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The latest tool to help the homeless? Gift cards.
HandUp, a public benefit corportation that helps homeless people pay for things they need by creating an online account for them that donors can contribute to and check progress on, has designed gift cards that can eventually be redeemed for everything from clothes to food to bus passes. The cards also get the individual into the system for longer term services.
In late August, HandUp rolled out the program in which donors can pay for $25 gift cards to give to homeless people that they or others encounter on the streets.
“Our donors have been asking to be able to give to someone on the street. They want to help them,” said Rose Broome, the cofounder of HandUp.
So, why not just give cash?
“People don’t feel comfortable giving a lot of cash on the streets, and that comes from a concern that people want to make sure they’re helping and not hurting someone,” said Broome. “It gives flexibility, the donor knows that the funds are going toward something productive and beneficial.”
The gift cards aren’t immediately redeemable at a store, but require the recipient to go into the Project Homeless Connect office. There they can exchange the card for a gift card valid at a retailer such as Safeway, Subway or Goodwill, make payments on bills or buy transit passes. The cards cannot be redeemed for cash.
And that matters, at least to Christopher Davis, a homeless man whom HandUp volunteers encountered on an outreach trip to Shotwell and 17th streets last Friday.
“I would rather they hand me something that can’t be traded,” said Davis who said there are already established methods of illegally obtaining alcohol or cigarettes with food stamps and other government assistance, often at as much as “50 cents on the dollar.”
Davis, who said that he smokes and drinks, said he is mindful of the intention behind the new gift cards.
“I do have a belief that it is for services, not alcohol or drugs,” he said. “Even if I had an opportunity to go through sources that I know, I wouldn’t do it, because the intention is to spend it on certain things.”
Other recipients thanked the volunteers but asked few questions and while they were enthusiastic, they were also confused about where they needed to go to redeem the card.
Katrina Belda, community and support liaison for HandUp, helped test the card system before the release. She said while reactions were mostly positive from those who got cards, many were skeptical. They couldn’t believe someone would just hand them $25, or thought there must be a catch. Which, in a way, there is – ease of redeeming them.
“It’s definitely useful,” said Freddie Wright after receiving a gift card on 16th and South Van Ness during the outreach trip. Wright is hoping to get some new clothing. With a gift certificate to Goodwill, he will be able to do that.
But the mandated trip to the Project Homeless Connect headquarters to redeem the card, he said, is “kind of a hassle.”
“I mean, if you’re giving us the gift card, let me go do what I want with it,” he said.
But the detour to the office is actually one of the main purposes of the gift cards – to get homeless people into the system and connected with longer-term services.
“It often takes more than one or two tries, but we’re really seeing this as this new and powerful tool to get folks who weren’t engaging to engage,” said Emily Cohen from Project Homeless Connect. “They come in during drop in hours and meet with resource specialists.”
Nobody who receives a gift card is required to sign up for HandUp services, but it’s one of the goals of the program.
During the testing stage, Belda said what worked best to get people to actually redeem the cards and come in to the service center was to have homeless clients already in the system hand out cards to their friends and acquaintances, perhaps relieving some suspicion.
Bevan Dufty, who leads the city’s work to address homelessness, said he is hopeful that the gift card program will be expanded to include partnerships with a wider variety of stores, like Target, to increase the options available to gift card recipients.
“In this work you’ve got to let the people on the street guide us, and you’ve got to let the donors guide us,” he said. “I’m not going to be the one to tell you it’s perfect, but we should absolutely try it.”
Source: Mission Local
Article by Laura Wenus
To learn more about HandUp, visit their website at www.handup.org
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KATY LASEE | MARKETING DEPT.
651 554 8533
KRLasee@traveltags.com
eCommerce is growing at an alarming pace in India and has been making remarkable impact all over the country. India is a billion people nation with web mobile penetration of over 60%. In the next couple of years, we can see that everyone will move online for business.
A majority of our population is very young, which exhibits energy to build and adopt anything new coming their way so a new retail format is expected to have a very fast adoption rate. With the advent of m-commerce, we can see a great opportunity being placed for mobile. It allows and encourages the consumers to browse quickly, easily and purchase products on-the-go, more regularly.
It’s a strong belief that the mobile growth and with the availability of cheaper data plans across telecom brands, digital will grow and the gifting industry in India will soon skip plastic to move towards adopting digital gift cards.
Gift cards are pre-paid cards that can be used to make payments. Such cards have a validity period, which can be replenished with funds and reused within the period. Gift Cards are different from gift vouchers, which are paper-based and can be used only once, while purchasing products. Unlike gift cards, gift vouchers do not allow any partial redemption, wherein balance funds can be carried over for further purchases.
Manufacturing gift cards involve costs of plastic, magnetic strips, and card readers, however, this is changing as consumer’s demand and large retailers are moving towards digital gift cards. Digital gift card is a simple replacement of the paper/plastic gift cards, with a code. The code will be verified and the value attached to it is deducted from the digital card.
As per the stats, earlier, digital gift cards contributed to 7%; recently it has gone up to 17%. We can see the rise in digital gift cards as the consumer preferences and demand is higher for brands and stores and also allows offering a variety of gifting options. Brands like Lifestyle, Flipkart, Dominos, Tanishq are said to experience a consistent demand round the year and largely, during the festival season.
Most precisely, we can see the gift cards / digital gift cards trend booming in the West. Indians are avoiding the hassle of chasing for suitable gifts for each occasion; hence opt for gift cards. This is significantly helping the modern retail in boosting such transactions during the festive season.
Transactions through gift cards are expected to increase from 50% to 80% during October-December. With the increase in demand for gift cards, we can see the change in the Indian consumers’ opinions and preferences. In addition to this, the retailers are too comfortable with the homecoming of the gifts card as the sales are aiming to increase the billing value for transactions paid through gift cards.
The online gifting space, like any other industry, has certain challenges to face. The assurance of same day or fix date delivery, for example, throws up logistical issues that any eCommerce company/s face in terms of manpower and delivery transport etc. Hence, it is imperative for any portals to come up with variety that surprises the buyer as well as the receiver of the gift. In the hectic schedules, a beautifully gift wrapped present can rejuvenate any relation or help maintain the existing ones. The demand for gifts is sure to continue stimulating the online gifting segment significantly.
Online and offline retailers now should collectively view gifting as an opportunity to reach out to their target consumers and promote their brands at almost no extra cost with the help of social media. This social gifting concept is widespread in foreign countries. Considering the digital growth in India, we can see that social gifting will soon be introduced.
Post m-commerce, social commerce will speed up and more people will be connected via social media websites. Retailers will have a major advantage as gifting will give them the chance to engage with its targeted consumers and get timely feedback.
Source: iamwire.com
Article by Firoz Khan, Co-founder and CEO, Gift Cards India
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KATY LASEE | MARKETING DEPT.
651 554 8533
KRLasee@traveltags.com
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