(Not sure this should be under ~finance, but not sure where else to post?)

I've been de-googling and going more privacy-based for most anything I can lately, and I always love when my company gifts me a $100 Visa gift card for Christmas.
I find myself paying for a lot more of the booze in our lives (usually one shot at going out, and before additionally replenishing a few dollars on my TouchTunes account because I've only used gift cards on it) because now nothing's tracking my sinful habits. :)
Honestly, I mostly would like to use this card to do online things with apps I honestly don't want to be attached to (specifically Discord, and I'd like to recharge TouchTunes, but... that's more of a secondary option).

That being said, I'd like to get some sort of non-"traceable" type of card (that is, physical and not requiring an account or app), and I'd prefer to keep as much of my "investment" as I can (purchase charges, fees, or whatnot). I would like a rechargeable option, but I feel that would be too pinpoint-y. I could just go to my local store (in the US) and buy cards with cash, but while I have no problem with that, I'm also not that paranoid and I am a little lazy heh.

I asked my DDG search, and AI has highlighted "toasty choice" (at toastycard dot com) which looks sketch AF, probably because it appears you need an app. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it just looks too sketch for me.

So, I would like to hear folks' thoughts on this. Do you have a spot you'd recommend to purchase "gift" cards online, or a local spot (as I mentioned, US companies would be required), and any strings attached you'd highlight that may be avoidable?

For the past several years I’ve been knee deep involved in Ukraine and as several people on Tildes know, a lot of my earliest days were spent donating, tens of thousands. All in all I’ve donated enough to nearly bankrupt myself when my situation changed.

As I got more involved (and now I’m an active investor in the sector), I want to share something I’ve learned since that I wish someone had told me when I started:

Every dollar you have that you want to put to work can, on average, be 10x’d by the time you put it in.

That means if you want to donate 10k, you may well be able to end up putting 100k to work towards your goal.

You may have seen this take the form of donation matching — some fame seekers sometimes do it (I’ll donate 10 dollars for every dollar you donate), but this isn’t necessarily what I mean.

Speaking on an investment side: on average, 10% “skin in the game” makes it very easy to get the remaining 90% as long as there is a net positive outcome possible. So by positioning your donation as your skin in the game to a larger fundraise, you set yourself up for multiplying your impact by ten.

What’s more: let’s say you don’t want to donate 10k in bulk but you have a good job that allows you to set aside 1k usd per month. You want to donate half of that (500 usd). This means per year you can donate 6k usd.
Are you able to take a two year engagement? Congratulations, that means you are donating 12k and can now raise for 120k with 10% skin in the game (as long as the money isn’t needed faster than at the rate it can be committed).

I had this discussion with an acquaintance who has been in finance for a long time and got a very good job. She was trying to figure out how to “invest” 40k per year, that would otherwise be lost to taxes. On a 7 year engagement she has now setup a 10M climate fund (around 2% SITG which is standard for funds).

I was floored she didn’t know this. I figured the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t study economics, but it seems so fundamental that I want more people to be aware that this is a thing.