Penny Auctions Canada - Gift Cards Canada - Online charity gift cards become increasingly available in Canada
Purchasing an online charity gift card may not be a trendsetting event. However when Betty Green (not her real name) purchased an online charity gift card on a cold day in Canada just before Christmas, she joined the masses of holiday shoppers opting to give the gift of giving.
The gift cards, which are taking off across the nation, enable users to donate to hundreds of charities, from the Canadian Cancer Society to the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief, in lieu of receiving another box of Lindt chocolates or cozy slippers.
"It's a fabulous idea," said Ms. Green.
"By going online, you are able to select the amount of money you are comfortable in giving, and then you can select a picture or artwork you want to have on the card," she said. "It maintains the spirit of the season: rather than just buying stuff, you can actually help others."
A surprising number of charity gift cards have sprung up over the past two years. Since the concept is relatively new, there are no hard and fast numbers with which to measure the volume of sales or number of users for this. But a good benchmark would be approximately $4 million for the past year, mostly resulting from the holiday season according to Canada-based nonprofits that create and distribue the gift cards.
Certainly charity cards are not considered to be a threat to the estimated $38 billion holiday gift card industry for department stores, malls, restaurants and any other services you can imagine. This is a trend that we feel is worth watching, according to Brent Waters, who is an analyst for prepaid services working for the Mercator Advisory Group, a banking and payment research firm.
The illustrious retail giant Neiman Marcus used gift cards as a promotional tool last year. Those shoppers who spent a specific minimum amount on Cartier products would receive a charitable gift card in return.