{"id":3867,"date":"2008-11-26T10:19:17","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T16:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2008-11-26T10:19:17","modified_gmt":"2008-11-26T16:19:17","slug":"the-gift-card-that-literally-keeps-on-giving-tisbest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-gift-card-that-literally-keeps-on-giving-tisbest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift Card that (Literally) Keeps on Giving: TisBest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TisBest<\/a>So, I got the inevitable question from my wife this morning: “What do you want for Christmas?” My inevitable answer: “I don’t know.” As this game plays out over the next few weeks, my answers will change: “nothing” is next, something completey unsexy but totally useful will follow (she hates those), and, finally, I’ll say “Why not just make a donation in my name.”<\/h3>\n

But, I might mix it up this year: “How about a TisBest gift card<\/a>?”<\/p>\n

I heard about these cards just over a week ago, and love the concept: a gift card for charitable donations. According to their press materials, TisBest is<\/p>\n

…a Seattle-based company that offers tax-deductible charity gift cards online in amounts from $10 to $5,000. Charity gift card recipients then choose to donate the funds on their gift card to one of 250 carefully selected charities organized into categories as diverse as: the environment, health, children, education, arts and culture and women’s issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Founder Erik Marks saw the concept of charitable gift cards as a means of countering his perception that “holiday giving has become an expensive, wasteful and unsatisfying tradition.” The company also sees its product (which offers both online and 100% recycled plastic cards) as addressing much of the wastes associated with the holidays:<\/p>\n

Between Thanksgiving and New Year\u2018s Day, Americans throw away an extra five million tons of waste, from wrapping paper to greeting cards and shopping bags…If every American gave one TisBest card rather than a wrapped gift, we would save enough paper to cover 15,000 football fields, and save 38,000 miles of ribbon- enough ribbon to tie a bow around the entire earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, the idea isn’t without its critics: writer Jan Anderson labels Tisbest and other charitable gift card companies and non-profits as participants in “..another new scheme that benefits PayPal, credit card companies, and other businesses to ‘skim some off the top’ of your holiday giving…<\/a>” On one level, she’s right: why not make a donation directly in the name of a loved one?\u00a0 At the same time, though, I think this concept has merit: they provide us with a way to give recipients a choice about where their donation will go. I know that, while I appreciate any gift I receive, there are organizations that I’d rather not support in any manner, even when the money’s coming out of someone else’s pocket. For the record, TisBest cards take a $3.95 processing fee from each donation (regardless of its size), and three percent goes to the credit card companies. If you want more information, take a look at the company’s profile on the Washington Secretary of State’s office<\/a>, and TisBest’s own FAQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think this is a great option for those who’d like to avoid the more crassly materialistic elements of the holidays (which definitely take their environmental toll), and also want to let recipients decide the non-profit organizations, and causes, most dear to their hearts. For us greenies, TisBest offers the following environmental charity options:<\/p>\n