Fast Casual Executive Summit

Small change, big impact: Marco’s round-ups fight hunger, support education

The Marco’s Pizza Foundation has donated more than $1.5 million to support hunger prevention, education, workforce development and entrepreneurship. Through customer round-ups and franchisee involvement, the program turns small donations into meaningful investments in communities across the country.

Photo: Marco's Pizza Instagram

October 7, 2026

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A few cents added to a pizza order may not seem like much.

But across more than 1,200 Marco's Pizza locations, those pennies, nickels and dimes have grown into more than $1.5 million in charitable giving.

At the center of that effort is the Marco's Pizza Foundation, whose mission is to help people be fed, educated and equipped. The Foundation focuses its work across four pillars: hunger prevention, schools and education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship.

For Brandon Hudson, a Marco's Pizza franchisee and president of the Marco's Pizza Foundation, the brand's round-up program isn't simply about another fundraising initiative.

"Round-up giving isn't a piece of our charitable strategy, it's the foundation of it," he said.

Hudson owns 13 locations and has five more in development. He believes the round-up model is well suited to a franchise organization because it allows independent operators and their customers to participate in a shared mission while keeping much of the impact close to home.

"That's money coming from our customers, collecting a few cents and dollars at a time, and donated right back into their own communities," he said. "A round-up campaign is even more meaningful than a corporate donation because it makes giving participatory."

Connecting a national brand with local communities

The scale of Marco's provides the Foundation with an advantage: thousands of customer interactions taking place every day.

"When you have more than 1,200 locations — and 1,200 registers that can be leveraged for good every single day — those small acts of generosity add up quickly," Hudson said.

Funds donated to Junior Achievement USA are distributed to JA chapters serving communities near the Marco's stores that generated the donations. Those dollars support programs centered on financial literacy, entrepreneurship and career readiness.

That local connection is important to Hudson, whose relationship with Junior Achievement began long before he became a Marco's franchisee.

Hudson participated in Junior Achievement programs in the Chicago area from his sophomore through senior years of high school.

"That's where I built early business plans and explored the possibilities of entrepreneurship," he said. "That's the mindset that eventually led me to franchise ownership with Marco's Pizza."

It makes the Foundation's education and entrepreneurship work especially personal for him.

The connection also reflects the makeup of the Marco's system itself. Franchise restaurants are businesses built and operated by local entrepreneurs, making workforce development and entrepreneurship natural extensions of the Foundation's mission.

Hunger prevention is an equally natural fit for a restaurant company. Through its partnership with No Kid Hungry, the Foundation has donated $475,000 to efforts addressing childhood hunger.

Giving franchisees room to make an impact

While round-up donations provide a consistent mechanism for giving throughout the Marco's system, franchisees aren't limited to asking customers for spare change.

Owners can determine how deeply they want to become involved with charitable efforts based on the needs of their communities and the resources available to their teams.

Some make additional financial contributions. Others donate pizza to Junior Achievement events and programs. Franchisees and employees also can volunteer, mentor students, participate in classroom programs or develop relationships with their local JA chapters.

"There isn't a one-size-fits-all expectation," Hudson said. "A franchisee's capacity may look different at different times of the year, and the needs of one community may be very different from another."

That flexibility, he said, allows Marco's to combine the reach of a national franchise system with the local knowledge of individual restaurant owners.

"We can provide consistent support across the Marco's system while giving our local owners and teams opportunities to engage in the ways that are most meaningful in their own communities," Hudson said.

The customer isn't the obstacle

Marco's experience with round-up fundraising has also taught Hudson something that could be valuable to other restaurant operators considering similar programs: Customers are often more willing to give than restaurants assume.

"Guest willingness is rarely a constraint," he said. "In fact, they say yes at a rate that sometimes surprises operators."

The bigger variable is whether restaurant employees actually make the ask — and whether they believe in what they're asking customers to support.

Hudson said two restaurants with nearly identical sales volumes can produce dramatically different fundraising totals. Often, the difference comes down to how consistently and confidently team members explain the program.

"The variable isn't the guest, but whether the store makes the ask with any conviction," he said.

For operators looking to establish their own round-up programs, Hudson recommends making the donation process effortless, clearly explaining the cause and sharing the results afterward.

Transparency matters. Telling customers how much money was raised — and where it ultimately went — closes the loop between a few cents contributed at checkout and the people those cents eventually help.

"That way, guests can know that their change went somewhere real," Hudson said.

For Marco's, that's ultimately the strength of the model. The Foundation doesn't depend on a single enormous donation or one annual fundraising event. It gives customers and franchisees the opportunity to participate in philanthropy through small actions repeated across hundreds of communities.

A few cents at a time can be easy to overlook. But multiplied across thousands of transactions, Hudson said, those contributions become "real funding and real impact."

"We have this incredible platform and reach as a franchise system, and we believe we should use it for good," he said. "We're proud that our customers choose to be part of that with us."