That is an outstanding idea. Seriously.

In fact, it is such a good idea that if CP doesn't do it, perhaps I will.

I'm actually pretty good at using mine but I've got-

Westfield with about $2.50 on it
Nordstroms with about $3.00
Borders with about $4.00
TJMaxx/Marshalls/Homegoods - $30.00

Let's see...

www.cardsforkids.com and .org is taken

www.cards4kids.com and .org also taken.

How about CardsToKids.com ?

How about regiftcards.org?

No reason to limit this, we'll make it national....

Of course CA with it's "no experation law" makes for an obvious choice as a home base. We could even set up swaps, AZ sends CA $2,000 in expired cards that are good in CA, and CA sends back $2,000 in non-expired cards...

etc..

Here's a specific place looking for such donations:

http://www.volunteersolutions.org/uw.../20702718.html and another http://www.volunteersolutions.org/uw.../15462324.html

I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade but I'm pretty sure I've heard of an organization doing this but I can't find it with a simple search. No reason multiple people can't do it, but you might want to see if anybody else is and how they do it.

I'm thinking only that someone would actually have to organize it.

Of course, it would be overwhelming to manage. If only one out of every ten thousand US citizens sent one in annually(.01%), that would mean 30000 cards to deal with, or 82/day. And I think that's an exceptionally low figure if it got rolling.

Lots of legal and logistical issues as well. For example,if a gift card was purchased in AZ for $20 5 years ago, and in AZ has a 2.50 maintenance fee for non use annually, if I send it to CA is it worth 20 or 7.50? Does it matter where it is purchased and/or used?

Los of practicality issues, too.

Let's say there are 5000 Borders cards sent in with an average of 1.17 on each. I suppose negotiations would have to take place with Borders so that one gift card could be used with 5850 on it rather than 5000 individual cards. And there is the process of combining them as well in terms of transferring balances from 4999 cards to 1, assuming borders would allow it.

Hmmm.....

A point of clarification...the California law does not allow an expiration date, but it does allow for maintenance fees starting 1 year after the purchase date of the card. No idea how that transfers across state lines with differing laws, but I'm betting that practically, it sticks with whatever is the law in the state of purchase (I doubt the databases bother to track and adjust the ammount based on where the purchase is being made).

Using Borders as an example, couldn't you make a deal with Borders to collect the cards? If you were checking out the clerk could mention that you could donate the $1.71 left on your giftcard, transfering it to the charity's fund. Kind of how the supermarkets do the donations for the various fundraisers they do.

It would certianly require working with various vendors, but hey it's for charity what are they gonna do? Power of the press my friend power of the press...

However your point is of course valid, I did not present this as a well researched and thoughtfully designed plan. Rather it is an off the cuff comment that could be worth pursuing the details of and there would be a lot of details.

Alex: Yes, there are sure to be others. The two sites you cited seem to be looking for new cards as opposed to used ones. However it does show there is some validity to the concept.