Charitable gift cards are an impactful way to welcome, appreciate, and motivate your employees or clients. But what program design is best for the giving experience you’re trying to share?
It’s no secret that employee satisfaction and engagement boost a company’s growth rate. But did you know corporate philanthropy can play a role in that? One study revealed that social incentives and charitable donations on an employee’s behalf led to a 13% rise in worker productivity. Harvard Business School found that 90% of employees who work at a company with a strong sense of purpose felt more motivated and loyal. This is instrumental in improving performance and employee retention.
One easy way to engage employees in giving is through charitable gift cards. Whether for client appreciation, employee onboarding, or holiday celebrations, hundreds of companies use charitable gift cards to engage their teams. If you’re considering a charitable gift card program, the multitude of options can make it difficult to choose which is best for your company. Check out these advantages and use cases from well-known companies. Then, take the quick quiz that follows to help you decide on the perfect fit for your program.
Best for when you’re in a rush and want a quick and low-cost gift solution
If you need a speedy gift for your employees or clients, charitable eCards are a simple solution that demonstrates thoughtfulness. Order online to easily select an eCard design to thank, appreciate, acknowledge, or celebrate your recipient in minutes.
Use Case: Zendesk recruiting incentives
To help cast a wider talent net, Zendesk hosted an internal recruiting competition to incentivize employees to refer candidates for open positions on their team. They selected GlobalGiving eCards as their prizes and sent gifts of varying values to nine winners. The predesigned eCard templates offered a quick, yet impactful way for them to engage their employees with charitable giving and thank them for their effort.
Best for when you want custom branding and aren’t in a time crunch
If you’re looking to send a gift that feels a little more personalized, this is the option for you! Similar to standard eCards, custom eCards are a relatively low-effort but high-reward solution to show your clients or employees you care. Instead of selecting an available design for your eCard, you can provide your own image to add a meaningful, branded touch to your gift featuring your logo, brand colors, or even a smiling group photo.
Use Case: Ford Global Caring Month employee volunteer thank-yous
Ford wanted to encourage volunteer participation and show appreciation for volunteer leaders during their Global Caring Month. They thanked team leads with custom GlobalGiving eCards featuring their program branding, including the event name and an image representing Global Caring Month.
Best for when you want maximum design control for your charitable gifts
If you’re a creative thinker wanting to try something outside the box, this is your best option. Unlike standard and custom eCards, Send-It-Yourself Gift Cards are not designed eCards but rather a spreadsheet of gift card codes (e.g. ABC123DEF456) that gives your team the greatest freedom in how you deliver your gift cards. Whether you would like to print your codes on wildflower seed paper or a physical card designed in-house, or embed them into an email, you can use these gift card codes in the format that makes sense for your team to deliver the gift of giving to recipients on your own.
Use Case: Holiday business partner eCards
To celebrate their vendors and partners during the holiday season in a remote work environment, a large tech company distributed custom charitable eCards via email. GlobalGiving provided them with a spreadsheet of Send-It-Yourself gift card codes, along with accompanying redemption URLs. The company embedded these URLs into personalized holiday emails for their partners so that recipients could click on a designated URL button to be redirected to a company-themed gift card landing page. The flexibility and opportunity for customization with the format of these Send-It-Yourself gift card codes let this company provide a unique delivery experience and foster connection during a special time.
Best for when you have time and resources to curate a tangible gift experience
To share a charitable appreciation gift your recipients can hold in their hands, go for physical or printable options. You can order plastic gift cards online, select from a handful of designs, and typically receive the gift cards in about two weeks. For a custom design, the process might take four to six weeks from design to shipping. Looking for a faster, tangible solution? Order printable gift card templates directly online, or find card printing recommendations here to design and print gift cards on your own.
Use Case: New employee swag boxes
A custom swag company included physical charitable gift cards they printed themselves in summer intern gift packs. They incorporated a scratch-off component revealing the gift card code and gift amount to make giving all the more fun. This addition of a physical charitable gift card helped welcome the new team members. Not only was it an exciting gift to unbox, but it sent a clear signal to the employees that their new company is a socially responsible one.
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