by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- A new ATM machine may soon crop up in New York City with a unique transaction fee. The Choose Change ATM charges a relatively low $2 per withdrawal, but uses $1 of that to fund one of eight charities.
- ATM users can choose which charity they’d like half their transaction fee to go to. The charities are likely to represent a variety of options, from environmental activism to disaster relief to helping feed and shelter the homeless.
- Choose Change founders say they’ll install and maintain the ATM in any retail location at no charge to the retailer.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- Social and environmental responsibility is still a growth area in industries of all kinds, but especially in financial services, where bank brands continue to suffer from a bad — and still worsening — trust gap.
- Philanthropists and entrepreneurs are mashing lots of new technology to make charitable giving easier, more authentic, more personal and more widely practiced.
RESOURCES
