Newsletter: Is Tipping a Threat or Opportunity to Checkout Charity? 🧐 ; Five Proven Ways to Tell Stories with Data 📈 ; What Does it Mean to be ‘Wise Selfish’ 😈

Last week, my wife and I stopped by a local restaurant to pick up some takeout. Like most places we visit now, the cashier asked us to pay via a slick payment screen on the counter. After tapping the screen with her credit card, she was prompted to leave a tip, which she did.

As we walked back to the car with our food, I asked why she had left a tip. After all, the cashier did nothing except hand us our food. "It asked me so I left a tip," she shrugged.

Being asked to leave a tip, even after simple transactions like picking up food in a drive-thru or buying a muffin or water, is becoming more common.

One of the reasons is the digital payment methods stores have adopted since the pandemic.

As the Associated Press explained in this article  :

"As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are automatically being prompted to leave a gratuity — many times as high as 30% — at places they normally wouldn't. And some say it has become more frustrating as the price of items has skyrocketed due to inflation..."

Of course, all the recent press on tipping got me thinking about how it could impact checkout charity.

There are definitely pros and cons.

PROS

✅ More businesses are adopting digital payment systems that can automatically add a tip or donation. That's a good thing! Many companies, especially smaller ones, balk at checkout charity because they don't have an easy way to track donations and/or they don't want cashiers directly asking customers. Digital payment systems solve those problems!

✅ Consumers are engaging more with digital payment methods and are being trained to pay more at checkout. That could be a tip for employees or a round-up for a good cause. The hope is that the action becomes an expectation, a consumer habit.

CONS

❌ Consumer frustrations with tipping could spill over into any transaction where that involves paying more, including giving to causes. That could be bad for checkout charity.

❌ Once employees get that sweet tip money, you can kiss goodbye collecting money for good causes. Employees won't do it - or they'll do it begrudgingly - because they'll be counting on those tips as part of their wages. You can't blame them!

With pros and cons, what's the path forward?

👉🏻 Watch for businesses that are adopting digital payment methods. Adding a round-up or donation option to a payment system is easier than ever. The golden age of checkout charity is here! 🙌

👉🏻👉🏻 Ask businesses that are encouraging tips if they plan to continue. Now that they have trained shoppers to pay more, they could easily switch to asking for donations.

👉🏻👉🏻👉🏻 Ask businesses that accept tips to switch to donations. This is a little more tricky. To keep employees on board, I would ask the business owner to cover employee tips for the duration of the promotion. Would they do that to collect money for a good cause? Your guess is as good as mine.

What do you think? Is the consumer backlash against tipping a threat or an opportunity for checkout charity?

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. Did you miss the 2023 Trends Report webinar last week? No worries. I got you. Here are the slides and the recording.

2. Here's a good slide for your pitch deck: The percentage of U.S. adults who make or change a purchase based on environmental, social, or ethical concerns. It's also broken out by generation. Quite the spread between Boomers and Gen Z.

3. If you have a partnership team, how do pick which person gets which prospect? There are five lead distribution methods. Which one do you use?

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. Five proven ways to tell stories with data.

2. "Hey, have you lost weight?" How to work a Zoom room.

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

1. Director of Development & Partnerships, Right to Be, Brooklyn, NY Remote ($125k - $150k)

2. Corporate Partnership & Communications Manager, Pawsperity, Kansas City Metro

3. Manager, Fundraising & Corporate Development, Conquer Cancer, Remote

4. Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships,  Americares , Remote ($134k - $157k)

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. People think my website is about being selfish AND giving. It's not. It's all about being wise selfish. The Dali Lama explains.

2. Get paid to eat cheese. 🧀 Do I need to say more?

3. I started with tipping so I might as well end with it. The new rules of tipping.