Thanksgiving and Christmas are known to bring families and communities together. The giving holidays inspire us to practice gratitude and help the less fortunate. The holidays are a critical time of the year for charities and non-profits because 30 to 50% of their annual revenue is generated during November and December, but the programs rely on donations all year long. While many of us would like to get more involved through volunteerism or donation, financial or time constraints prevent us from doing so.
That’s why giving programs like Community Roundup are so essential. Roundup programs are donation and fund-raising initiatives that allow consumers to round up their purchases to the nearest dollar to support a specific cause. The spare change builds over time, and the proceeds are distributed to the participating organizations through an app.
Roundup
Roundup programs help strengthen communities and offer an ongoing source of income for charities and non-profits. Consistent donations make it easier to forecast spending and budget finances. Roundup apps bring more awareness to giving programs and allow consumers to contribute often to their preferred non-profit or charity.
Community Roundup 101: Grocery stores are the ideal setting to establish a Roundup program because they are the heart of a community and, as such, community engagement is a cornerstone of many grocery stores’ marketing and philanthropic activity.
The platform provides retailers and customers the opportunity to give back to schools and non-profits in their local community, and offers retailers several significant benefits:
- Allow customers to actively participate by designating where the round up funds go
- Hundreds of local causes will encourage their supporters to shop with you
- Highly personalized, customer specific, and measurable results
- Very low cost as the customer funds the contributions
- Have “matching” roundup marketing events managed to a budget of your choice
- Highly visible program where customers enroll on your website and can see the cumulative results of the program
- No administrative hassles: Automatic tracking, customer enrollment, charity payments and analytics
How can you measure Community Roundup?
In the past, retailers would give a cash sponsorship to the local little league or organize a paper/gift card Scrip discount fundraiser. But these programs were costly to administer, and it was difficult to determine if they resonated with the community or measurably improved customer retention. Retailers now can supercharge their giving programs via Community Roundup and manage (or eliminate) costs in a highly personalized and meaningful program.
Customers respond too! Roundup has been operating for 25 years and has allocated over $450 million to tens of thousands of causes. One major U.S retailer found that they were losing 26% of non-community rewards members annually, compared to only 9.1% of members a 17.3% difference in customer retention. This not only means that customers respond to and engage with the program, but that their loyalty to that business improves dramatically.
When grocers donate to charitable organizations it shows good-will in the community, and with Community Roundup, retailers can quantify that donation and the resulting sales. If a customer identifies themselves within a community program, the retailer will know exactly when they shopped and how much additional revenue was generated because of that sale. This type of data is invaluable to a business, especially when selected charities can encourage customers to shop at a particular retailer, furthering the ROI that comes from these programs.
Want to give back to the community in a profitable way?
Visit the Givex Rewards website here to learn more about how community rewards and loyalty programs can boost sales and customer retention.
Vice President of Community Rewards Andy Ruff has successfully implemented cause marketing programs for more than 15 years. He has a passion for and keen understanding of how customer information, in its myriads of forms, impacts an organization’s marketing and brand identity and has worked with dozens of grocery retailers of all sizes in successfully implementing these strategies.
