Someone once sang that Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”. Well, that may be true for most of us – even if you’re not a fan of overcooked turkey with all the trimmings. But sadly for those less fortunate than ourselves around the world it’s a time of hardship and suffering like any other. Thankfully the UK’s charity sector does some fantastic fund-raising work in this area – not just at Christmas but all year round. And at Miura Systems we’re always looking for ways to help out where we can.
So we’re thrilled that our card machines managed to help the UK’s leading architectural aid charity, Article 25, raise £39,000 at an auction even earlier this month.
Introducing 10X10
Article 25 was named after the UN Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that adequate shelter and housing are fundamental to our human rights. As such, the charity does all it can to ensure some of the world’s most vulnerable communities are protected by designing, managing and building infrastructure and buildings wherever they’re most needed across the globe. From earthquake-proof homes in Pakistan to school and sanitation projects in Haiti – its mission is expanding all the time.
But of course this kind of capability does not come cheap, so the charity must come up with ever more innovative fund-raising ideas. Article 25’s flagship initiative in this area is 10x10 London. Each year, a specific area of the capital is divided up into a 10x10 grid, with the resulting 100 squares allocated to distinguished architects, designers and artists. They are then given a brief to create 100 unique artworks with the aim of providing a unique snapshot of London.
Now to make some money
Last year’s auction of these artworks at an event held in The Shard set the bar pretty high – raising a whopping £120,000 in total. In 2015, the organisers were keen to maximise their takings once again and avoid a repeat of last year when the card terminals they used suffered from various interruptions and outages, causing delays for attendees trying to pay. So they turned to Miura Systems’ M010 card machines implemented by our partner payworks to provide a fast, simple, secure and stable payments platform for the evening.
Article 25 was delighted with the result at this year’s event, held in the glamorous surroundings of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The M010 pairs with a tablet or smartphone to allow organisations to take chip and PIN and contactless payments either anywhere within their retail environment, or out and about at external events. It’s also set up to support Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay to offer customers even more ways to pay.
In this case it offered the Article 25 staff at RIBA the ability to take high value payments out of the box with the minimum of fuss – that’s nearly £40,000 in takings in just a few short hours.
“In previous years the standard terminals that operate via mobile signal have been unpredictable, which has caused numerous problems and delays for the customer,” says Article 25 fundraising manager, Matt Nichols. “This year we had no such problems and enabled the night to run much more smoothly, so I can’t recommend the technology enough.”
We couldn’t think of a better way to bring 2015 to a close. Wishing you the very best for festive season and here’s to a great 2016.
