Donations made by customers at checkout are not tax-deductible for the business, as the donation does not come from the company. According to TPC, the business only serves as a collector for charitable donations from its customers and has no right to claim any of the collected funds.
If you got this far in the comment, take a mental note to call this out the next time you see it. I too am very critical of the late stage capitalist hellscape we live in, but rounding up for charity is a rare instance of an unproblematic practice that is damaging to discourage as this post does. Charities do a lot of good and when you donate to them you are the one that gets the opportunity to do a writeoff.
Edit: If you are wondering why they do it then, it’s a psychological marketing technique. If you come to associate the good things that the Ronald McDonald House does with your McBurger, you are more likely to buy more tasty McBurgers. Sketchy? Sure, but it happens to be really effective at supporting charity work so it’s kind of a mutually beneficial arrangement.
I’m just instinctively averse to corporate bullshit because corporations don’t do anything unless it serves them in some way.
Why do I have to round up to a dollar? I just dropped 159$ shopping at your store, you round up and give some of your profits to charity, don’t guilt trip me with this nonsense as you rape me with fake sales and shrinkflation.
I’ll donate to charities that I want and I’ll give more than a miesely dollar.
i totally get that, and your instincts are noble, which is probably why this misconception is so pervasive. i too was in your position once, but yeah, no harm is done by donating at checkout.
I disagree. Charities should not have to exist if the government was responsible and funded services in the public interest. Charities have to spend a non-trivial amount of money on fundraising itself and sustaining their own management. Hunger, medical research, veteran care, homelessness. All these things could be alleviated through government funding.
common misinformation, fact check here
If you got this far in the comment, take a mental note to call this out the next time you see it. I too am very critical of the late stage capitalist hellscape we live in, but rounding up for charity is a rare instance of an unproblematic practice that is damaging to discourage as this post does. Charities do a lot of good and when you donate to them you are the one that gets the opportunity to do a writeoff.
Edit: If you are wondering why they do it then, it’s a psychological marketing technique. If you come to associate the good things that the Ronald McDonald House does with your McBurger, you are more likely to buy more tasty McBurgers. Sketchy? Sure, but it happens to be really effective at supporting charity work so it’s kind of a mutually beneficial arrangement.
I’m just instinctively averse to corporate bullshit because corporations don’t do anything unless it serves them in some way.
Why do I have to round up to a dollar? I just dropped 159$ shopping at your store, you round up and give some of your profits to charity, don’t guilt trip me with this nonsense as you rape me with fake sales and shrinkflation.
I’ll donate to charities that I want and I’ll give more than a miesely dollar.
i totally get that, and your instincts are noble, which is probably why this misconception is so pervasive. i too was in your position once, but yeah, no harm is done by donating at checkout.
I disagree. Charities should not have to exist if the government was responsible and funded services in the public interest. Charities have to spend a non-trivial amount of money on fundraising itself and sustaining their own management. Hunger, medical research, veteran care, homelessness. All these things could be alleviated through government funding.