Most of us have a pile of gift cards in a drawer at home that only have a few dollars left on them. New local charity, re:give, is looking to collect those gift cards and create something meaningful from them! We spoke to one of their representatives this week to learn more.
Describe your charity/non-profit in a few sentences.
re:give aims to harness the stagnant money left on partially and unused gift cards. We collect gift cards of any value (yes, even $0.02!) and consolidate them with like cards, to donate to community organizations around Calgary, in any denomination they request.
What problem does it aim to solve?
re:give recognizes money that is left on partially used and unused gift cards is wasted potential. In addition to that, COVID-19 has put many Calgarians in a difficult financial spot, with minimal extra money to give to the community so we want to harness what folks already have and that would otherwise go to waste.
When did you start/join it?
The idea for re:give was born in February 2020 and we became a registered not for profit on July 10, 2020. We launched our virtual platform a few days later on July 13, 2020.
What made you want to get involved?
As the Co-Founders of re:give, we were ignited by the idea and excited to build something from the ground up. The idea is an innovative way to reduce waste and give back to the community without expecting financial strapped Calgarians to give money. We are just asking thm to give us what they won’t use!
What was the situation like when you started?
Surprisingly, there are no statistics on how much money is left on gift cards in Canada. re:give aims to create this body of knowledge and collect the information in a useful way that can help guide our decision making in the future and help to reduce monetary waste going forward.
How has it changed since?
We have begun to collect cards and consolidate the dollar values to ready ourselves for donation to community organizations. We are developing our database and creating ideas for virtual events to raise awareness of our mission and raise money.
What more needs to be done?
We are still a young organization and working to get our message to Calgarians because it is going to take the effort of the large community to make a difference.
How can our readers help?
We are taking donations of old gift cards via mail in or pick up. We provide free postage on our website for people to send us any number of gift cards that they have. We will also come pick up a collection of 20 cards or more, so if you want to reach out to your network and collect their cards, we will come get them from you! Just complete a pick up request form on our website.
If anyone has an few extra dollars to spare, we are also looking for monetary donations on our website, to help fill up the less common gift cards we may receive and fund our operations.
Do you have any events coming up?
We are working to develop a COVID-19 friendly event in the Fall, stay tuned!