Grouping Gifts for Bigger Impact

It’s the holiday giving season, and for many people, gifting is stressful. You may love the idea of giving something meaningful to the people that make a difference in your life like teachers, service providers, or your office team. But your budget may not match your goodwill.

Presently (getpresently.com) was started in 2019 with the idea of prioritizing giving quality over quantity. The founders thought: there has to be a better way to show appreciation for the people we care about. Call it crowd funding for gifts; the group-gifting platform makes it easy for people to collect funds and messages for a single gift or card.

You don’t need a credit card to sign up. Once you pick your gift type, the site creates a custom page dedicated to your celebration with photos, messages, and occasion details. You invite contributors to participate, and Presently keeps track of all contributions and messages from your organizer dashboard. Presently takes care of all purchasing and delivering if you want, or organizers can choose to redeem the group funds to purchase the gift instead.

The site makes it easy for groups to pool their resources to purchase a single, larger, more meaningful gift for someone special. Think students in a class or after-school activity; instead of 20 scented candles, Miss Jones gets a spa day. Grandchildren can go in together to give grandparents an experience or luxury item they’d never buy for themselves. The management team can band together to give support staff something special.

The platform also takes away some of the awkwardness of asking people in person to contribute for a special occasion gift. It offers pre-written messages you can customize and send to others to invite them to join the group. No one needs to feel pressured to give if they’re not inclined or able. There’s a card feature that allows people to sign, add messages, videos or pictures to a single card form the group.

If giving is hard because you don’t know what to give, you can use the GiftPicker, a quick quiz that recommends gifts from a curated database of gifts through partnerships with retailers like Pottery Barn, Apple, fitness companies like Peleton, and experience vendors like Airbnb. You select the age and category of person (family, friend, coworker, teacher/mentor) and the vibe you’re trying to create – fun, practical, or sentimental, what their interests are, and finally, your budget. The quiz comes back with product recommendations that you can select to purchase or set up a group plan to split the cost. The Presently blog offers gift ideas and guides for almost any occasion.

Presently lets remote teams collaborate on gifts, making it a great solution for holidays, birthdays, retirements, or other special occasions. It’s a way to feel connected and celebrate no matter how far apart you are physically, something we’ve all needed during the pandemic.

If you believe that less is more, the site provides a way to spend less and reduce waste from items that won’t be used. Presently’s founder and CEO Dalia Katan says, “Fewer, better gifts will be cherished for (and last) longer than an excess of small ones – but it’s not always affordable to get the ‘bigger and better’ gift alone. With group gifting, friends and coworkers can come together to pitch in toward a gift that is both wanted and meaningful. It makes shopping easier for givers and encourages more positive environmental choices.”

Find out more at getpresently.com.