It’s difficult buying holiday gifts for clients. Your hope is to align these gifts with your practice mission, but without insulting or boring your clients with a cheese board or cooler stamped with your firm’s logo on it. Going the extra distance can be thankless.
Brandon Opre knows that pressure. Opre, the founder of TrustTree Financial, a wealth management firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said, “I got tired of sending branded gifts and asking clients to use something with my name on it. It felt awkward.” He recalls giving clients a Yeti cup with his firm’s name emblazoned across the front a few years back, without much fanfare.
Then, “I came across TisBest Charity Gift Cards, which gives me a unique solution to gift-giving,” Opre said.
TisBest’s cards work like any other gift card, except they allow recipients to experience the power of giving by donating 100% of the card’s value to charities of their choice.
TisBest, founded in 2007, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging others to give gifts of good, rather than gifts of stuff. TisBest’s cards work like conventional gift cards, with one meaningful exception: The recipient "spends" the card by choosing which charity to support with the funds.
The cards are customizable and come in any amount between $10 and $5,000. Purchasers can choose to send a biodegradable plastic card by mail, print a card at home, or send an e-card directly to their gift recipients.
With the card, recipients can direct donations to one or more of the 1.8 million charities registered with the IRS (they are handily listed on TisBest’s website at www.tisbest.com).
And with these cards, brokers and registered reps will not be hamstrung by the $100 limit imposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on most other gifts, since there is no intrinsic value in the gift card.
Clients get to give back, Opre said, adding, “I’m able to get a tax deduction for the charitable donation—whether the client uses the card or not—and make the world a better place in the process.”
TisBest offers feedback too, providing advisors with email reports listing the charities that clients and employees give to—important information that can help a firm and advisor personalize and focus future discussions.