Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com) has launched a new gift card brand called Giving Good.
Giving Good gift cards work in much the same way as Happy gift cards in that they can be redeemed at select retailers indicated on each card. The key difference (other than the eligible retailers) is that Giving Good cards give a 3% donation to the charity associated with each card.
These cards have just been launched with five charity partners, with each brand having its own partner. Here are the different eligible charities and the retailers and restaurants at which you can use them.
Giving Good Habitat for Humanity Swap Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- Home Depot
- The Company Store
- Buffalo Wild Wings
- IHOP
Giving Good St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Swap Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- Domino’s
- Claire’s
- Chili’s
- Build-A-Bear Workshop
- AutoZone
- Regal Cinemas
Giving Good Make-A-Wish Swap Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- Macy’s
- Claire’s
- GameStop
- Petco
- Topgolf
- Maggiano’s Little Italy
- Build-A-Bear Workshop
- Under Armour
Giving Good Feeding America Swap Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Outback Steakhouse
- Bonefish Grill
- Subway
- IHOP
- Carrabba’s
Giving Good Wounded Warrior Project Swap Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- GameStop
- Dave & Buster’s
- Regal Cinemas
- Lowe’s
- Buffalo Wild Wings
- AutoZone
- Fanatics
- Subway
- P.F. Chang’s
Thoughts On Giving Good Gift Cards
On the one hand, these Giving Good gift cards are nice because they work in much the same way as Happy gift cards, but you get to support a charity at the same time at no additional cost to you.
However, it’s certainly not the most efficient way of giving via gift card if your main motivation is actually donating money. For example, you can often buy Charity Choice gift cards at a 20% discount and those can be redeemed at 1,000+ charities.
What remains to be seen is if deals on Happy gift cards will also work on Giving Good gift cards. For example, Office Depot and OfficeMax sometimes offer discounts or rewards when buying Happy gift cards. If those offers work on Giving Good gift cards, that would give additional options for eligible retailers, making these of even more interest for both personal use and for gift card resellers.
Home Depot – A New Opportunity?
Most notable here is that Home Depot is an option on the Habitat For Humanity card. Home Depot used to be an eligible retailer on Happy Guy gift cards which meant it was, in theory, possible to buy a Home Depot gift card (or a third party gift card sold in-store at Home Depot) with a Happy Guy gift card and resell that card.
I say “in theory” because Home Depot started clocking on to this and there were reports that some Home Depot stores were zeroing out the balances on the gift cards bought in-store with a Happy Guy gift card. Blackhawk Network ultimately retired the Happy Guy brand, something I previously attributed to Home Depot wanting out of the partnership.
These Habitat For Humanity gift cards represent a new opportunity though. All of these Giving Good gift cards are ‘Swap’ cards which means you have to redeem them online for eGift cards for one or more of the eligible retailers or restaurants. That means it’s quick and easy converting the Habitat For Humanity cards to Home Depot gift cards as you don’t even have to go in to a store to achieve that.
If Happy gift card deals will indeed be eligible for these Giving Good gift cards – or if there are separate Giving Good gift card deals – that will be a great option for gift card resellers seeing as Home Depot is probably the most valuable of all the eligible brands on these cards.
Where Can I Buy Giving Good Gift Cards?
You can currently buy Giving Good gift cards online from Kroger, GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com. They’ll presumably start appearing in grocery stores and other stores that have third party gift card racks like Staples, Office Depot/OfficeMax, Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowe’s, etc.
[…] I’d covered them last week when I first noticed that they’d been launched; there are Giving Good gift cards and other Happy-esque cards which are listed on Kroger’s Happy gift card page and thus […]
[…] valid on Giving Good gift cards. These are Happy-style gift cards released by Blackhawk Network and one of the brands offers Home Depot gift cards as an […]