Quincy Catholic Charities provides an array of services for those in need, including Professional Counseling Solutions, Intact Family Services, MedAssist Program, and their Food Pantry.

Catholic Charities tells us they use donated gift cards primarily to purchase items for their Food Pantry program. They are already familiar with Hy-Vee and County Market gift cards and can make the best use of them. However, they also told us they can also make good use of Wal-Mart gift cards and our prepaid Visa prepaid debit cards. These are very versatile gift cards that can serve a wide variety of needs.

Jackie stressed that most people do not realize the Christmas holiday giving season is their high-donation season, when they must take in enough donations to see them through next summer and maybe beyond. Unfortunately, their needs so far in 2023 are exceptionally high due to inflation, which has led to a significant increase in the number of people they serve daily.

So, if you want to safely donate somewhere that will make a difference here at home, you needn’t look any further than Catholic Charities, right here in Quincy’s own backyard.

You can donate Gene Grawe Fund gift cards in many other ways.

1. BEST WAY: Purchase a gift card at the Gene Grawe Fund office, then ask the volunteer to set it aside for Catholic Charities to pick up later, which they do regularly. If you need a receipt, first place the gift card in an envelope with your contact information, then give the envelope to the volunteer to store for pickup.
   
2. With a registered Gene Grawe Fund Visa, you can donate online using the DONATE NOW button at the top of the Catholic Charities website (link found below). I recently made a donation there, and it works fine. Their website will even email you a receipt. Be sure to select Quincy in the Location box if you want your donation to stay local.
   
3. You can also buy the gift card and mail it to Catholic Charities, 620 Maine St, Quincy, IL 62301. Mention if you need a receipt.
   
4. Finally, for those who know how to do it, you could purchase a Walmart eGiftCard or another useful eGiftCard on RaiseRight.​com and email the 16-digit code, PIN, and barcode to the email address listed on the first page of their website (see link below). They can print it out and use it like a plastic card. Unfortunately, you cannot do that with local merchants’ gift cards, such as Hy-Vee or County Market.

To learn more about Quincy Catholic Charities, visit their website or call 217-222-0958.

Birthright of Quincy is a non-profit, non-judgmental, non-denominational service organization operated completely by volunteers through private donations from our community. The mission of Birthright of Quincy is simple: “We are here to offer the non-judgmental person-to-person help, love, understanding, and basic emotional and practical support that every pregnant woman and girl needs and deserves in order for her to bring her child into the world and beyond.” And they’ve been doing it since 1973!

Birthright of Quincy provides a range of assistance, but their greatest need is for gift cards to be used for groceries, diapers, and gas. They mostly purchase and disburse $25 gift cards, but can use larger-denomination cards. Birthright of Quincy President, Patty Adam, told us they can make the best use of $25 gift cards for area grocery stores like Hy-Vee and County Market, department stores like Wal-Mart, and area gas stations. However, they will gladly accept larger-denomination gift cards and prepaid debit cards, such as the Gene Grawe Fund’s Visa and Discover cards.

The easiest way to donate your gift cards to Birthright of Quincy is to purchase them at the Gene Grawe Fund office in St. Peter Church, then ask the Gene Grawe Fund volunteer to set them aside in the Birthright envelope for pickup. Which they do regularly. If you want a receipt for tax purposes, you’ll need to put your gift card donation in another envelope first, along with a note requesting a tax receipt be mailed to you.

Until the pandemic is over, the Birthright office at 428 N 6th Street in Quincy is closed to visitors.

To learn more about Birthright of Quincy, click here to visit their website, or call the office at 217-224-1277 or Patty Adam at 217-440-8388.

Horizons’ mission is to feed the poor and hungry in the community a daily noon meal and to provide a free-choice food pantry (much like a grocery store). All of which are offered in a safe, supportive, and encouraging environment. Their goal is to meet the immediate needs of individuals and families who lack access to enough food to sustain an active, healthy life. Horizons serves over 35,000 hot, nutritious meals a year in its soup kitchen. Plus, they serve over 12,000 individuals a year from their food pantry.

Sara Stephens, Horizons’ Executive Director, told us that the most useful gift cards for them to receive are grocery store gift cards. These are especially appreciated when they are short on food supplies. Department store gift cards, like Wal-Mart, and prepaid debit cards can serve them just as well. They can also make good use of gas gift cards to help defray the fuel costs they incur while shopping for and picking up product donations throughout the area.

Like most other businesses, the pandemic has changed how they can meet the public. So for now, the easiest way for you to get your gift card donations to Horizons is to purchase the gift cards at the Gene Grawe Fund office in St. Peter Church, then ask the Gene Grawe Fund volunteer to set them aside in the Horizons envelope for pickup. Which they do regularly. If you want a receipt for tax purposes, you’ll need to put your gift card donation in another envelope first, along with a note requesting a tax receipt be mailed to you.

You can also use a registered Gene Grawe Fund Visa prepaid debit card to make a donation right on the Horizons’ website. I made a donation on their website a couple of weeks ago and was a little concerned about whether it would be a monthly recurring donation or a one-time donation. So I called and was reassured that if I did not check the “Make this donation monthly” checkbox, then the donation would be a single, one-time donation. And that is how it worked out, despite some confusing wording on the website and in the confirmation email. They may have all that fixed by now.

Gift card donations can also be dropped in their secure after-hours drop slot on the west side of their building or mailed to the 8th Street address on their website. For more information about Horizons Food Pantry, visit their website or call 217-224-5530.

During a meet with the Salvation Army folks at the Kroc Center we examined their bell ringer buckets. The older ones, with a single slot or a pair of crossed slots, would not accept a plastic gift card. However, a new kettle style has been used in Quincy and Hannibal over the past several Christmas seasons. That new style has a pair of crossed slots with one slot twice as long as the other. This new kettle lid was specifically designed to accept the standard-sized plastic cards and other larger items. Here is a photo of one of the new kettles accepting a standard-size plastic gift card.

You should not have a problem donating Gene Grawe Fund gift cards to The Salvation Army at their new bell-ringer kettles. The Salvation Army in Quincy and Hannibal uses a mixture of older- and newer-style kettles throughout the bell-ringing season. Plus, gift cards can always be bought directly at the Kroc Center.

Any gift cards donated to The Salvation Army would be appreciated, including, but not limited to, grocery, general merchandise, department store, gas, and prepaid Visa and Discover debit cards.

Bell Ringing is part of The Salvation Army Christmas Campaign. Money raised during the Christmas Campaign goes towards (to name a few) purchasing toys for children, the Thanksgiving and Christmas Day Community Dinners, Christmas Food Boxes, and Social Services Programs (rent/utility assistance, food pantry, etc.) throughout the year.

For any questions regarding The Salvation Army Bell Ringing campaign or the Red Kettles, you can contact Jeremy Koren by phone at 217-231-5633 or email him at: jeremy.koren@usc.salvationarmy.org

After much deliberation, the directors of the Good News of Christmas campaign have decided they’re not set up to accept or use gift card donations. It has to do with their accounting system, tracking, and accountability. To learn more about the Good News of Christmas, click here to go to their website.

NOTE: Some volunteers have discovered that if you form a group and it adopts a Good News of Christmas family, that group controls and uses its own funds to shop for its adopted family. In one group’s case, a sizeable portion (over $1,200) of their funds was used to purchase Wal-Mart gift cards from the Gene Grawe Fund, which were then used to shop for their adopted family. So if a number of Gene Grawe Fund members got together and adopted a Good News of Christmas family each year, then they could do the same thing.