Donate to charity without receiving junk mail PERSONAL FINANCE

Here’s a problem. You want to donate some money to a charity, but are concerned that the charity will put you on their mailing list and continue to ask for more donations. Even worse, since some charities share their mailing list with other charities, donating to a charity can put you on several charities’ mailing lists. Your aversion to marketing mail can prevent you from making this donation at all.

People who have one Fund advised by donors (DAF) solve this problem by donating to their donor-advised funds and applying for a charity grant from their donor-advised fund. However, you need a minimum to open a fund account recommended by a donor ($ 5,000 at Fidelity; $ 25,000 at Vanguard). You also have to pay an administration fee every year. It’s an overkill if you just want to donate some money to a charity.

I found a life hack to donate money to charity without worrying about junk mail. It’s easy and free.

Charity gift card

TisBest Philanthropy a charity gift card program is running in Seattle. TisBest itself is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that aims to encourage people to give gifts for charity, as opposed to gifts for things. Other than having used TisBest as a user, I have no financial relationship with TisBest. This is not a sponsored post.

A gift giver buys a TisBest Charity gift card and send it to the gift recipient for birthdays, holidays, graduation, wedding and whatnot. Instead of buying something with the gift card, the gift recipient selects a charity and labels the gift for that charity.

100% of the gift card value goes to the charity selected by the gift recipient. The gift giver continues to receive the full tax deduction. TisBest covers the administrative costs with funds from its own donors. There is no purchase fee if you receive the gift card code via email or print a paper gift card on your own printer. If you want a plastic card, it only costs an additional $ 1.95 to send it to either the buyer or the recipient.

Someone recently sent me a TisBest Charity Gift Card. I went to TisBest’s website and chose a charity for the money. It was an easy process.

privacy

The TisBest Charity Gift Card is ideal for the intended purpose. I think it’s also a good way to donate money to a charity while protecting your privacy. You buy a TisBest Charity gift card and receive the gift card code by email. Then give out the gift card to a charity of your choice. TisBest pools all donations from all users to this charity and sends a quarterly lump sum to the charity. TisBest will not share your information with the charity. Aside from a delay, the charity you choose will continue to receive 100% of your donation. From the TisBest FAQs:

Do you give names and contact information to charities? Whose name is the donation?

We understand the problem with unsolicited phone and email requests, so we won’t share customer names or contact information with charities unless you ask us to. Donations are made by TisBest Philanthropy. If you’d like to register with a charity to receive their mailings, we offer you this option after you’ve issued your gift card.

TisBest has a directory of charities. The list includes major charities for many different reasons. If the one you want to support is not on the list of featured items, TisBest also uses a database of all US charities. You can use the search function to find them.

If you want to donate money to more charities but have hesitated because you hate junk mail, you can now use TisBest as a donation fund for “poor people”. Donate to your heart’s content without worrying about junk mail. Several other organizations run similar charity gift card programs. TisBest is the only one I have seen that forwards 100% of your donations to the designated charities.

reference:: TisBest FAQs

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