Top 5 reasons why Gift Cards are a good way to help victims of Hurricane Sandy

In trying to assist those displaced by Hurricane Sandy, Dave Weinberg of Silver Spring, M.D. organized his community to bus in and host families from Far Rockaway and Bergen County at his synagogue. This effort raised $14,000 in two days to buy relief supplies and send them back on the buses to Far Rockaway on Sunday. When asking the local relief organizations what was needed, other than gas, the request was for gift cards. “The provision of gift cards to the communal organizations would be an amazing act of chesed[lovingkindness] while preserving the victims’ sense of self-respect,” said David Pollock at the JCRC. “The gift cards would be available for both immediate or longer term needs.”

1.  Donating money often goes to organizations, some of which do not spend all of the money on direct aid. Even when they do, often they provide items that do not get used or are not needed by the time they arrive. By purchasing gift cards directly from retailers, you know that they will go directly to where they are needed most.
2. Gift Cards allow aid recipients to choose what they need from a number of national stores.
3. Gift Cards can be given to those in need discreetly and privately, making it a more humane and respectful way to give charity.
4. Gift Cards can be shipped and delivered faster, cheaper, and with greater ease than physical goods.
5. Gift Cards can be purchased in bulk from national retailers at a discount, passing along the savings to both the donor and the aid recipients.

Dave contacted me and I quickly created the website, GiftCardRelief.org. We teamed up with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and the Jewish Community Relations Council of NY to distribute the gift cards, which we purchased in bulk from Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco, and CVS, some at discount prices. The effort behind GiftCardRelief.org is entirely grassroots and run by volunteers. All money raised is going towards the purchase of these gift cards and shipped overnight to MetCouncil for distribution in the communities in the New York area that need it most.