For most consumers, the experience is familiar, albeit fairly forgettable.

You’re loading up on necessities (or frivolities) at the cash register of your nearby big name drug, grocery, hardware or beer store, and the clerk asks if you’d like to throw down an extra dollar or two for a charity whose name you barely absorb.

Depending on how often you’re asked, the request to donate to a point-of-sale philanthropy campaign, as this type of spontaneous, at-the-till fundraising is called, can range from innocuous to irritating.

Typically, whether or not we’re incited — often by guilt — to donate this way, we don’t spend much time thinking about the cause in question, or what effect our dollar will have.

If you’re in the business of fundraising, however, or are simply involved in nonprofit or charity work, the question of whether point-of-sale philanthropy actually works and by how much, as well as what the general goals, challenges and successes associated with it are, become significant.

As this strategy typically requires collaboration between nonprofits and private businesses, we set out to explore point-of-sale fundraising from both sides.

Logistics and goals: Cash and beyond

Turns out, organizations benefiting from large, point-of-sale fundraisers are finding ways to make themselves memorable, with some stores and charities using the campaigns to create buzz — and not just dollars — for their cause, potentially getting into customers’ heads more than we realize.

Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) is comprised of 170 children’s hospitals located across North America, with 14 in Canada.

They run a number of fundraising campaigns, their most iconic being the “Miracle Month of May,” typically held at Walmart and Costco, where patrons are encouraged to add a dollar to their purchase in exchange for a paper balloon.

Geoffrey Milder is a development officer with the Children’s Miracle Network and program director with the IWK Health Centre Foundation, which raises funds for the IWK Health Centre, a children’s hospital located in Halifax, and a recipient of CMN donations across the Maritimes.

Milder says campaigns operated by CMN contribute to about 45% (or $2 million) of the IWK Foundation’s annual fundraising revenue of $5.5 million; balloon sales alone account for about 20% (or just shy of $1 million) of their total.

It’s a substantial — but not huge — component of the IWK Foundation’s revenue, and Milder stresses the strong return on investment, and the impressive feat of raising funds “a dollar at a time.”

“Walmart this year raised more than $400,000 in balloon sales alone in the Maritimes. It’s a fairly accepted statistic for point-of-sale campaigns that one in four patrons will say yes to a balloon purchase…that means they would’ve asked about 1.6 million people — that in itself is the entire population of the Maritimes.”

While raising dollars, rather than awareness, is CMN’s focus for this type of fundraiser, Milder says individual stores in the Maritimes sometimes use the campaign as an opportunity to promote story-telling about the IWK and its impact.

“A Walmart in Truro, Nova Scotia took photos of kids who’d received care at the IWK and turned them into buttons. It’s an interesting way of creating a compelling [donation] ask,” he says.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, an organization with member clubs in communities across the country, also uses point-of-sale initiatives.

In British Columbia’s central Okanagan region, Boys and Girls Clubs has forged a particularly strong relationship with a local McDonald’s franchisee. The owner of about nine local stores gives them 50% of proceeds from the annual McHappy Day. (The other half is donated to Ronald McDonald House.)

Richelle Lawrence is the special events coordinator at Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs. She explained that a key focus of McHappy Day is to raise awareness for their organization and programs.

For example, Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs used McHappy Day this year as an opportunity to generate excitement for a camp they run for low-income children. Boys and Girls staff and volunteers establish a presence in the restaurants by, as, Lawrence says, “bringing the kid factor into it.” This year, they hung decorations and even offered face painting to customers.

“It’s a great win-win. And the media coverage is amazing: in almost all cases, there was someone from a radio station on site for at least part of the day.”

As for finding appropriate corporate partners, Lawrence maintains it’s critical, and explains Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs look for partners that have similar philosophies about supporting children and families.

“Obviously, if it was a company that had other ideas in mind or had a [negative] effect on children and families, we wouldn’t partner with those corporations.”

As for examining other elements of a company’s sense of social responsibility, Lawrence affirmed, “we would seek out corporate partners that make sense.”

The corporate perspective

Charities are not the only ones scrutinizing their partners.

Erin Mackey, Walmart Canada’s manager of community involvement and John Lawrence, director of corporate social responsibility, explained that Walmart Canada chooses its charities with great care, ensuring they fit the established mandate of having the greatest possible impact on Canadian families in need.

They run five different point-of-sale fundraisers each year; The Children’s Miracle Network’s balloon campaign, for which Walmart Canada runs two separate cash register campaigns, is the company’s most prominent and successful.

The objective is to promote causes that resonate with both Walmart customers and store associates.

“To talk about the Children’s Miracle Network campaign, it would be very rare that there wouldn’t be an associate in a store who hasn’t been touched by a children’s hospital in Canada. They understand the cause,” Lawrence says.

Walmart uses “icons” like the paper balloons to cement the idea that a special event is going on.

“It’s sort of a visual aid and creates awareness for the campaign…what is CMN? Why are these balloons there? It prompts customers to ask those questions, which is great for CMN’s brand.”

Further, for most campaigns, many Walmart stores set up a table, sometimes manned by an associate, with literature about the cause, to allow patrons the chance to learn more.

Duration

That point-of-sale campaigns typically last only a few weeks or months (and in some cases, only a day), is no coincidence.

CMN’s paper balloon campaign runs for just a month each year and Milder explains, “any fundraiser will tell you that the campaign that never ends is only going to be of a certain benefit…we try to be as strategic as possible.”

Holding a campaign annually lends it sustainability, and potentially, some street cred. Running it for a relatively small stretch of time helps the campaign to optimize the dollars brought in during a concentrated period — warding off prospective donor fatigue.

“Since people who shop at Walmart will typically shop there more than once in a four or five week period…as generous as many of our contributors are, there’s definitely a fatiguing element to being asked continuously,” Milder asserts.

Successes

Last year, Walmart Canada raised and donated $25.3 million to charities. Roughly $10.1 million of that was collected through point-of-sales campaigns.

This year’s CMN paper balloon campaign raised over $4 million. Numbers have risen from year to year, which Mackay attributes to store expansion.

“The return is huge when you consider that a paper balloon is only a fraction of a penny, and then you get the full dollar back,” Mackay says.

For Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs, this year’s McHappy Day raised $10,609, a considerable increase from last year’s campaign, which raised $7,500.

While, at the end of the day, revenue from point-of-sale donations generally contributes to less than 0.1% of CMN’s annual budget of $10 million, Richelle Lawrence maintains this by no means devalues campaigns like McHappy Day.

“Although it is a small amount…the perspective is that all fundraising efforts contribute to the programs and services we run. Not only does it help raise funds, it helps raise awareness and create positive partnerships.”

Challenges

What’s difficult about point-of-sale philanthropy is the inability for the organization or foundation to track who is actually giving.

“Most fundraisers cite a long-term and sustainable relationship as the cornerstone of long-term and sustainable donations. The challenge with point-of-sale is we don’t have that same opportunity to cultivate a relationship with the donor,” Milder concedes.

“Most fundraisers like to know who’s contributing to their cause, so they can at least go back and say thank you.”

Further, without knowing who’s giving and how frequently, CMN can’t, as with other types of fundraising, leverage a smaller donation into something that grows to be more substantial with time.

So, while it may not be the most lucrative or the most sustainable form of fundraising, point-of-sale philanthropy certainly makes an impact, and produces a high rate of return.

And while, for some of us, cash register campaigns capitalize on our guilt, both corporate partners and nonprofits agree this form of fundraising gives patrons who might not donate to charity otherwise the chance to contribute in some small way.

“I don’t think we tap into guilt as much as we tap into opportunity. I believe strongly everyone has the right to be asked [to donate],” says Milder.

“A lot of people don’t participate in philanthropy, or don’t do it consistently, so donating one or two bucks at time may be as philanthropic as they get. It’s an opportunity for them to get the sense of having participated in some good works.”

Jodie Shupac is a Toronto-based freelance writer. She contributes to a range of publications, covering culture, urban issues, health and the environment.

Photos (from top) via iStock.com. All photos used with permission.

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