In the rare cases where I'm using cash for a purchase, I'll often toss my change into the charity jar. But for the majority of my purchases, which are via credit or debit, there's no option to "round up for charity." As far as I know, only Toshiba (formerly IBM) ACE builds that capability into their POS. There's a huge opportunity to allow customers to make donations at the POS, but few retailers want to invest in customizing their POS to handle this. Integration efforts like this are often costly, and must be re-done whenever the payment processor is changed.
Companies like Mini-Donations, Pennies (UK), or Change Roundup manage the donations, but again, they have to integrate with each different POS or e-commerce product, an expensive proposition. That's why ARTS is starting a new workteam to build an integration standard. Our hope is that by defining an XML standard for integrating to POS and e-commerce systems, we will better enable "round up" functionality in the retail industry. Imagine the good that can come from millions of people donating pennies everyday. This can provide a steady income for charities that feed the poor, research cancer, and rescue children.Our kickoff meeting for this workteam takes place February 4th at the San Francisco ARTS meeting where we will write the charter and define the scope. Then we'll do the work to build the standard with a goal of publishing in the fall (or maybe even sooner). Anyone that wants to participate can check the ARTS website for membership information.