Post by Tine De Bock

You probably already encountered it yourself: just before checking out at a retail store, you're asked whether you would like to round up your bill and donate the difference to a charitable cause. That's a nice example of a charity checkout. At first sight, this seems to be a win-win-win for all actors involved: good CSR, additional income for nonprofits, and an instant warm glow for consumers. But there's also another side to the story that we need to be aware of. And that's exactly what Tine Faseur and I tried to do with our paper on the (potential) downsides of this interesting fundraising tool (published in Journal of Philanthropy). If you don't want to read the full paper, the ERNOP Research Note by Mårten Palmefors now offers a concise overview of the key insights.