THE RETAIL EQUATION INTRODUCES CHANGE FOR CHARITY
New Service Enables Retailers and Consumers to Easily Support Charitable Giving using the $15 Billion in Spare Change that is Expected to Change Hands this Holiday Season
Irvine, Calif.—November 5, 2008—The Retail Equation, developers of return optimization and authorization solutions for top-tier retailers in the US, announced today the release of Change for Charity™, a service that retailers may deploy at the point-of-sale and point-of-return to engage shoppers in their corporate giving programs. Change for Charity is an unobtrusive electronic means for a shopper to quickly donate the spare change from their cash-based sale, return, or exchange transaction. As the collector and aggregator of the change, the retailer can efficiently distribute the funds to selected charities, while giving credit to the contributing shopper.
A simple, spare change-based service at point-of-sale can impact the lives of so many individuals in need, put retailers at the forefront of community activism, and enable individual shoppers to be part of ‘the power of many’, where their small donations will add up to help make a big change.
“Our internal research shows that there is approximately $39 billion worth of spare change exchanged annually via all types of retail transactions, $15 billion will occur right now during the holiday shopping season,” said Mark Hammond, chairman and CEO of The Retail Equation. “Change for Charity is a new spin on an old concept; it replaces the physical charitable change containers some retailers have at their register with a more efficient, accurate and secure system to manage corporate giving.”
Change for Charity is an intelligent system that operates at the conclusion of a cash sale, return, or exchange transaction. While the paper currency change is handed out, the shopper is asked if she would like to donate her spare coin change from the transaction to one of a list of charities chosen by the retailer. If opting to do so, the consumer receives a receipt indicating her tax-deductible gift, the retailer retains and consolidates the change for a future distribution, and the charity obtains a new source of income.
“The hope is to help create a new revenue stream in addition of the dollars already being contributed by retail organizations to each of their selected charitable groups. If even one quarter of the retailer’s customers were impassioned enough to give their spare change, that can generate hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of incremental donations,” said Hammond.
Beyond the positive net impact in the community from the increased giving, there are tangible business benefits to a modernized donation collection system. Retailers will see a decrease in labor costs associated with gathering, counting and distributing donated funds, as well as a reduction of clutter by removing old change containers – which in turn may generate more sales through re-merchandising the register counter space. With the support of retail chains, charities have the ability to gain access to a much larger market of funds from each retailer’s customer base. Plus, computerized fund dispersal from retailers will lower charities cost of handling cash, be more secure, less susceptible to theft or fraud, and allow for better accounting.
Click here for a quick intro to Change for Charity.