Charitable Gift Giving

It’s that time of year again: Macy’s is having their annual “Shop for a Cause” event on Saturday, August 24!

I’m always a little confused at this promotion, because I get all kinds of notices from all kinds of charities that they’re part of this event. But after a little digging I understood.

Here’s how it works: for the last few weeks, Macy’s has been distributing savings passes to eligible charities that request them, which they can in turn sell for $5. The charity gets to keep the $5, and the customer gets to enjoy 25% off on Saturday when they bring their savings pass into their local Macy’s. Over 8,000 charities participated in this event last year, and this year it looks like a ton of charities are participating again, including a charity near and dear to my heart: the Alliance for Lupus Research, as well as organizations as diverse as animal shelters, arts organizations, and home-schoolers.

Every year this is a wildly successful program. Since 2006, they’ve raised over $42 million for charities.

If you didn’t get a chance to purchase a ticket from a charity, don’t worry, it looks like Macy’s is still going to let you enjoy the discount anyway, at least online.

Saturday 8/24 Only! Extra 25% off when you buy a $5 Shop for a Cause savings pass at macys.com!

I believe you’ll be given the option of adding a saving pass to your basket for $5 that will go to support the March of Dimes, which will entitle you to the 25% discount (seems to apply to all regular, sale, and clearance merchandise, although bigger ticket items like furniture and electronics will only get 10%). So as long as you’re ordering something around $20 or more, you’ll be saving well over $5, making money and helping a great cause.

Kudos to Macy’s for doing this every year. Granted, they get a lot of valuable PR and foot traffic out of it, but on the other hand I think they’re doing a great thing by helping to bring awareness to and support all kinds of charities nationwide.