I am sure you have heard of this happening somewhere before, people have donated their hard earned money to support a good cause, the target nearly reached and then someone thinks to themselves "I will have that, thank you" (maybe a bit different phrasing at the end:)
A thief just waits for one small moment that nobody is watching and grabs the stash of cash and spends it on who knows what. I have come up with a few systems that can protect tip jars and donation boxes from being stolen. They can be installed in or under almost any donation pot without it looking any different. But when a wannabe thief tries to take the secured cash they will be in for a nasty surprise and be caught red-handed. For sure thieves will be more hesitant to trying this again as the measures that can be taken to prevent the theft can vary significantly. From ear piercing alarms to electric shocks or even paint marker/fart spray. One thing is for sure that is that thieves will have to watch out a lot more when attempting to steal again.
I do not want to earn a lot of money of this, I want to produce detailed plans with instructions on how to build the security measures themselves. That way there are all kinds of boxes that will be boobytrapped and this will increase the chance that a thief manages to encounter a baited one. They will get a shock when they try and fail.