Loyalty Programs connected to a community cause or charity. The ‘say/do’ gap

With the current focus on corporate ESG and a continued growth in brands supporting communities, causes and charities, the?For Love or Money? 2022 ?customer loyalty and loyalty program study, researched members’ attitudes to benefits connected to a cause or charity.

The research looked at three member insights:

1. How appealing?is the option to earn rewards through a loyalty program that members could donate to a cause or charity?
2. Amount donated: Will members donate?all,?some?or?none?of the rewards earned to a cause or charity?
3. Control over choice: How would members like to choose a cause or charity to donate to?

Note:?No specific cause or charity was researched as the beneficiary of rewards being donated.

Loyalty programs connecting to a cause or charity has appeal to some members (40%)

40% of loyalty program members (for Gen Z it’s 65%) find it appealing - very appealing and fairly appealing, to have the option of earning rewards through a loyalty program to donate to a charity or cause.

While 40% of all members is not an overwhelmingly significant result, there are still another 40% of members who indicated they are?neutral?to this donating their rewards, which means they may yet be influenced based on the ‘cause or charity proposition’.

Likelihood to donate vs the amount to donate: The say/do gap.

While 40% of loyalty program members find it appealing to have the option of earning rewards through a loyalty program to donate to a charity or cause, more than half (53%)?would not?donate any of their rewards?to a cause or charity, even if it was an option.

They ‘say’ they are likely to donate, however the ‘act of giving’ (do) is less evident.

42% of loyalty program members would donate?some of their rewards?to charity with Gen Z (55%) being the most generous generation.

6% of loyalty program members would likely donate all of their rewards to charity.

Model to manage expectations

If you are modelling your engagement with a cause or charity through your loyalty program, these results will be useful to calculate the take-up of this proposition.

Control over choice. How would members like to choose a cause or charity to donate to?

Loyalty program members would like to have control over the choice of charity or cause to donate their rewards to - whether it’s their own choice or a small range to choose from as nominated by the program regarding the charity that would benefit from their reward donation.

(There are more insights relating to control over choice in the?For Love or Money? 2022 ?report)

Connecting to a cause or charity should be a key consideration for all loyalty program propositions

While the say/do gap is evident, loyalty programs should continue to identify how their program proposition can connect to a cause or charity.

There will always be members who participate. It is a key emotional connection to the program and brand.

Here are three examples where a connection to a cause or charity proposition is integrated into the loyalty program in different ways:

Ritchies IGA Loyalty Program ?– more than $52,000,000 donated to community causes and charities

Fauna and Flora – Earn 200 points for recycling ?(using a program mechanic to influence a behaviour connected to a cause)

IKEA Family ?–?“Every time you present your membership, we donate 10c to a local charity”

To dig deeper into the results of the members’ connection to loyalty programs to a cause or charity including insights by gender and generations, access the comprehensive report of?For Love or Money? 2022 .

Have a happy loyalty day!

The Point of Loyalty ?specialises in customer loyalty and rewards program strategy, design and deployment, helping clients retain their best customers and grow the rest.?

Founder of The Point of Loyalty,?Adam Posner ?is a customer loyalty specialist helping brands build thriving programs through his framework - 'Seven Zones of Loyalty Program Performance'.

He is author of the annual benchmark customer loyalty and loyalty program research study -?For Love or Money? now in its 14th edition.

He has developed the 'Six Currencies customers care about' and the?'Four Factor Quality Program Proposition' framework?to increase member activity

Adam has been involved in the design and deployment of loyalty and rewards programs and loyalty research across industries including entertainment, education, pharmacy, hotels, trade and various retail sectors.

The contents of this article are the opinion of the author. No responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining from the action as a result of the material in this article can be accepted by the author.