Change4Charity standard releases

The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), announced the release of its Change4Charity Standard. Adoption by point-of-sale vendors and donation processors will lower costs for retailers and support greater participation in charity programmes by smaller retailers and non-profits, ultimately raising more funds for those in need.

In this context, Tom Litchford, vice president of retail technologies, says, “As more consumers move to electronic payments, the idea of dropping change into a donation jar at the register is fading. At the moment, the cost of integrating selling systems to separate charities is a barrier for smaller retail companies, and many smaller charities don’t have the resources to take advantage of electronic integrations. We are eager to push this out to retailers who want to make a difference in the communities they serve.”

The initiative for the Change4Charity standard grew out of a discussion at the Retail Orphan Initiative Super Saturday event during NRF’s 2013 BIG Show in New York City. Since then, industry leaders, retail executives and their business partners have worked together to discuss how to streamline and expedite charitable giving at the point-of-sale by allowing the donation to happen through a transaction terminal. The goals for this standard are to support as many different types of selling systems as possible without increasing transaction times and lower the integration costs for retailers, making it easier to adopt Change4Charity programmes. Over $358 million was raised for non-profits in 2012 from checkout charity campaigns. These programmes allow retailers to provide charitable giving opportunities to their customers that directly benefit their communities.