BHF becomes first charity to accept donations though Alexa

The British Heart Foundation has become the first charity in the world to enable people to donate money and items through any Alexa-enabled device.

Donors will be able to donate through Amazon Pay, as well as arrange for the free collection of furniture and electrical items by speaking to Alexa on devices such as the Amazon Echo.

Donated items will be sold in one of the 180 BHF furniture and electrical stores in the UK.
Users will be able to activate the Alexa skill by asking questions such as: "Alexa, ask British Heart Foundation to collect my furniture,” and “Alexa, open British Heart Foundation and donate money.”

Once a donation is made to the charity, Alexa will tell users the story of Rebecca Shorrocks, a 36-year-old who was diagnosed with ARVC, a rare genetic disease of the heart muscle in February 2017, putting her at high risk of a cardiac arrest. She will also thank users for their donation.

Commenting, BHF chief executive, Simon Gillespie said: “The launch of this new project marks an incredibly exciting time for the British Heart Foundation and highlights our ambition to embrace new technologies in our quest to fund more research for the seven million people in the UK living with heart and circulatory disease.

“More people than ever own a digital assistant like the Amazon Echo and it’s really exciting for our supporters to be able to use their device to support lifesaving heart research.

“We’re constantly adapting as an organisation to be where our supporters are and to give people choice to make donating as easy as possible. We’re excited to add the Amazon Alexa onto a long list of ways that people can help fund our life saving research.”