Australians are embracing an indirect form of giving that might mean collecting vouchers or stickers at the checkout or just selecting a brand on the shelves with a charity logo or different coloured lid.
The two supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths donated more than $40 million in cash and goods in the past financial year, including major commitments to flood relief.
Their school-based programs, Sports for Schools at Coles and Earn to Learn at Woolworths, account for nearly $14 million of that alone. Both schemes donate equipment to schools that might struggle to afford it otherwise.For the stores, it is an effective method of attracting customers and encouraging them to spend more, while also showing a large corporation can be community minded.
"The stores are setting out to change shopper behaviour," said retail expert Jon Bird, chief executive of the advertising agency IdeaWorks.
"It's about increasing sales and raising the average shopping basket. But it's also about brand positioning, connecting local stores to local schools and communities and humanising large institutions."The school fund-raisers are about to finish but both chains support a continuous calendar of charities with timing aimed at avoiding confusion.
Woolworths has just begun its Fresh Food Kids Hospital Appeal that last year donated more than $9 million to medical research. Coles concentrates much of its giving strategy at a local level, with decisions made by individual stores.
"We have a strategy and a vision of being a good neighbour in the local community," Coles director of community programs Majella Clarke said. s"It's early days but it is something we're looking to build on."
Shoppers can also give indirectly by the products they choose to put in their baskets.
Constant presences on the shelves include Paul Newman's range of dressings and pasta sauces, where all profits are pledged to local charities, and the pink-ribbon products aligned with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
NBCF chief executive Carole Renouf says supermarket sales raise $700,000 a year for the organization, part of the $5 million derived from all licensed products and services.
"There is a category of charity supporter that prefers to buy," she says. "Maybe they like to give a bit to self and give a bit to charity at the same time and there's nothing wrong with that."
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