Where to Use the Oakland Gift CaRD

Use the card with these fabulous businesses and artists!

FOOD & DRINK
La Borinquena / Tina Tamale**
The Rising Loafer Cafe & Bakery
Phat Matt's BBQ
Vo's Restaurant

CLOTHES & TEES
fiftyseven-thirtythree

ART
SLATE Contemporary Gallery

HOUSEWARES & GIFTS
Entrez! Open House
Bells & Whistles

JEWELRY
Rosemary Dudley Designs

HEALTH/ BEAUTY / PAMPER
Azure Salon
East Bay Five Element Acupuncture
Skincare By Feleciai
Topps Salon Day Spa

ELECTRONICS
Leo's Pro Audio

BOOKS
Laurel Bookstore **
Pegasus Books**
Western Christian Bookstore

CLASSES
Freelove Music School

More locations added every week!
**You can also buy cards at these locations.

the oakland gift card

We’re excited to announce the new Oakland Gift Card!  The gift card you can use at multiple Oakland independent businesses and artists. A fun way to keep money in our community and get a flexible gift for friends, family, clients, and colleagues. Buy gift cards online.

Why get someone a gift card for a single chain store cafe or hardware store?
Right off the start, we have several great local, OAKLAND places that your gift recipient can use to pamper themselves, get books, food, coffee, electronics, housewares and more!  See the full list to the right.  We’re adding new locations all the time.

The great thing about the card is that it builds our local economy while providing a fun gift and a way to explore new businesses or artists, OR visit some favorites.

On this page, you can get access to everything you need to buy the card online, use, and redeem the card.  Just got a new card in the mail? Contact Hope Solutions (below) to activate it.

Want to be updated when we add new businesses and get deals and discounts from participating businesses or find out how much you have left on your card? You will be able to register your card for updates and discounts, reload your card or check your card balance online at GetYourBalance.com

Have questions about the program or your card?  Contact us.

And of course, we want to make sure you have all of the legal info and policies if you ever need them: our refund policy and expiration policy are below.

Finally, this is a new program of our non-profit organization, the Sustainable Business Alliance.  We are still seeking contributions to help us pay for the costs of launching the program. Learn more about contributing.

Businesses & artists, want to take the card? Any Oakland-based independent business, artist, or non-profit is eligible to become an Oakland Grown member and can then sign up to take the gift card. Check out the Join page for more information on becoming an Oakland Grown member. Contact Oakland Grown!

Gift Cards & the Local Economy

Gift Cards are Significant: National Trends

• 77% of shoppers buy gift cards
• Average spent on gift cards: $140
• Most requested holiday gift for past 4 years

Local Shopping in Oakland

• Oakland local businesses are missing out on as much as $26 million in gift card spending by Oaklanders each holiday season
• Right now over $1 billion worth of retail shopping dollars is being leaked out of Oakland each year as Oaklanders shop elsewhere
• Re-capturing this money means more jobs, more money for libraries, parks, police and other services
• Spending on locally-owned independent businesses means more money re-spent in the community as those businesses support other local businesses. See illustration below.
• Oakland has over 50 shopping districts with boutiques, restaurants, cafés & movie theatres

Gift Cards at Local Independent (Oakland Grown) Businesses Have a Much Bigger Impact

Local independent businesses re-circulate more money in the community by spending your dollars with other local businesses, banks, and service providers.	Non-local chains spend more money outside the community, back at headquarters and providing dividends to distant share holders.

Help Us Build the Program – Make a Contribution

This is a new program of our non-profit organization, the Sustainable Business Alliance.  We are still seeking contributions to help us pay for the costs of launching the program.  We hope you will consider contributing a little bit and spread the word to fellow Oakland lovers who would align with our cause of building Oakland’s economy by keeping money local.

Even small donations of $10, $25 are helpful, as this is a program by, of and for the people.  We can build this card program together!  Contribute here.

Gift Card Expiration Policy

Oakland Grown gift cards do not expire.  However, in accordance with California law, gift cards that have been inactive for more than a year will be charged a $1 service fee for each consecutive month of inactivity.

We encourage our gift card holders to use their cards, and to re-load their cards to keep them useful, rather than holding on to a card with just a few dollars on it.  Re-loading cards keeps the money recirculating in our local economy, and also means less administrative work for us, which means more time and effort working on economic development!

If the Oakland Grown gift card program is discontinued at any time, we will make efforts to contact registered gift card holders in advance so that they may spend the remainder of funds on their cards.

Refund Policy

All gift card sales are final. We do not offer refunds for gift cards. However, we will replace a faulty gift card within 30 days of the date of purchase, provided the card is not visibly damaged due to customer’s actions.

Contact / Support

General Card Program Questions and Business Sign Ups
Oakland Grown Steering Committee
hello@oaklandgrown.org

Technical and customer service questions about your gift card:
Hope Solutions Merchant Services
Mon-Fri 8:00am-6:00pm PST
(888) 507-9942
info@hopesolutionsms.com
PO Box 5305
Oakland, CA 94605

Hope Solutions welcomes your calls and their highly trained customer service reps are here to provide you with information and answer all of your questions.