📚 Frequently Asked Questions
At Presently, we’re improving the way groups celebrate remotely with our group gifting and cards platform. Need help? Watch our explainer video and check out our frequently asked questions below!
About group gifting
Presently is a group celebration and gifting platform. We’re here to help people celebrate in more meaningful and sustainable ways. We’re helping cut out gift waste, stress, and clutter, while also making it easy for groups to give gifts and cards that’ll be talked about for years to come!
A group gift is an easy way for people to contribute to a single better and more meaningful gift. The idea behind group gifts is that we can give better gifts together (quality > quantity) – ensuring that the gift received is cherished and used for longer. By using our group gifting platform, multiple contributions can be made toward the price of a larger gift.
Similarly, a group card is an easy and fun way for people to add messages, images, or videos to a single card.
At Presently, we believe less is more. 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. And, you don’t always know what a recipient wants. 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.
We have several pre-written messages that help ease the conversation around no gifts / only one group gift for our users. Although many of these are framed for birthdays, you can fill in “birthday” with promotion, baby shower, holidays, and more. You can also refer a friend instead to Presently if you’d like for them to set up the gift for you.
Here are some sample messages!
Hi everyone!
John‘s graduation is coming up on May 12 and we’d like to give him one big group gift from all of us!
We’ve set up a group gift on Presently. If you’d like to take part, you can view the present we’ve selected and contribute at this link: (your custom gift page here). Thanks!
Hi everyone!
Emily‘s 9th birthday is coming up on January 12th and we’d like to give her one big group gift from all her friends and family! By coming together for a group gift instead of individual presents, we can gift her something bigger that she’ll treasure forever, while also reducing our environmental footprint and clutter in the home.
We’ve set up a group gift on Presently, and would love to invite you to contribute to the group fund for her birthday wish, if you’d like to take part!
Hi everyone!
For the holidays this year, we’d like to give Zia one big group gift from all her friends and family! Instead of multiple gifts this year, Zia will only receive one gift, and we’d love to invite you to take part. By coming together for a group gift instead of individual presents, we can gift her something bigger that she’ll treasure forever, while also reducing our environmental footprint and clutter in the home.
If you’d like to see the gift we’ve selected and contribute to the group fund for her birthday wish, visit our Presently page: (your custom gift page here). We appreciate you not purchasing any additional gifts this year!
Hi everyone!
My 31st birthday is coming up on September 8 and I thought it would be amazing for all my friends and loved ones to come together for a group gift!
I’ve set up a group gift on Presently. If you’d like to take part, you can view and contribute at this link: (your custom gift page here).
Hi everyone!
My birthday is coming up and I am excited to share it with all of you! Instead of multiple gifts, there’s one thing this year that would be impactful and meaningful in my life. If you’d like to take part, I’ve set up a group gift on Presently as an easy way for friends to collaborate: (your custom gift page here).
Hi everyone!
If you’re getting this it’s because there’s a chance you might be planning to get me a birthday present and maybe you’re wondering what I want or need. A bracelet? Another plant?
In an effort to help those looking to gift consciously, I’ve set up a group gift with Presently. If you feel called to participate, awesome, and if not, know that your friendship really is the best gift. You can contribute here: (your custom gift page here).
Yes! Over half of Presently users organize gifts for coworkers – including birthdays, baby showers, get well soons, thank yous, and more. Some of the world’s best companies, like Google, Zoom, Airbnb, JP Morgan, and Disney, as well as schools and government organizations, choose Presently for their team celebrations.
Learn more about Presently for teams here.
Yes! Many of our organizers create gifts for teachers, faculty, and kids alike. And, psychologists say it’s an absolutely huge benefit for kid’s development.
Presently empowers children to think thoughtfully about what they need, communicate their decisions, and learn the value of saving. By minimizing the excess of gifts, we are encouraging healthier behaviors around play and consumerism. Studies show that fewer gifts result in an increase in creativity, self-confidence, intelligence, social and collaboration skills, imagination, problem-solving, attention span, and more. With fewer gifts, toys also have a longer life-spans and children learn to better take care of our community and planet!
Organizing a gift
First, pick a group gift or card
No credit card needed for sign up. Once you pick your gift type and add a recipient, we’ll create a custom page dedicated to your celebration with photos, messages, and occasion details. You can add any gift — physical or experiential — and choose whether extra funds raised goes to savings or charity.
Second, invite contributors to participate
Friends and coworkers can pitch messages or funds toward the gift or card on your custom invitation page. We’ll send reminders for you and keep track of all contributions and messages from your organizer dashboard – everything in one place.
Third, the recipient receives the gift!
We’ll share the group gift and card with the recipient on the special day! Presently takes care of all purchasing and delivering, or the organizer can choose to redeem the group funds to purchase the gift, too.
Learn more here.
You can choose any gift of your choice! While we give (awesome) suggestions, you are not limited on the gifts you can select and can enter any gift or gift card when signing up. If you need ideas, you can browse our gift guides here.
If you’d like to choose a gift card, we support nearly all gift card choices (e.g., Airbnb, Amazon, UberEats, Target, WholeFoods, and more!) so you can type in the gift card of your choice. The best part is: the recipient can choose to swap to a different gift card when they redeem your gift, so you know they’ll receive something they really love!
If you’re still not sure what to get, don’t fret! Our team will convert your gift to be redeemed as a gift card of the recipient’s choice if a gift has not been selected within 12 hours of gift delivery to ensure that the recipient still has a great experience and has the ultimate flexibility to select a gift they really want.
At Presently, we are making gifting easier, more meaningful, and more sustainable. Presently also helps people spend more time where it matters: being present with the people they care about.
1. Easier for organizers
It takes just three minutes to organize, and you’re guaranteed to get/give a gift that’s really wanted. No more awkward venmo requests are needed: Simply copy the shareable link from the organizer dashboard to get everyone celebrating together!
2. Convenient for Givers
On the flipside, contributors can save the time they spend every month trying to find the perfect gift for their friends, coworkers, or family. Plus, 73% of the contributors on Presently say they feel closer to the recipient and other participants as a result of the experience, and over 90% weren’t planning to give a gift until they were invited to a group gift.
3. Better for our planet
By reducing the number of gifts given for special occasions, heaps of plastic, packaging, and gift wrap waste are being eliminated – protecting our oceans and the sensitive ecosystems we live in.
As the organizer, you can enable or disable the ability for contributors to sign the card without needing to take part in the fund collection. This is helpful for large groups where you may want to collect messages even from people who aren’t pitching in for the gift. You can toggle this setting from your organizer dashboard.
Presently is free to set up for all group cards, and has a $5-12 set-up fee for all regular group gifts.
To make the group gifting experience seamless and secure for all contributors, Presently charges a small 1.6% service fee to contributors* alongside Stripe’s 2.9% + 30c credit card processing fees (learn more about Stripe’s processing fees domestically and internationally here). This comes out to less than the cost of gift wrap for each person, or $0.88 on average per contribution.
Additionally, there is no Presently fee to redeem a gift as a recipient or organizer.
For multi-recipient or employer-distributed gifts, set-up fee may vary.
* Presently’s service fee was reduced from 2% to 1.6% on November 25, 2022. We work hard to keep trust high and costs low for our users, and when we save, you do too!
We take care of the delivery of the gift and card! The card will automatically be delivered to the recipient at the date and time you indicated during sign up or in your change requests. If there is a gift, the recipient will also receive information on how to redeem it – which can either be through Presently or from you, the organizer. Recipients can redeem their gift directly on our site by entering their preferred payout methods and/or delivery addresses, so you don’t have to go through the trouble of getting that information from them.
As an organizer, you may choose to purchase the gift yourself, and you can choose to receive the funds instead to make the gift purchase for the recipient. We’ll still take care of the card and the notification on the day of delivery!
Notification of delivery: You will also receive an email when the recipient has redeemed their gift along with a confirmation of the amount that the recipient has redeemed. If any late contributions are received, they will be sent in a second payout.
Managing a gift & login
You’ll find your login information in your welcome email under step 2.
You can make any changes from your organizer dashboard, including the gift selection, delivery date, payout preferences and more. Simply use the login details provided in your welcome email.
Check out the tools in the ‘Invite contributors’ section in your organizer dashboard to invite others by email, social media, text message, and more. Want to send out a link instead? Check your welcome email to copy the shareable public gift page link!
For contributors
Nope! We try to keep friction low for contributors by enabling them to contribute without signing up. They can drop their messages and/or group gift contributions without an account, just by entering their name/email and message.
We are the only group-gifting platform that offers private contributions. Neither organizers nor other contributors see your individual contribution amounts. Instead, organizers can see how much the total group has contributed, how many people have contributed, and the messages that friends and family have left for the group card. We have chosen to hide individual contribution amounts so that people can give however much they feel comfortable giving.
We’re about to launch a new feature that will allow you to do that, but until then you can email us with your edit and we can make the change for you!
You will receive an email when the recipient has received their gift, along with any thank you replies they send as well!
Workplace / Corporate Use
80% of Presently’s users are workplace users, but did you know there are multiple ways to use Presently at work? There are two key types of workplace gifts: peer-to-peer and corporate.
Peer-to-peer gifting entails coworkers gathering together to pitch in on someone’s gift. For example getting everyone in the office together to pitch in for a gift for a coworker’s baby shower. Remember the days of passing around an envelope? Well, we’ve made the process a whole lot more personal and easier while remote! From our sign up page here, select “group gift” and follow the steps to create your group gift!
Corporate, or top-down gifts, refer to gifts purchased and distributed by the employer to a large group of employees. For example, a manager purchasing holiday gift cards for their team. You will follow the usual group gift flow on the sign up page here, and then simply check the box for “3+ recipients”. Then, select your funding sources: funded by the company. Note that even though it is not a peer-to-peer gift, you can still invite others to sign the card, whether it be your leadership team or other employees at the company. You can learn more about our options for corporate gift distribution here.
Both go through the same sign-up process on our sign-up page, getpresently.com/go.
Learn more about Presently’s workplace options here!
You can choose whether you want your gift to go to one recipient, or be distributed across several recipients, from the first page of the sign up process. Whether a peer-to-peer gift or a top-down corporate gift (see prior question), you will follow the usual group gift flow on the sign up page here, and check the box for “3+ recipients”. Then, depending on whether it is a peer-to-peer gift or a corporate gift, you can select from the various funding sources: funded by individuals or funded by the company.
You can learn more about our options for teams here. For benefits and extra features to manage larger corporate accounts, please contact hello ~at~ getpresently.com.
Please contact [email protected] to connect with our concierge team and get set up.
Learn more about Presently’s workplace use cases here!
For recipients
When you receive your group gift notification by email, it will include a ‘Recipient Code’. Simply enter the code on the ‘redeem’ button at the bottom of your digital card, enter your details, and we’ll deliver the gift right to you!
If you received a gift card, you can swap the vendor for your gift card from the redemption portal. You can also choose to redeem a portion of the amount to your savings, so that you can save it up for something great in the future! This helps the organizer make sure you can pick a gift you’ll really love! Your organizers will know how much you’ve redeemed but will not know how much has gone to the gift card or your savings.
Simply tap the ‘share thanks’ button at the bottom of your digital card, enter your message or video, and voila! We’ll have the thanks delivered to your contributors.
Partnerships
For business partnerships, please contact hello ~at~ getpresently.com, along with the nature of the desired partnership. If you’d like to submit your brand to GiftPicker or a Presently blog, you may submit at getpresently.com/giftpicker-submit.
Couldn’t find the answer to your question?
Contact us at hello ~at~ getpresently.com or chat us below for any additional questions, comments, or requests.