The largest point-of-sale fundraising efforts by American retailers collected $749 million in consumer donations during 2022, a 24% increase from 2020, according to the biennial Charity Checkout Champions study released by Engage for Good.
The sixth edition of this study of campaigns that raised at least $1 million found 77 programs that reached that revenue level, up from 76 in 2020.
“This impressive growth is a testament to consumers’ continued willingness to chip in for a wide variety of good causes in partnership with retailers,” Alison Murphy, Engage for Good’s director, professional development events and program development, said via a statement.
Collectively these leading programs have raised more than $6.7 billion during the past 30 years. The five largest U.S.-based point-of-sale fundraising campaigns in 2022 were produced by:
- eBay — $107 million (supporting a wide variety of nonprofits)
- Albertsons — $67 million (supporting hunger relief, Ukraine aid and other charities)
- Walgreens — $50 million (supporting Comic Relief)
- Costco — $49 million (supporting Children’s Miracle Network Hospital)
- PetSmart – $46 million (supporting PetSmart Charities)
Changes in the formats of checkout charity programs were a major factor in their growth, said Engage for Good President David Hessekiel. Integration of fundraising into electronic point-of-sale systems, as opposed to completely relying on human cashier asks, grew by 45% from 2020 to 2022. And the percentage of campaigns that allowed shoppers to round up their purchases to a whole dollar amount increased to 67%, a 43% increase from 2020.
The report provides a detailed list of the 77 $1 million+ programs and delves into topics such as consumer behavior, program formats, the impact of macro factors like inflation and program success strategies. The study is available for download at https://engageforgood.com/meet-americas-charity-checkout-champions-2023/
