Who Gives At The Register? New Impulse Giving News

Love it or hate it, point-of-sale fundraising is huge with cashiers and automated checkout systems asking for donations at an ever-growing number of brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants and e-commerce sites, but, until recently, little has been known about who actually makes these small donations.

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In a paper entitled “Who Will Spare A Dime? Impulse Giving Decisions At The Checkout” a pair of academics share insights into how many people give at the register, the kind of asks they are most responsive to and their demographics.

The online study of almost 1,400 adults found that 53% of respondents had made a checkout charity donation in the past year, according to Assistant Professor Lauren Dula of Binghamton University SUNY and Assistant Professor Ruth Hansen of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

An abstract of the study’s major findings explains that “Women, the middle class, and those who are married or divorced were all more likely to give at the register. In contrast with formal giving, education levels had little relation to giving and those approaching and over 50 years old were less likely to give.”

The study is based on self-reported findings. Since giving at checkout is not highly memorable, the data should be viewed as enlightening but not conclusive.

That being said, it’s exciting to have some new insights into informal giving (e.g. checkout charity, helping a neighbor, special church collections) which is rarely the focus of academic research, Dula and Hansen explained. Willingness to give (as opposed to more formal, larger gift giving) is an important measure of generosity, they said. The pair’s research was supported by a grant from the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy.

Rounding up to the nearest dollar was far and away the most popular way of giving at checkout with 85% of impulse givers reporting they had done that in the last year. About two thirds of impulse givers said they had chosen a dollar amount to add on to their purchase. Twenty percent said they had purchased tokens for in-store display when asked to give at point of sale.

Interestingly there was quite a difference in giving patterns between white and black consumers. White respondents on average said they gave $167 per year through checkout charity while Black respondents reported giving $225.

A shopper’s familiarity appeared to have an impact on participation. “A charity’s brand awareness plays a part in people’s POS giving behavior,” wrote the study authors.

“More people participated in the campaign when individuals were at a minimum “somewhat familiar” with the charity that would benefit,” they reported. Individuals who were “very familiar” with the charity that would benefit gave more generously. Organizations and retailers can take advantage of the space at the cash register to make an impression, but they should also consider visibility campaigns outside the retail environment to increase familiarity with the recipient organization and its good work.”

The study was fielded in September 2021 when in-store shopping was impacted by the pandemic which is one of the reasons the authors gave for wanting to conduct another wave of this research. Among other issues they’d like to explore: the difference between consumer response to human vs automated checkout.

The latest Checkout Charity Champions study of North America’s largest programs found 77 point-of-sale fundraising campaigns raised $749 million in 2022, a 24% increase from 2020, according to Engage for Good.

By David Hessekiel, Contributor