US-based Momentum and UK-based website Givepenny are two of many companies looking to change the way people donate.

Momentum’s chief executive Nick Fitz and fellow co-founders Ari Kagan and Ivan Dimitrov came up with the idea for Momentum while researching charitable giving.

"We found that most people would like to give 2.5 times as much as they do, and we wanted to do something to try to close that gap," says Mr. Fitz. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) - or communication protocols between clients and servers - are what makes the system possible.

"APIs allow us to link donations to people's everyday lives, and to let them track the impact of their giving," adds Mr. Fitz. "It's often small actions, but they add up. The 1,000 or so people who've been trialing the app have already donated around $31,000."

APIs are also key to the flexible fundraising model of UK-based website Givepenny, which uses them to interact with popular services such as Spotify and Fitbit. Via Spotify, for example, sports teams can set up a pre-match changing room playlist to which fans can add songs - in return for a donation to the team's chosen charity.

"We use APIs to talk to third party platforms such as Strava and Twitch, so we can create cool features for people to use to raise money," says Givepenny chief executive Lee Clark.

 

Source: BBC News