Lyft Will Allow Passengers to Round up Fares and Donate to Charity

Lyft, one of Uber’s most important competitors, has decided to release a very interesting program named Round Up & Donate in the coming weeks. This program basically allows riders to contribute to charity by rounding up their fares to the next dollar and sending the rest to an organization, but it’s not exactly clear what charities will benefit from the service right now. The idea was showcased in a recent ad that stated “parking your backsides in the back seats across the nation is a way to rebuild our communities around people, not cars,” while drivers were treated to a blog post that offered a simple example of a $12.75 fare being rounded up to $13.

One of Lyft’s spokespersons revealed that users will be able to pick what charity they wish to donate to using a list embedded in the app, and it looks like passengers will even be able to vote for other charities to be included. This is definitely not the first time that a company has implemented such a program, but these options are usually available inside stores. After Lyft unveiled that it would donate one million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this year, this recent program doesn’t surprise me at all, and I definitely welcome it.