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The Grateful debit card will donate 0.5% to the charity of your choice on every purchase you make, paid for by Grateful. Grateful is working to meet the needs of nonprofits across the world as they find themselves strained for funds, a response prompted by Amazon’s recent decision to end its Smile program.
The recent news prompted Founder and CEO Matt Ostanik to take action. “Think AmazonSmile, but for every company you buy from.” As a Certified B Corporation with a company-facing giving platform already in place to connect donors to nonprofits, the expansion fits into its existing model.
Cardholders will be able to select a nonprofit of their choice (from a database of over 1.5 million charities) to automatically receive funds on every purchase they make with the Grateful debit card. Grateful pays the 0.5%, and the nonprofits receive funds automatically and free of charge.
“Many nonprofits are disheartened by the decision to cancel AmazonSmile. Not only did it provide funds for them, but it was also a way to advertise to donors. This will allow their supporters another way to donate in a way that is win-win for everyone,” Ostanik explains.
Cardholders only need to sign up once, connect their existing bank account to the card, and select their nonprofit(s) of choice. Then they can carry on their finances as usual, never seeing an impact in their own records but knowing they are giving something back when they use the card. The funds will be paid with the 0.5% fee normally collected by the financial institutions providing debit card services, only instead of collecting those fees for themselves, Grateful will donate them to the cardholder’s charity of choice.
For further giving beyond the debit card, some businesses additionally choose to participate in Grateful’s business giving platform, which allows them to automatically donate a percentage of sales they select to nonprofits of their customer’s choice. This means when you choose to shop with stores already using the Grateful Giving platform, your donation will be the 0.5% plus the amount they choose to donate as well. The idea is to make giving back a part of everyday purchases, and fuel the causes we care about with automatic, integrated giving.
Nonprofits that benefit can be anything from the homeless shelter down the street to the national nonprofits and everything in between, so long as it qualifies as a registered 501(c)(3). Grateful believes all giving is good, and believes one of AmazonSmile’s largest benefits was letting the customer choose the charity to feel empowered and know they were giving to something they care about beyond simple profit.
To fund its mission to give back, Grateful will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to cover its initial costs. Those who support Grateful in these early stages will be given access to limited-time benefits, to be announced at a later date.
Those interested in signing up for a Grateful debit card are invited to sign up for the waitlist
