If you need proof that little things can add up to make a big impact, look no further than the US Postal Service’s semipostal stamps. Four designs carry a 12-cent surcharge, with the additional revenue dedicated to the causes the stamps support. Since their inception in 1998, the stamps have raised $112 million for research and preservation.
Semipostal stamps include Breast Cancer Research (1.1 billion stamps sold!), Save the Vanishing Species, Healing PTSD, and Alzheimer’s Research. People don’t seem to mind paying the surcharge, and enough people have done it to make a significant contribution to the associated causes.
The same principle applies to the “rounding up” of purchases at the register or to donation boxes for customers to toss in their spare change. People don’t mind paying a few additional cents, but the volume adds up to a meaningful amount.
Instead of thinking big, if you can involve enough transactions, maybe your best path is to think small.
