Monzo Charity Pots

For this personal project I chose to propose a design solution to simplifying ways of donating to charities of my choice. Over the last few years I had found myself adopting the use of round-up savings accounts as well as other methods of saving.

I found round-ups psychologically change your thought process behind the savings accrued. Having these working alongside a personal financial plan gives you the feeling of 'extra'. So why not support a charity of your choice?

The redesign and integration of features for my proposed Monzo banking app aimed to make charity donations more seamless and aligned with personal financial habits. I realised that, despite wanting to contribute, I wasn’t donating enough due to time-consuming methods and a lack of alignment with my financial management.

I preferred not to use direct debits for donations because of inconsistent spending and inflation, opting instead to manage finances monthly. Research shows that round-up savings pots create a "free savings" mentality, which I share.

By combining this with a non-invasive option to donate portions to a chosen charity, I created a simple, effortless way to give without disrupting my savings plan. This redesign eliminates the need for manual adjustments, making donations more effective.

Research and planning

The most obvious approach to me was to distinguish what banking apps were target users' favourite and most used, as this would give me the foundation target for my design. After obtaining their permission to participate in the survey it was clear that among other global large-scale banks, Monzo was the most commonly used app.

I also wanted to learn about their current approaches to saving. How do they actively set money aside each month, if at all? Have they heard of, and do they use, round-up savers? What were their thoughts on them?

Questions were also asked around their approaches to donating to charity. How often do they donate? Do they find they get enough exposure? Would they consciously donate more if they thought they could?

“Depends on how much of the savings were sent to charity. If it was a percentage of the savings I may be interested. For example, if I save £50 a month through round up and donate 10–15% of that to charity, mentally, that’s semi-free money I’m donating while still growing my savings.” Research questionnaire participant