Charity loyalty program

Create a loyalty program that lets customers turn their rewards into charitable support. In this recipe, one of the rewards in the catalog is the option to transfer the cash value of loyalty points to a charity your company supports.

Why use it?

This setup helps make loyalty feel more meaningful by giving customers a way to support a cause through their purchases. It can strengthen emotional loyalty, improve brand reputation, and appeal especially well to customers who care about CSR and purpose-driven brands.

How it works?

You build a loyalty program where customers collect points as usual, but instead of redeeming only for personal rewards, they can also choose a charity reward. When selected, the cash value of those points is transferred to a charity your company has partnered with.

A good example of a charity rewards program that works is TOMS One for One. In TOMS, with every purchase, customers earn the non-monetary incentive of creating change through various initiatives like the One For One shoe donation and profit-sharing with causes like the Wildlife Conservation Society. TOMS makes their customers feel they make a difference with their purchases, making them feel good about spending money at TOMS.

Best practices

Decide whether charitable giving should be optional, with customers choosing it from a reward catalog, or built in so every purchase contributes automatically. Pick a cause that resonates with your audience, keep donations financially sustainable, and choose the donation model that fits your operations best, whether that means cash transfers, product donations, or funding specific actions like planting trees. As with any CSR-led campaign, plan carefully so the program stays meaningful without losing commercial focus.