The gift card is often the gift that can’t go wrong, but sometimes a gift card turns out to be a bad fit after all. If you receive gift cards you cannot use this holiday season, don’t let them sit in a drawer, with 10 percent of all gift cards in America unused!
Consider donating them to a local charity. Most charities will find a creative way to relieve their budgets using your gift cards, even if at first glance you can’t see an obvious connection to their mission. Their small size and lack of expiration date make them a perfect non-cash gift to charity.
For example, Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties uses gift cards in several ways. They are used as part of “first gifts.” When a team of wish granters goes into a household, they bring a small gift for every child in the house. Wish granters use gift cards to buy these gifts or in some cases the gift card becomes the gift. For many siblings of “wish kids,” a gift card to a bookstore, a fast food place, a craft store, a coffee house or the movies is the perfect gift. Gift cards to department stores, electronics stores, grocery stores and specialty stores are important to wish granting as well.
A wish granter may use a grocery store gift card to buy a cake and paper products for the wish presentation party. A department store or specialty store gift card can help with a bedroom makeover wish. Gift cards to electronics stores help with computer and electronics wishes.
Gift cards for Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties can be sent to 4222 Market St., Suite D, Ventura, CA 93003. Include your return address and the amount on the card if it is not clear so a tax receipt can be sent to you.
— Shanna Wasson Taylor is CEO of Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties.