ARTS releases Change4Charity standard; designed to aid retailers’ charity programs

Washington, D.C. -- The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation, is releasing its Change4Charity Standard. If adopted by point-of-sale vendors and donation processors, the standard will lower costs for retailers and support greater participation in charity programs by smaller retailers and non-profits.



The goals for this standard are to support as many different types of selling systems as possible without increasing transaction times and to lower the integration costs for retailers, making it easier to adopt “Change4Charity” programs. ARTS estimates that more than $358 million was raised for nonprofits in 2012 from checkout charity campaigns.



“As more consumers move to electronic payments, the idea of dropping change into a donation jar at the register is fading,” said NRF VP of retail technologies Tom Litchford. “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.”



In addition to solution providers, the Retail Orphan Initiative (ROI) and retail communities, ARTS worked with charity processors for their engagement and assistance.



The work team was chaired by Oracle’s David Dorf with contributions from global POS and loyalty solution providers and retailers. Other contributors were Cisco Systems, Cumulus Data Services, Demandware, Digital Donations, DonateWiseNow, Epicor, MicroStrategy, Mini Donations, PCMS Datafit, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAP, Starmount and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions.