Fewer visitors carry cash, so the donation box by the door collects less every year. Castit's Donation Kiosk is a white-label donation app that turns a touchscreen into a card donation point. Visitors choose an amount or an item, tap their card on the venue's own terminal, and the money settles directly to the venue's bank account.
The shift away from cash is well documented. According to the European Central Bank's SPACE study, cash was used in 52% of point-of-sale transactions in the euro area in 2024, down from 59% in 2022 (ECB, 2024). In some countries the drop is much further along. De Nederlandsche Bank reports that in the Netherlands, the cash share is considerably lower, at around one in five (DNB, 2025). A visitor who wants to give but only has a card will walk past a coin slot.
This article explains what the Donation Kiosk does, how to configure every setting, and where it fits in a church, museum, hospital, or charity.
What is the Castit Donation Kiosk app?
The Donation Kiosk is an app inside Castit's cloud-based digital signage platform that accepts card donations on a touchscreen. It is white-label, so visitors see your organization's name, texts, images, and colors rather than Castit branding.
Because it runs as a regular Castit app, you manage it the same way you manage any other content. You assign it to a screen in the CMS, and the touchscreen display running that screen becomes a donation point. Other displays in the building can keep showing service times, exhibition information, or event schedules from the same account.
How do you set up the Donation Kiosk?
All configuration happens in one settings panel in the Castit CMS. Save your changes after each step, and use the built-in preview to check how the kiosk looks before visitors see it.
| Setting | What you control |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Which Castit screen runs the kiosk |
| Language | The language of the kiosk interface |
| Design mode | Large amount buttons, or items with pictures, quantities, and a running total |
| Texts and image | Welcome title and text, explanation title and text, picture, thank-you text, return timer |
| Amounts and items | Fixed amounts in euros, items with price and maximum quantity, free amount range |
| Card terminal | CCV or Adyen, on the venue's own contract |
| Style | Background, text, and accent colors |
| Donations | A record of every successful payment |
Choose the screen and language
Start by picking the screen that will show the kiosk and the language visitors will read. A church with an international congregation, or a museum with many foreign visitors, can set up separate kiosk screens in different languages and assign them to different displays.
Pick a design mode
The Donation Kiosk has two layouts, and the right one depends on how you want people to think about their gift.
| | Amount buttons | Items with quantities |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What visitors see | Large buttons with fixed amounts | Items with a picture, a price, and a quantity selector |
| Running total | Not needed | Shown as visitors add items |
| Free amount option | Available | Not available |
| Works well for | General offerings, entry donations, building funds | Specific appeals: candles, meals, school supplies, bed nights |
The amount layout is fast and familiar. The item layout turns an abstract number into something concrete. A food bank can offer "one family meal" at a set price, and a visitor can choose three of them while watching the total update.
Write the texts visitors will read
Every line of text on the kiosk can be edited. The welcome title is the large line on the idle screen, the one people read from a few meters away, and the welcome text sits beneath it. On the donation page, the explanation title appears on the left half, with the explanation text below it describing what the money is for. A few short lines work best here, since people read standing up and often while someone waits behind them.
You can add a picture in PNG, JPG, GIF, or WebP format, up to 4 MB. You also write the thank-you text shown after payment and set how many seconds the kiosk waits before returning to the welcome screen. Set the timer short enough that the next visitor starts on the welcome screen rather than someone else's thank-you message.
Set amounts, items, and a free amount
In the amounts and items settings you define what visitors can choose. Amounts are in euros. For the item layout, you add each item with a name, an amount, a maximum quantity, and a picture, and you can add as many items as you need.
The free amount option applies to the amount-button layout only. You set the lowest and highest amount allowed, and tick a checkbox if you want visitors to be able to type their own figure. The upper limit is useful as a guard against typos at the terminal.
Connect your card terminal
The kiosk works with the venue's own card terminal and payment contract. The terminal is the device visitors tap or insert their card into, and the payment provider behind it processes the transaction and transfers the money to your bank account. The Donation Kiosk supports terminals from two providers, CCV and Adyen, so if your organization already uses one of them, you can connect the kiosk to the terminal you have.
Castit only sends the terminal the amount to charge. The payment itself runs through your provider and settles to your own account, so Castit never holds or handles the money.
Match your colors
The style settings cover background color, text color, and accent color. Using your organization's colors makes the kiosk read as part of the building, which matters in spaces like churches and galleries where a generic payment screen can feel out of place.
Track donations
Every successful payment made at the kiosk appears under Donations and stays in the database. This gives the finance team or treasurer a record of what came in through the kiosk, separate from cash collections.
What does a donation kiosk offer churches and nonprofits?
A donation kiosk gives card-only visitors a way to give on the spot, and it lets you explain on screen exactly what their money supports.
The first gain is reach. People who would have given a few coins but had none can now give by card. This is an addition to cash, not a replacement. The Charities Aid Foundation found that 36% of UK donors used cash to donate or sponsor in any given month in 2024 (CAF, 2025), so the collection box still has a job. In US churches, CDF Capital observed that digital giving was largely not a replacement for cash or check giving, as the majority of churches did not see a decline in physical giving (CDF Capital, 2025).
The second gain is context. A collection box says nothing about where the money goes. The kiosk's explanation text and item layout do. A hospital foundation can show what a specific amount buys for the children's ward, and a museum can tie a donation to a restoration project visitors just walked past.
The third is control. Since payments settle on your own terminal contract, there is no extra payment intermediary in the chain, and you keep your existing banking setup. Updating an appeal also takes minutes: a church can switch the explanation text and items from a roof fund to a Christmas appeal from the CMS, without anyone going to the building.
There is also less cash to count, store, and take to the bank, which reduces the volunteer hours and security questions that come with it.
How does a donation kiosk fit into church digital signage?
For churches, the kiosk usually sits in the entrance or foyer, next to displays already showing service times, announcements, and community events. Digital giving is now a large part of church income. A Ministry Brands report found that digital transactions account for 42% of overall church giving (Ministry Brands via Sound Mind Investing, 2025), and among churches surveyed by CDF Capital, 61% saw an increase in digital giving in 2024. Most of that happens online. A kiosk brings card giving back into the building, at the moment people are present and engaged.
The same approach works across the charity sector. A museum or gallery can place a kiosk near the exit with a suggested donation. A university advancement office can run one at alumni events, with items tied to scholarships. A charity shop or community center can pair it with digital signage screens showing the project's progress.
What does the Donation Kiosk mean for resellers and integrators?
For partners, the Donation Kiosk opens a clear use case in churches, nonprofits, museums, and hospital foundations, many of which have not bought digital signage before. AV integrators and digital signage resellers can deliver it as part of a wider installation, under the client's own branding since the app is white-label.
Kiosk and touchscreen vendors get a ready software layer for their hardware in a new vertical. Payment terminal providers working with CCV or Adyen can bundle a terminal contract with a kiosk that is already built to use it. If you want to sell and install Castit for these clients, Castit partner program explains how the partnership works.
Put a card donation point next to your collection box
If visitors want to give but no longer carry cash, the Donation Kiosk gives them a way to do it on a touchscreen you control, with every donation going straight to your account. The easiest way to judge whether it fits your building is to see it running.
Book a demo and we'll set it up with your own texts and amounts, or start with 21 days of the complete product and configure it yourself on a screen you already have. If you have questions about terminals, hardware, or how it would work in your space, write to us or give us a call.
FAQ
What is a donation kiosk?
A donation kiosk is a touchscreen, usually placed in an entrance or lobby, where visitors choose an amount and pay by card. Castit's Donation Kiosk runs as an app on a Castit digital signage screen and connects to the venue's own card terminal. Churches, museums, hospitals, and charities use kiosks to accept gifts from visitors who don't carry cash.
Does Castit process or hold the donation money?
No. Castit only sends the payment amount to the card terminal. The transaction runs through the venue's own payment contract with CCV or Adyen, and the money settles directly to the venue's bank account. Castit keeps a record of successful payments in the Donations list, but it never receives or holds the funds.
Which card terminals work with the Castit Donation Kiosk?
The Donation Kiosk supports CCV and Adyen terminals. The venue uses its own terminal and its own contract with the payment provider, and selects the terminal type in the kiosk's card terminal settings. If your organization already has a contract with one of these providers, you can connect the kiosk to it without changing your banking setup.
Can visitors choose their own donation amount?
Yes, in the amount-button design mode. You set the lowest and highest allowed amounts, then tick a checkbox that lets visitors type their own figure. The free amount option is not available in the item design mode, where visitors choose items with fixed prices and quantities and see a running total instead.
Can a church use the same system for announcements and donations?
Yes. The Donation Kiosk is one of the apps in Castit, so the same account can run service times, announcements, and event screens on other displays while a touchscreen in the foyer runs the donation kiosk. Everything is managed from one cloud-based CMS, so updates can be made remotely.
Is the donation app branded as Castit?
No. The Donation Kiosk is white-label. You write every text visitors see, add your own picture, and set the background, text, and accent colors to match your organization. Visitors see your name and your appeal, not Castit branding, which also allows partners to deliver it under the client's brand.