Updates
The Salvation Army’s red bell ringer buckets can now accept Gene Grawe Fund gift cards
April 30, 2026
Starting with the 2018 Christmas season, Quincy’s Salvation Army bell-ringer buckets have an extra-long slot in the bucket lid that is long enough to accommodate a standard-size gift card. We’ve been told by the Salvation Army that general merchandise, gas, and grocery gift cards, along with any prepaid debit cards, are most useful to them.
GGF office has some FREE adhesive labels with Reloadable printed on them
April 30, 2026
If you stick a Reloadable label on your reloadable gift cards it’s less likely that a cashier will toss the card when it’s empty. Next time you’re in the Gene Grawe Fund office ask the volunteer for a few of them to put on your cards. There’s usually a jar of them on the desk.
Categories: Tips
Use Goo Gone to remove permanent marker ink from gift cards
April 30, 2026
Goo Gone is just about the best cleaner for removing Sharpie and other permanent marker ink from reloadable plastic gift cards. Not only do many thoughtful cashiers write your card’s balance on the gift card, but we all do it to. With more and more merchants going to reloadable gift cards we need a way
Categories: Tips
Destroy Your Own Zero Balance Gift Cards
April 30, 2026
Never let anyone other than you, such as wait staff and cashiers, throw away your supposedly zero-balance gift cards. After only a year in the Gene Grawe Fund program, I have had several supposedly zero-balance gift cards show up later with balances. The largest was $32.16 and the smallest was $3.56. We recommend keeping and
Categories: Five Back VisaTips
Track your GGF & RaiseRight.com Purchases in Quicken
April 30, 2026
We’re not pushing Quicken, but it helps to track your gift card spending in a financial management program like Quicken. Just create a cash account called Gene Grawe Fund and show checking account transfers into it and log your outgoing spending just like any other cash account. If you keep it up, you can run
Categories: RaiseRight.com TipsTips
Never Reload Your Five Back Gift Visa Card on the FiveBackGift.com Website
April 30, 2026
The Gene Grawe Fund receives no rebates for purchases there. We only receive rebates for the Five Back Gift Visa cards we sell from our office in the Church of St. Peter. You may occasionally need to register a Visa gift card on the FiveBackGift.com website to facilitate some online shopping, but don’t reload your
Categories: Five Back VisaTips
Don’t Forget the Gratuity
April 30, 2026
When using gift cards in restaurants it’s easy to forget about allowing for tips for wait staff. All meal and beverage charges, plus tips cannot exceed the maximum amount you allow or the value of the gift card, whichever comes first. If you received good service, make sure to remember those people when tabulating your
Categories: Local MerchantsTips
Protect Your Smartphone During Transactions
April 30, 2026
If you have a smartphone, you can just show the merchant your smartphone and they will scan the eGiftCard barcode or key-in the numbers. Never hand your unlocked smartphone to anyone who will take it out of your sight to scan the barcode. Either walk with them to the register or let them write down
Categories: Online SafetyShoppingTips
Ask merchants to join the GGF
April 30, 2026
Get in the habit of asking non-GGF merchants, where you spend your hard earned money, to consider becoming part of this great charity. We’ve had two merchants join just this summer because some of our members mentioned the GGF to them. It’s hard to ignore the spending power of over a thousand families in the
Categories: Local MerchantsTips
Put A Memory Jogging GGF Note In Your Checkbook
April 30, 2026
Use a bold marker to write GGF? on that plastic check writing surface that duplicate check checkbooks use. Or write it on the outside cover of your checkbook. It will cause you to think, “Could I use a GGF gift card instead of the check I’m about to write?” Works for at least one of
Keep low denomination gift cards on hand for tips and other small gifts.
April 29, 2026
Keep lots of low denomination gift cards on hand to use for tips. Use them to tip for grocery delivery, pizza delivery, lawn mowing payment and tips, snow removal, and so on. As long as the cards are for merchants that are useful to the recipient they’ve always been appreciated. Buy extra of the low
Use Hy-Vee’s mobile app to scan your gift cards
April 29, 2026
If you have a smartphone and you use Hy-Vee gift cards, then make sure you install Hy-Vee’s newest app for both iPhones and Android phones. It can scan the barcode on your gift cards and add them to the app. Then you can use the app to view the remaining balances on all your Hy-Vee
Categories: Local MerchantsShoppingTips
What is a Promotional Load entry on your FiveBackGift.com Visa transaction history?
April 29, 2026
This another good reason not to let a cashier toss your zero balance GGF Visa prepaid gift card. Hold on to your gift cards until at least a month has passed since last use. Today, I was checking the balance on some older Visas before I shredded them, when I discovered one with a 50¢
Categories: Five Back VisaTips
Grandparents can reload cards for distant grandchildren
April 29, 2026
A Gene Grawe Fund grandparent has an 11 year old grandson who lives out of state and loves to eat at Subway. So grandpa gave him a reloadable Subway card that is linked to grandpa’s RaiseRight.com account. Now, grandpa can reload the Subway card whenever is get’s low. We recently had a Gene Grawe Fund
Categories: RaiseRight.com TipsTips
Dedicate a $50 or $100 GGF Visa to limit your monthly Blessing Java coffee habit
April 29, 2026
Have you been spending too much on coffee at Blessing Java lately? Try this: each month, buy one $50 or $100 prepaid Visa debit card from the Gene Grawe Fund and then make that the only card you use at Blessing Java. When it’s empty, make yourself wait. Of course, some of you may have
Categories: Five Back VisaLocal MerchantsTips
Use Gene Grawe Fund gift cards to pay for holiday parties
April 29, 2026
With the holidays fast approaching you might consider volunteering for your employer’s or organization’s holiday party/dinner planning committee. Then try to steer the party location to one of the many Quincy restaurants who are merchant members of the Gene Grawe Fund. Verify that the restaurant will accept their own gift cards in payment for a
Categories: Tips
Make saving paper and printer ink part of managing your household’s Gene Grawe Fund program.
April 29, 2026
For instance, it’s sometimes prudent to save the transaction history for a GGF Visa before you shred the plastic card. You may have paid a bill or made an important purchase with that card and you might someday need the transaction history for warranty verification purposes. There are many reasons why you might want to
Categories: Tips
Tips for Spotting Phishing Emails
April 29, 2026
Phishing email and phishing attempt are slang phrases for any email message that is on a fishing expedition for information that can be used for fraudulent purposes. It gains this information by tricking unsuspecting email recipients into giving up that information in a variety of ways.These easy tips from RaiseRight.com will help you identify phishing
Categories: Online SafetyTips
Wal-Mart Gift Cards are Reloadable (but you earn 38% less tuition funds)
April 29, 2026
Yes, Wal-Mart gift cards are now reloadable. Just save one of the Wal-Mart gift cards you bought at the Gene Grawe Fund office, register it in your RaiseRight.com account, and reload it up to $400 at a time. Doesn’t matter what denomination card you use. You could load $100 onto a $25 gift card. We’ve
ATTENTION RETIRED MILITARY & VETERANS!
April 29, 2026
Did you know that you can pay your SGLI or VGLI premiums using either a registered or non-registered Gene Grawe Fund Five Back Visa prepaid debit card? If you are helping a student in the Quincy Catholic school system and you’re paying your SGLI or VGLI premiums through military allotment, you can stop the allotment
Categories: Tips
2% of Gift Card Face Value or 50% of Rebate? Which is better?
April 29, 2026
2% of Gift Card Face Value or 50% of Rebate? Which is better? The correct answer is they both are. Huh? The reason for saying both is that all cards purchased with cash or check at the Gene Grawe Fund office will pay your student’s tuition account 2% of the face value of the gift
Categories: Tips
Reduce Your Exposure to Internet Fraud
April 29, 2026
Regular use of Gene Grawe Fund prepaid Visa debit cards for Internet purchases will significantly lower your chances of being the victim of Internet fraud. Same thing happens when online shopping with store-brand gift cards like Lowes, Hy-Vee, Menards, Staples, and hundreds of others. Picture this…your sitting in the doctor’s waiting room reading news on
Categories: Online SafetyTips
Gift Card Christmas Club Account
April 29, 2026
Did you know that anyone can start their own gift card Christmas club account with gift cards purchased from the Gene Grawe Fund? Yes you can! And for this Christmas Club account, there’s no paperwork to fill out, no little passbook to keep track of, and no trips to the bank. You manage this hassle-free
Categories: News
Walmart and Sam’s Club Gift Cards are Interchangeable
April 29, 2026
Walmart gift cards and Sam’s Club gift cards are interchangeable. Meaning you can use a Walmart gift card at Sam’s Club and a Sam’s Club gift card at Walmart. NOTE ON USING WALMART PAY APP: Recently, we found out that you cannot use the Walmart Pay app on your smart phone for purchases at Sam’s
Donate Those Leftover Low Balance Visa Cards
April 29, 2026
A great way to use up those leftover low-balance Visa debit cards is to donate the remaining balances, like $2, $4.52, $9.56, $12.18, etc., to a good cause. Obviously, a good choice would be to donate the remaining balance to the Gene Grawe Fund’s general fund using the Donate button at the top of our
Traveling to Grandma’s house for the holidays?
April 29, 2026
Use gift cards from RaiseRight​.​com and the Gene Grawe Fund to book your flights, hotels, and rental cars. If you’re road tripping to Grandma’s house, be sure to grab gift cards for gas stations that you can register and reload along the way. And don’t forget about meals at favorite restaurants to, from, and even
Categories: Tips
Send an eGift card to someone special.
April 29, 2026
Perfect for last-minute gifting—you can send an eGift card immediately or schedule it for later delivery on a future date like Christmas, Easter, a birthday, or any special occasion. Login to your RaiseRight​.​com account, shop for and select any eGift card you wish to send and then click on Send As a Gift by Email.
Categories: RaiseRight.com TipsTips
Three Ways to Designate Your Gift Card Purchase
April 29, 2026
You can designate the earnings from your gift card purchases to go to one of three places. 1. Individual student. Your earnings are applied directly to the tuition account for this student. 2. One of the 5 Quincy Catholic schools: Blessed Sacrament, St Dominic, St Francis, St Peter, or QND. Your earnings are donated to
