France’s fire brigade opts for contactless calendar sales

At the same time each year, France’s fire personnel go door-to-door to sell calendars. This yearly tradition is an essential ritual for each individual fire station to raise funds for their associated charities.

This year they did things a little differently. SumUp joined forces with the local heroes to provide them with ready-to-use card readers to diversify their payment acceptance options and to stay safe.

The Covid-19 crisis threatened the yearly tradition of meeting local residents face-to-face on their doorsteps. But, instead of custom, France’s fire brigade chose the simplicity of SumUp’s card readers to offer their customers a contactless payment solution while in-keeping with the health and safety restrictions currently in place.

SumUp provided 7,000 card readers free of charge to the fire and rescue centres. "We are happy to contribute to the financing of the fire brigade’s social outreach,” explains Laure Faretti, SumUp’s Development Manager for France. “The alternative of contactless payment by card compliments traditional means of payment such as cheques or cash.”

A springboard to a new normality

While respecting social distancing guidelines, the use of SumUp’s card readers also does so much more. In recent years, firefighters have had to cope with a drop in donations, as Jerôme, a professional firefighter from the Bouches-du-Rhône region, explains. “People have less and less change and they often find themselves unprepared when we turn up and ask for a donation.” Now, many of these firefighters belong to stations that rely on SumUp’s solutions to tackle this problem, which has accelerated thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak.

In addition, by offering payment via card or contactless payments, the fire brigade has the opportunity to reach out to a younger audience who’re more used to having this payment variety. Ultimately, this means more donors for great charitable causes.

The speed and simplicity of the card readers were the main contributors to the fire brigade’s decision to choose SumUp.

“Offering the opportunity to pay via card, especially to younger people who don’t have cash on them but who nevertheless want to show us their support and gratitude, has made a difference this year. In fact, for some of them this will be the very first time they’ve donated, and therefore their first calendar!” said the spokesperson for the 'Fédération national des sapeurs-pompiers de France’, Éric Brocardi.

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