Would You Like to Round Up and Donate the Difference? Roundup Requests Reduce the Perceived Pain of Donating

Abstract

Recently, some companies have begun to ask their customers to “round up” transactions to the next highest dollar and donate the difference to charity. However, little is known about how consumers respond to such an appeal. Across a series of lab experiments and one large field study, we find that consumers respond more favorably to a roundup than to a flat donation request, even when the requested amount is identical. We find evidence that the effect arises because a roundup request reduces consumers’ perceived pain of donating. Three alternative explanations are examined (i.e., objective financial cost, inattention to donation cost, and perceived novelty of the request) but not supported. This research has important implications for both companies and nonprofits seeking to increase charitable donations from consumers.

Negative Effect of Roundup Requests on Repurchase Intentions

“…While the findings of Kelting et al (2019) seem to suggest that a roundup donation request is more effective than a flat donation request, this study argues on the contrary that this may not always prove to be true. Specifically, we propose that a roundup (vs. flat) donation request can also increase anticipated negative affect associated with refusing such a request.…”

“…." (Kelting et al, 2019). Participants also rated their perceived pain of donating using a 5-point non-verbal face scale (1 = , 5 = ) Kelting et al, 2019;Thomas et al, 2011).…”

“…Regardless, although making a donation may be perceived as a socially desirable behavior (Satow, 1975), yet it may be considered painful as it causes consumers to bear a financial loss. Indeed, past research indicates that consumers experience "pain" when they need to spend money (Soster et al, 2014;Thomas et al, 2011) and to donate (Kelting et al, 2019;Oppenheimer & Olivola, 2011).…”

A Review and Framework for Thinking about the Drivers of Prosocial Consumer Behavior

“…Making behaviors easy to perform is the cornerstone of behavior change and can lead to greater monetary donations, volunteering, and other habitual prosocial behaviors (Gregory and Leo 2003;Biel, Dahlstrand, and Grankvist 2005). For instance, blood donation drives that minimize the distance people have to travel to donate blood (Olaiya et al 2004) and checkout cashiers who ask people if they wish to simply "round up and donate the difference" can increase donations by reducing the effort and psychological discomfort that prosocial behaviors can sometimes entail (Kelting, Robinson, and Lutz 2019).…”

Nudging Charitable Giving: What (If Anything) Is Wrong With It?

“…Dutch airline company KLM announced that they would send customers a Whatsapp reminder to offset their CO2 emissions, predicting that this would increase numbers from 0.25% to around 40% (Sawbridge, 2019). And asking customers in supermarkets to "roundup" their bill and give the change to charity is significantly more effective than flat donation requests (Kelting et al, 2019).…”