor engagement, enhanced contactless fundraising tech, boosting ownership and buy in from the visitor experience team and intelligent positioning of the fundraising tools.
This report details these factors and shows how they combined to deliver such impressive performance at NPG.
Key learnings for cultural venues:
Human engagement boosts donation intent.
Contactless donations increase when the technology is visible and easy to use.
Front of house teams must own the donation systems or the tools will underperform.
Placement determines performance: make sure donation is part of the visitor journey, not something they walk past.
Cash remains a relevant part of a multi-channel giving strategy.
Human donation ask at the point of entry
One of the biggest changes made has been the deployment of Complete Works, a specialist agency of trained actors who engage directly with visitors. Complete Works use their unique skillset to consistently greet & welcome in a personable, authentic way and draw visitors’ attention to the opportunity to donate. Rebecca has trialled and championed this approach internally and proven the return on investment.
The Gallery found that when visitors were actively welcomed and invited to contribute right at arrival, donation volumes rose sharply.
Human interaction sets appropriate expectations and donating becomes part of the visitor experience rather than an optional afterthought.
The insight here is that staff-led engagement outperforms passive asks. A visible donation mechanism is still important, but only when visitors have first been primed by an exceptional welcome.
Optimising contactless donation technology
The National Portrait Gallery has been using contactless donation devices for years. They have had tap & go devices embedded in their cashboxes, so they are not new to fundraising technology. However, Rebecca believed that implementing GWD Donation Stations could help them raise even more than they had been doing to date.
Last year, the gallery trialled the GWD units and a donation uplift followed almost immediately.
“I've done the analysis and I'm happy to say that the introduction of GWD devices has increased donations by 19% at the NPG. (This is before factoring in Gift Aid). A great result!”
– Rebecca Redclift, Campaign Manager
How the Donation Station helped:
Higher average gift
Multiple amount selection, and the opportunity to cover transaction fees, combined with a more intuitive interface allowed the gallery to consistently get higher amounts.
Greater visibility
The stations are noticeable, branded, and contribute to donation intent rather than sitting passively in the background. Their smaller tap & go units weren’t immediately visible to donors.
Gift Aid capture
The ability to collect Gift Aid digitally has pushed overall value significantly higher than the previous units could deliver.
Ownership by the Visitor Experience team
One of the challenges we see for our customers in implementing new donation strategies is getting buy-in from the teams on the ground. Visitor Experience teams work so hard day-to-day that adding in new systems and considerations can be challenging. But Rebecca identified that if VE staff don’t own & understand the donation tools, they won’t champion them and donations will be limited.
Rebecca worked closely with Visitor Experience Manager Zöe Munro to ensure the donation solutions fitted in with her teams day-to-day responsibilities and focused on the detail of streamlining tools so that they “just work” and the donations flow in:
- Clear roles – VE staff understand their responsibility for ensuring the devices are active, visible and promoted.
- Training and familiarity – Rebecca commissioned on-site training from GWD so we could spend time with the team and build their confidence in using the donation tools.
- VE-centre product design – Rebecca identified blockers for the VE team and collaborated with GWD to simplify aspects of the interface, removing friction and increasing reliability.
The result is a VE team that owns the solution, this positive culture is a key driver in the fundraising improvement.
Visitor journey: the power of placement
One of most important learnings for the project was spatial: donation behaviour changes dramatically depending on where a device sits in the venue.
They learned that:
- A donation point placed against a wall performs poorly.
- A donation point placed in the direct path of visitors can outperform the wall placement many times over.
This led to the introduction of the highly visible GWD Pillar unit in the foyer, which has an internal power supply enabling it to be used away from power sockets and wheeled to wherever it will be most effective. The need for contactless donation points to be powered has led to many venues placing their units around the edges. But it is important to remember that donation points should interrupt the journey, not decorate the fringes.
Cash still matters
Even with a strong digital strategy, cash giving remains a meaningful revenue stream for the National Portrait Gallery. They continue to accept cash donations alongside digital stations. Both channels support different visitor types and collectively drive stronger totals than relying on one alone.
Interested in digital fundraising for your cultural venue?
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