Holiday shoppers such as Amber Fields are the reason for the explosion of checkout charity. When a cash register clerk asks her to round up her bill to the nearest dollar and donate the rest to a charity, she doesn't hesitate to say "yes."
Those nickel-and-dime donations are adding up to millions of dollars at businesses ranging from Petco to J.C. Penney, providing a boost to nonprofits' fundraising and to the stores' public image.
Hardly chump change, checkout fundraisers across the nation raked in more than $348 million in 2012, according to an analysis of the 63 largest campaigns by Cause Marketing Forum.
"When it comes to kids, animals, the homeless — how do you say no to that?" asked Fields, a 36-year-old mother from Mound, shopping at Ridgedale Center last week.
"Change sits at the bottom of my purse. Why not give it to charity?"
The campaigns take various forms. There's the dollar round-up version, the coin collection box next to the cash register, or a donation request made by the cashier or on a credit-card screen. Customers may also be asked if they want to "purchase" a paper icon, such as a Children's Miracle Network balloon.
The full impact of these campaigns hadn't been calculated until last year, when the New York-based Cause Marketing Forum released an analysis of the 63 campaigns in 2012 that raised more than $1 million. The top three were:
• $54 million from eBay to more than 22,000 nonprofits.