Don’t miss another episode of Truth In Data! Click on the red bell in the lower-left of your screen to receive notifications as soon as the episode publishes.
Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s Report: Necessity as the Mother of Invention: Prepaid Cards Find New Use Cases in the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Use of Prepaid Cards for Charity:
- The pandemic brought a great deal of economic hardship to many living in the U.S., as businesses were brought to the brink of collapse and millions were laid off.
- Charitable organizations attempted to fill this need, and many did so through direct cash transfers.
- For example, the NGO GiveDirectly is a charity that takes donor money and gives it directly to those in need.
- GiveDirectly targeted its relief efforts toward SNAP recipients, whom the organization recognized to be uniquely vulnerable to the economic hardships posed by the pandemic.
- The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City is another non-profit organization that made extensive use of prepaid cards to offer relief to those in need during the pandemic.
- Using fintech Usio’s prepaid card issuing platform, the Fund distributed monies to affected individuals and businesses in the New York City area.
About Report
The COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way that people shopped and paid for purchases. Under these new circumstances, the U.S. prepaid market experienced significant innovation and developed new use cases for its products. As vaccines have been made available but uptake has lagged, state and local governments have made use of prepaid cards to incentivize vaccination. The pandemic has caused significant hardship for many communities in the U.S., and prepaid cards have played an important role in the distribution of financial aid from both government and charitable institutions to those in need. Moving forward, the prepaid market has numerous opportunities to contribute to the process of economic recovery in the United States.
