Toy retailer The Entertainer has raised over £100,000 from customer donations using an electronic charity box scheme.

Using the Pennies electronic charity box, customers have donated their “small change” from transactions made by credit or debit cards in-store, or through purchases made online, replacing the traditional penny boxes that were commonplace next to tills in shops and food outlets.

Through the Pennies scheme, over 350,000 individual donations have been made by The Entertainer customers, with a peak in the week before Christmas where over £13,000 was donated.

The majority of the funds raised by The Entertainer will be donated to four children’s hospitals; Liverpool’s Alder Hey Imagine Appeal, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal, which fundraises for Bristol Children’s Hospital.

The rest of the money will be shared amongst ten charities covering a range of different causes, including cancer patients, the elderly and education.

The Entertainer is the first high street chain to adopt the scheme, and they found that over half of customers who were asked to donate chose to do so.

Gary Grant, managing director of The Entertainer, said: “People are inclined to be generous, and we have provided this very simple option for them to easily donate their small change. It has been amazing to see how those micro-donations add up to make a difference.

“Our tradtional charity boxes would generate less than £2000 a year so it has been tremendous to see the donations come in so quickly and easily with the electronic charity box.”

The Pennies electronic charity box scheme is currently being employed by a number of high profile chains, such as Go Outdoors, Domino’s Pizza and Zizzi restaurants, as well as The Entertainer.

CEO of The Pennies Foundation Alison Hutchinson said: “We have always known that pennies are powerful, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of The Entertainer’s customers. We are so pleased that they have embraced the micro-donations and are making a real difference to sick children’s lives.”