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In my post on green holiday gift giving last month, I mentioned donations to nonprofits. Giving directly to an organization that you know your giftee supports can be a great idea, but if you’re not sure in what way your recipient is philanthropically-inclined, charitable gift cards are a good alternative. The way they work is that you buy a gift card in the amount of your choice, and your giftee then visits the web site to enter the gift card number and choose which charity will get the money.
But with several different gift card organizations to choose from, how do you decide which one to support?
If I buy a $20 gift card for my co-worker for Christmas, will her selected charity receive that entire amount? It depends on the policies of the gift card service I use. Most will deduct processing fees before sending the money to the charity. Some services charge a fee to the purchaser on top of the card value, and others don’t. What happens to the money if the card is never redeemed? And does the card expire? What charities can my recipient choose from in the first place? And what about the environmental impact of the cards themselves?
I compared the policies of five major charitable gift card organizations to figure out which ones were actually giving the most money to the intended recipient and whose policies seemed the most eco-friendly. All of them are registered 501c3 organizations, which means that the gift card purchase is tax deductible to the giver. (The recipient does not receive a tax deduction for redeeming the card.) Here’s what I learned:
TisBest Philanthropy: TisBest offers a list of 250 major nonprofit organizations to choose from, as well as a list of local charities from 8 different U.S. cities. TisBest limits the number of charities so that they can vet the organizations, including reviewing their 990 tax forms. Gift cards are offered in any denomination from $10 to $5,000.
TisBest offers three delivery options: email, print-at-home, and physical cards made from 100% recycled plastic from Earthworks Systems. What’s more, TisBest is the only organization I found actually encouraging its gift card recipients to send back the spent cards for recycling. All plastic gift cards (whether from TisBest or any other organization or store) can be returned to Earthworks c/o Halprin Ind., 25840 Miles Rd., Bedford, Oh 44146. And TisBest is the only service offering a fully customizable option. For no extra charge, you can choose one of their designs or upload your own image to be printed on the card.
Of course, the greenest option is to send an electronic card and skip the plastic and paper altogether. All of the gift card services offer electronic options. And like some of the others, TisBest’s e-cards can be scheduled to be sent on a future date that you select.
So what about fees — to you and to the charity? TisBest plastic cards cost $1.49 for materials and handling. Regular shipping is free. There is no charge for email or printing at home. How much does the charity get? The face value of the card less a $1.95 transaction fee and 3% credit card processing fee. So for a $20 gift card, you would spend $21.49 for a plastic card or $20.00 for an e-card, and the charity would receive $17.45 (87% of the face value). Of course, that percentage gets better with higher donations. From a $100 donation, the charity would receive $95.05. (95%)
There is no expiration date on TisBest’s cards, but any money that is not spent goes towards supporting TisBest’s advocacy work promoting a non-consumerist message and creating programs to help its charity partners raise funds.
Charity Choice: Charity Choice allows gift card recipients to donate to a little over 100 different causes, major organizations like the American Cancer Society, SPCA, American Red Cross, etc. Cards are offered in a limited number of specific denominations from $5 to $1,000.
Charity Choice offers four options: email, print-at-home, plastic card, and “biodegradable” corn plastic card. Honestly, I’m skeptical of the new corn plastics, as I wrote in my article about compostable chip bags and yogurt cups, because of the environmental impacts of
