NASHVILLE, TN – Vendors of Nashville’s homeless newspaper, The Contributor, are now accepting electronic payments through well-known mobile payment application, Venmo. Founded in 2007, The Contributor is published and distributed twice a month and costs customers $2.00 per paper.
“Customers and potential customers, especially young and middle-aged customers rarely carry cash anymore, but instead rely on electronic payments like Venmo to pay for daily expenses,” said The Contributorexecutive director, Cathy Jennings. “Vendors now take Venmo, so they are able to attract this expanding market of customers in Nashville to help them achieve their sales goals.”
Within the Venmo app, customers can scan the ContributorQR Code or type in @The-Contributor into the search people tab and enter the vendor name and ID in the “What is it for?” field. The QR code is located on the cover of the paper next to the price and on vendor badges. If you choose to support a vendor while stopped in traffic, you can take the paper and pay when you have arrived safely to your destination.
“We aren’t the first paper to do this. Real Change in Seattle has been doing this successfully for over a year. Nor is this the first time we’ve tried electronic payments,” Jennings said. “However, previously, the customer had to download a Contributor-branded app. Whereas Venmo is so much more universal.”
Twenty-five Contributor vendors are currently using Venmo on the streets and already seeing a positive impact on weekly sales as a result.
