Poppy Appeal 2023
Each year thousands of volunteers support the Royal British Legion, giving up their time to raise vital funds for the Armed Forces community.
Volunteer Guide
Last year, our volunteers helped the Poppy Appeal raise well over £6m with the help of contactless technology. This year, building on this success, and with the continued reduction in the use and carrying of cash, we’ve invested in even more devices to make it easier for volunteers and donors.
This page aims to help volunteers get the most out of the contactless donation terminals and to learn about the benefits.
Quick Links
The Poppy Appeal 2022 saw a fourth year of growth in contactless donations
Launch Day
Growth
to £76,005 in 2022
London Poppy Day
Growth
to £913,294 in 2022
Total Growth
by Remembrance Day
to £6,228,903 in 2022
Benefits of contactless donations
2019 saw a 4 fold increase in the total amount raised for the Poppy Appeal via contactless technology compared to 2018. In 2020 and despite the impact of Covid19 restrictions we still managed to increase contactless donations by 25% thanks to the great efforts of our volunteers. In 2021 we managed to increase volumes by 300%. Last year this increased by over 30% and this year we hope to raise over £7 million in contactless donations.
Last year almost 1 million individual donations were made via contactless. We estimate that this figure will increase substantially again in 2023 - let’s smash that 1 million contactless donations target this year!
Why are contactless donations so important?
- Every year the usage of cash declines
- Cash is being handled less since Coronavirus and rarely by the younger generation
- Contactless makes donating safer and more hygienic
- Contactless encourages spontaneous donations
- The average donation amount for contactless tends to be much higher than cash, usually in excess of £5.00
- Donations are more secure with less risk of theft and greater safety for our volunteers
- Digital fundraising makes it easier to track campaigns
- Contactless is more convenient for volunteers and donors
About This Year’s Contactless Terminals
The Royal British Legion is once again teaming up with PayaCharity, an award-winning provider of payment & charitable solutions to supply and support our donation devices, and to help us track our campaigns.
This year’s devices are familiar, lightweight and easy to use for volunteers and donors. They combine the benefits of mobile and contactless technology. Furthermore, they will store donations so they can be used to capture donations even in areas without a 4G signal. This means you should never miss a donation.
Even better, there’s no need to count or bank the funds you raise.
Terminal User Guide
This year we will be exclusively using PAX A920 devices for the main campaign following the successful use of these terminals during the last two year's campaigns. Separately we will be deploying Payter P66 & Payter Apollo devices in unattended environments, and testing Castles S1F2 terminals.
PAX A920
The A920 is a payment terminal that can accept contactless, mobile and wallet payments, Chip & PIN and Magstripe. This has a PayaCharity designed App which is fully branded for the Royal British Legion that allows you to take selectable donations of £3, £5, £10, and £20. The A920 can also accept custom donation amounts so that the donor can choose their donation value, including amounts that exceed the £100 contactless limit.
This year’s App retains the ‘kiosk’ style menu with all the amount options displayed on a single view, which supports a quicker donation selection. The App also still provides you with the ability to quickly view the daily totals raised on your device and new for this year, also shows you the total raised across your district.
Also new for 2023, PayaCharity have added enhanced functionality to capture and track donations taken at new partners Aldi, Asda, John Lewis and Waitrose, adding to the existing supermarket partners – Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Inside each box will be a simple terminal user guide with key information and the dedicated support number to call should you need assistance. (This guide is also available electronically on the App itself).
If you are having any problems with your device, you can reboot it by pressing and holding the power switch on the right hand side, and selecting ‘Reboot’ from the options screen.
If you need further assistance, please call PayaCharity on our dedicated support number: 01604 978104
Video Guides
PAX A920
Please take a look at our handy short videos below which cover the basic functions of the device as well as the features of the App.
The videos will play back to back however, you can
choose videos on an individual basis by clicking on the icon 
in
the top right hand
corner.
Tracking Donations
The amounts of money raised will be reported daily at individual box level so that details can be analysed for each fundraiser.
You can expect an update once per week with your income totals. Please contact your relationship manager with any questions. Fundraisers can also share their success on social media by using #PoppyAppeal and tagging The Royal British Legion.
MI Portal
If you have been given access to the RBL MI Portal and have forgotten your password or need help logging in, please email cs@payacharity.com from your registered RBL email address and a team member will get back to you as soon as possible.
FAQs
PAX A920
The device isn’t reading contactless cards, what should I do?
Please ensure the card or mobile payment device being used is held against the top of the device which has the contactless symbol, until you see an approve or decline response.
If the card or mobile payment device is removed too quickly or presented in the wrong place it can prevent the payment from being processed.
If you are still having issues, please watch our instructional videos which can be found on your dedicated RBL support page or alternatively you can contact us on 01604 978104.
The device is showing that I have no signal / the device is showing a signal strength of 0%, what should I do?
The device can show no signal for a number of reasons but quite often this is caused by the device accidentally being placed into aeroplane mode. To check if the device has accidentally been placed into aeroplane mode, please complete the following:
- press the power button for 3 seconds
- a menu will appear with four options, one being 'aeroplane mode'
- if aeroplane mode is illuminated and the symbol is moving from side to side, this means that it is currently enabled
- simply tap on the aeroplane icon to disable this mode
If aeroplane mode is off, and you are still having issues, please contact us on 01604 978104.
I need to replace a till roll, how do I do this?
On the back of the device there is a clip positioned in the top middle section. Gently pull the clip towards you to open the till roll compartment.
Once opened, remove the remains of the previous till roll (if anything remains) and insert the new till roll. The new till roll should be inserted the correct way round and there is a picture to illustrate this inside the till roll compartment. For full instructions on how to remove and replace a till roll, please read through our user guide.
The device emitted a bell noise, what does this mean?
This sound may be emitted from the device if it has completed an update or settings change. You do not need to do anything. Any tasks completed in the background do not require user input.
Troubleshooting
If you have any further questions which are not covered in our FAQ page, please read through our user guide which can be found in the following places:
- view our instructional videos
- there is a digital copy of the user guide on the A920 itself
- there is a printed copy of the user guide included with your device
Support lines are open 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday on 01604 978 104. Support lines are open 8am – 6pm Saturday & Sunday during the Poppy Appeal campaign.
Outside of these hours, or if your call is not answered, please leave a message or email cs@payacharity.com and a team member will get back to you as soon as possible.
