Retail customers say they have donation fatigue. Here’s why some aren’t rounding up for charity anymore

When Jennifer Lynn Robinson runs errands, it feels like all store employees and self-checkout screens ask the same question: Do you want to round up your bill to the next dollar for charity or make a small donation?

Around the holidays, the prompts feel especially ubiquitous.

“There is really no way to escape it,” said the 50-year-old Haverford, Pennsylvania, resident, who regularly rounds up but only gives a donation the first time a store prompts her. “It’s really everywhere you go between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“It’s similar to the situation we’ve all encountered when you get takeout pizza, and they say, ‘Do you want to tip?’ ” added Robinson, a professional speaker, noting she finds both questions “equally intrusive.”

As more charities team up with companies for round-up campaigns, an increasing number of consumers are experiencing a new emotion: donation fatigue.

About 59% of consumers said they’ve given to charity at a checkout counter in 2023, down from 80% in 2021, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing a 1,000-person survey by Accelerist, a charity fundraising software company. Meanwhile, the survey found 73% of shoppers said they felt neutral or positive about being asked, a decrease from 85% two years ago.

Giant, the Carlisle, Pennsylvania-based grocery chain, has seen fewer shoppers rounding up at checkout recently, according to its internal data. Through Oct. 31 of this year, Rite Aid’s KidCents program, which rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar for enrolled members, has raised about $172,000 less per month on average compared to its monthly fundraising totals in 2022.

Why some shoppers are saying no

Dozens of consumers across the Philadelphia area said they’ve become less likely to donate at checkout for a variety of reasons. Many said they are skeptical of where the money is actually going. This is especially true if they aren’t familiar with a particular charity or if they believe that point-of-sales donations can be used for a company’s tax write-offs, a common misconception that has been debunked by tax policy experts.

Some shoppers said they simply can’t afford to do it every time they go to a store. Others are annoyed by the frequency of requests, which they feel can be laced with moral judgment, and would rather donate to causes of their choosing with larger sums on Giving Tuesday or throughout the year (though nonprofit donations have been down overall the last two years).

“I feel like these companies and corporations are really just trying to guilt you into saying yes,” said Katie Fisher, 34, of Haddon Heights, New Jersey. In the past, she’d give in. “I did feel guilty about saying no when it’s like, ‘Do you want to save a dog’s life together?’ ”

Now, Fisher, a customer success manager, said she doesn’t feel bad declining every roundup request. Outside of the checkout line, she donates time and money to area animal shelters, including by fostering.

“I’d rather send $500 in one bulk sum to an animal I know is going to be taken care of,” she said, “rather than go to PetSmart and donate 20 cents every two weeks.”

Self-checkout kiosks make it easier to say no, too, local shoppers said.

“I feel kind of bad when it’s a person asking. When it’s the machine, I don’t care,” said Natalia Ramirez-Urena, a 34-year-old project coordinator who lives in Pennsauken, New Jersey. “Why do I have to feel pressured to donate to organizations that I’m not into?”

Round-ups add up

As some consumers have grown tired of the omnipresent requests, some stores have changed the way they ask the question.

As Wawa has added more self-checkout kiosks to stores over the past two years, customers who use the machines have been asked whether they want to round up for charities, including local chapters of the Special Olympics and the American Red Cross.

This year, some locations of New Jersey-based ShopRite have added a prompt on customer’s electronic keypads for the first time. In the past, ShopRite cashiers asked shoppers whether they wanted to donate to certain initiatives, including the holiday season’s Checkout Hunger campaign. Spokesperson Karen O’Shea said more customers have been donating on the pin pad, leading to an overall uptick in donations so far this year.

“We are thankful for the incredible generosity of our customers but also sensitive to concerns from people who don’t want to participate, and some stores may opt not to conduct campaigns based on feedback from their customers,” O’Shea said in a statement.

Spokespeople for ShopRite, Wawa, Giant and Rite Aid said customers can trust that 100% of their donations are going to the stated cause. And those small donations of even a few cents can add up: In 2022, Giant’s roundup campaign resulted in $10 million in donations to local charities, including food banks, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and environmental organizations such as Keep PA Beautiful. Rite Aid’s KidCents program, which supports grants intended to improve the lives of neighborhood children, raised $12.5 million last year.

Chris Brickhouse has seen the impact of company partnerships firsthand as executive director of Better Days Ahead, a nonprofit that helps people who are unhoused in the Chester County, Pennsylvania, area.

“We’ve gotten probably several thousand dollars from our various restaurants’ (fundraisers),” he said. He’s particularly excited that Better Days Ahead was selected to be the roundup charity for the month of January at Kimberton Whole Foods in Collegeville. He expects the monthlong campaign will raise $2,000 to $4,000 for the nonprofit.

Given his experience, Brickhouse, 44, a full-time software engineer, said he’s selective about his checkout donations.

“If I don’t know who the nonprofit is, I don’t donate,” he said. But he regularly donates to area charities. “Most local nonprofits are grassroots. They’re run by people in the town. You know exactly what they’re doing.”

Lauren Collinson, a controller for a nonprofit, said consumers should know how impactful point-of-sales initiatives can be.

“You’re tapping into this whole other market of donors,” she said. “I know a lot of people don’t like it, but it really does benefit charities.”

Still, Collinson, 40, of South Philadelphia, rounds up her own purchases only about half the time. She prefers, she said, to make larger recurring donations to nonprofits, such as animal rescues, and to track her charitable giving for tax purposes, which is harder to do with checkout donations.

As a consumer, she said, she often decides whether to round up at the register based on how much money she’s spent or saved.

“At CVS, I always have a ton of coupons,” Collinson said. “I’ll be like, ‘OK, I just saved $22 with my coupons, so I’ll round up, why not?’”

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