Too often, those most in need of assistance are the last to receive it—delays compounded by manual processes and outdated payment methods that many nonprofits still rely on. To modernize and speed up the delivery of aid, many organizations are turning to a simple yet powerful solution: gift cards.
In particular, digital gift cards offer a faster, more flexible, and more dignified alternative to traditional forms of aid. Moreover, the benefits extend beyond recipients—digital gift cards provide nonprofits with greater scalability, customization, and efficiency, enabling them to better serve their communities.
Removing the Barriers to Usage
Traditionally, nonprofits have relied on mechanisms like paper vouchers, checks, or physical supplies to deliver aid. However, these methods are often slow to distribute and difficult to track.
Additionally, these logistically complex operations are frequently performed manually, increasing the likelihood of errors or even fraud.
Traditional payment types such as checks can also be misaligned with recipients’ needs, as they often require additional steps—like depositing a check—before the aid can be used. Underbanked individuals, especially, may face fees or challenges in cashing checks, further reducing accessibility.
This lack of flexibility in conventional payment formats can undermine the effectiveness of even the most well-intentioned aid. In contrast, gift cards can be game changer for nonprofits: they are simple to issue, easy to track, and immediately usable.
“When you’re in need, you might need something immediately, like when you look at a natural disaster or even theft or fires,” said Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research. “When you give a gift card, they are instantly active and ready to use, so there’s no barrier to usage.”
“Checks have a barrier to usage and cash is easily lost, although there is still the same risk when you talk about a physical gift card,” he said. “This is why there needs to be an equilibrium where you offer both physical and digital gift cards.”
The Digital Advantage
Although there are occasions when a physical gift card is better suited, digital gift cards offer substantial advantages for nonprofit use cases.
One of the most important benefits is speed—a digital gift card can reach its intended recipient instantly via email, SMS, or other messaging platforms. This immediacy can make a profound difference for individuals facing urgent needs, such as victims of abuse, natural disasters, or financial hardship who require immediate aid.
Like all gift cards, recipients have the flexibility to spend their assistance on the items they consider most essential, such as groceries, clothing, or other staple products. This autonomy provides individuals in difficult circumstances with a sense of dignity and independence.
Digital gift cards can be even more effective in many situations, as they can be easily added to digital wallets or used in e-commerce purchases—often without the need for a bank account. However, recipients must still have a means to access the digital card.
“This is where the digital/physical equilibrium is also interesting, because access with digital is sometimes an issue,” Hirschfield said. “Sometimes you need physical, but it’s that balance of how do you access the person in the right way, and that’s what you can do with gift cards.”
“You can access someone who, ‘Hey, I’ve lost everything. I don’t even have my phone,’—here’s a physical gift card,” he said. “Or ‘I’m in need, but I do have my phone,’ so here’s a digital gift card and go get what you need. That’s the advantage of it, it’s multi-form factor—it gets the person what they need, when they need it, and how they need it.”
Tailoring the Give
While gift cards offer significant advantages for recipients, they also provide substantial benefits for nonprofits, especially with delivered digitally.
First, digital cards are easier to distribute in bulk, allowing nonprofits to efficiently scale their programs from local campaigns to nationwide initiatives. Second, they can be customized with the organization’s branding, helping to reinforce its identity and increase campaign visibility.
Third, digital gift cards enable real-time tracking and reporting, providing valuable insights into delivery, redemption, and usage patterns. And because there’s no need for storage, shipping, or physical handling, they reduce administrative workload and costs.
Over time, these efficiencies can add up to major savings and greater impact.
“One thing that you always see are the ratings on nonprofits on how well they’re using their money—are they using it administratively?” Hirschfield said. “What a gift card does is twofold. It’s easily trackable and that’s where in the digital format, you can know that you’ve given out this money.”
“You can also in these types of situations claw the money back if it hasn’t been used,” he said. “There’s opportunity to say, ‘We’re going to give you what you need, but if you don’t need it, we’re going to take it back and give it to someone else who needs it.’ They’re going to utilize their money in the most efficient and responsible way possible, which is their duty as a nonprofit.”
In addition to better serving the community, the customization capabilities that come with offering tailored gift card solutions can help nonprofits move from offering one-size-fits-all aid to delivering personalized support.
Another key benefit of digital gift cards is their payments flexibility. Nonprofits maintain control by setting parameters on how cards are used—for example, limiting purchases to essential items or to specific partner brands.
“Instead of just handing out cash and cash equivalents, sometimes an open loop gift card might be the way to go—here’s a Visa or Mastercard card, go use it for whatever you need,” Hirschfield said. “But it might be you’re in need of toiletries and supplies, so here’s a gift card to a big-box store or a drugstore.”
“It tailors the give to what the recipient needs,” he said. “That’s something that gift cards can do that cash and cash equivalents cannot do. That way, the nonprofit can say when we wanted to give that aid, we gave it specifically to what was needed. It was to hit the mission and not to just give money away.”
Living Up to the Mission
Much like consumer payments, the convenience of digital payments has accelerated the adoption of digital-first relief efforts—an approach that will likely soon become the norm.
“With digital, you can turn it on in zero time,” Hirschfield said. “Essentially, you can show up with a computer or a phone if you’re the nonprofit and start distributing that aid immediately, and you can also do it in bulk. You can’t write checks in bulk and give them away immediately; they have to be distributed.”
The speed and efficiency of gift cards position them to continue evolving as a trusted channel for financial inclusion and emergency response. Once nonprofits and charitable organizations begin collecting data from digital prepaid products, they can use these insights to refine their campaigns, streamline operations, and amplify their impact.
As these organizations look for solutions to integrate this strategic payments tool, they should consider platforms such as Prezzee, which can support every aspect of digital gift card management.
“There is technology behind it that can say, ‘Here’s everyone who has registered, everyone’s going to have $50 to get to a grocery store to get that immediate food need right away.’” Hirschfield said. “Then it may be, ‘What do you need secondarily so they can be tracked? We’re going to get you started—no questions asked—but then that secondary is, ‘Are you using the aid that we’ve given you? Do you need more aid?’”
“That can all be tracked. That way, the people who are in the most need can get the most help and the people who aren’t taking advantage—for whatever reason—they can take away that resource,” he said. “That’s where the digital aspect comes in, to create another layer of accountability on making sure that the nonprofit is living up to its mission in the most financially responsible way.”
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