Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity and GFT Tackle Homelessness Crisis in Manchester - One Tap At A Time

Manchester 7th October - Manchester’s long-standing battle with homelessness is far from over. Records show 125 rougher sleepers per night were documented throughout autumn 2020. Whilst this represents a 53% decrease from the peak in 2017, the number is still three times higher than those recorded in 2010.

• GFT donates thousands to Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity
• Sponsorship to install automated ‘tap to donate’ points in Northern Rail stations
• Raising vital funds to facilitate innovative homelessness prevention projects

GFT makes Manchester home and donates £5,500 to raise much needed funds to support others in finding a safe, warm place to call home this winter.

Commemorating its arrival in Manchester, GFT is enabling the Greater Manchester’s Mayor’s Charity to make it easy for big-hearted rail commuters to play their part in ending homelessness.

The leading digital transformation specialist will sponsor four automated donation points to enable commuters to donate £3 simply by tapping for easy, contactless donations. Such mechanics have become necessary as the reliance on cash has fallen and charities can no longer rely on individuals having a few coins to drop into a collection box. The donation points will be located at Northern Rail stations with the highest footfalls in the region from November 2021, with the first confirmed as Manchester Victoria, and three other key commuter stations across the region yet to be confirmed. In 2019-20 Manchester Victoria alone saw approximately 9,570,816 Mancunions enter and exit the station. If just half of this number donated just £3, once over the next year, over £14 million could be raised to support the outstanding ongoing work of the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity.

The sponsorship coincides with the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity’s ‘A Home for Us All’ campaign to bring attention to the ‘hidden homeless’ ahead of World Homeless Day, 10th October 2021.

The donations collected via the automated points will be used to make a tangible difference in the efforts to reduce and prevent homelessness in Greater Manchester, raising vital funds to support frontline services for the 100 plus people who sleep on Greater Manchester’s streets every night, as well as preventing people from ending up there.

GFT’s managing director, Carlton Hopper, said: “The automated points are a simple but effective solution to the problems which the greater reliance on cashless payments is causing for charities. GFT is committed to giving back to the community it is a part of, doing what we can to help organisations like the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity make Manchester a better place to call home.”

Head of Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, Vanessa Haworth, said: “I’m pleased to welcome GFT to our growing band of generous business partners. With GFT’s help, we can continue to ‘tap’ into the generosity of the travelling public across Greater Manchester. I’m asking everybody who can afford to donate £3 to take out their card, tap, and help us make a difference to the lives of rough sleepers and people without homes across our region.”