The use of smartphone apps to digitally store receipts has reduced donations from receipt lotteries to 40 percent of previous levels in a blow to social welfare groups, the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation said on Thursday last week.
The foundation said that lottery-winning receipts given away by consumers at convenience stores and restaurants have been a mainstay of the nonprofit group’s revenue since its founding.
The rise of receipt-storing apps is threatening the charity’s long-standing sustainment model, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Over the years, Taiwanese donated to the group a total of 1.75 billion lottery-winning receipts, worth a total of NT$1.89 billion (US$61.9 million), the foundation said.
Revenue from the receipt lottery winnings for the foundation fell from NT$1.4 billion in 2008 to NT$51.36 million last year, the foundation said.
In response, the foundation last week launched a drive to encourage people to donate receipts in digital form, it said.
Members of the public who want to give away their digital receipts for a good cause can obtain a bar code sticker for their phones to use at vendors nationwide, the foundation said.
The foundation supports 800 Taiwanese with post-coma unresponsiveness who have no money to pay for their care, it said, adding that upkeep for each person is between NT$50,000 and NT$70,000 per month.
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