A payment processor shut down TisBest’s transactions just as publicity was pushing sales toward $80,000 a day. The Seattle nonprofit found a replacement processor and restored its site in three days, but recovering money held by the original processor took months. GeekWire reported in February 2022 that TisBest had facilitated $51 million in charitable gifts by then—not a verified current total.
What TisBest does
TisBest lets someone give a charity gift card, then allows the recipient to direct the gift to a charity of their choice. The organization’s current homepage describes its cards as “100% Donated to Charity” and provides routes to buy and spend one. Its press page also describes the cards as fully donated to charity.
In GeekWire’s 2022 account, cards could be customized and delivered by email or mail; physical cards were described as biodegradable, and recipients could direct a card’s value to as many as three charities. That article listed card values from $10 to $5,000. Those are historical product details, not confirmation of current formats, delivery options, or amounts.
How a surge in sales became a payment crisis
From an idea to a working service
GeekWire reported that co-founder Erik Marks first conceived of the idea in 2001, while in law school and looking for an alternative to unwanted material gifts. In 2007, he revisited it and met co-founder Simeon Cathey, who had product experience at Microsoft and had started a small technology firm. The two developed TisBest before the holiday season.
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Publicity brought a sudden rush
A pre-Christmas appearance on NPR’s Morning Edition featured a child talking about the joy of giving TisBest cards. Marks told GeekWire, “Our sales started doubling overnight.” He said sales were headed toward $80,000 per day. That was the reported peak pace of the publicity-driven surge, not a continuing daily revenue figure.
The processor stopped transactions
At that moment, the payment processor abruptly stopped processing transactions. The founders told GeekWire that the salesperson who had sold them the platform removed contract language that prohibited gift-card sales. That is the founders’ account as reported by GeekWire, not an independently established legal finding.
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How TisBest got back online—and pursued the money
Cathey found a new payment processor, and TisBest’s site was back up in three days, according to GeekWire. The operational recovery did not immediately resolve the financial problem: GeekWire reported that the original processor withheld $250,000 and initially handed over $100,000. Marks spent months recovering the remainder.
The episode illustrates two separate recovery tasks: restoring the ability to accept payments and pursuing funds already held by a processor. TisBest addressed the first quickly by switching providers; recovering the withheld balance took far longer.
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The business faced challenges beyond the processor shutdown. GeekWire said sales dwindled outside holiday periods in TisBest’s early years. Cathey later returned to help restore the technology platform, and the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a boost in consumer and corporate gift-card giving. At the time of the article, corporate giving accounted for more than half of sales, according to GeekWire.
GeekWire reported on February 5, 2022, that TisBest had facilitated $51 million in charitable gifts. Treat that as a dated, organization-specific milestone: the current homepage reviewed here confirms the gift-card service but does not provide an updated cumulative total. The figure describes gifts facilitated by TisBest; it is not a general measure of charitable giving or an independent assessment of the organization’s impact.
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What the story means for donors
The service’s core idea is to give the recipient a choice of charity rather than choosing one on their behalf. Anyone considering a TisBest card can use the organization’s current site to find its purchase and redemption paths. For decisions that depend on specific card values, delivery formats, timing, or terms, check the current product information rather than relying on details from the 2022 profile.
The crisis and recovery are documented in Lisa Stiffler’s February 5, 2022, GeekWire report on TisBest. Its account of the shutdown and withheld funds rests on what the founders told the publication; the available sources do not establish a court finding or provide an independently audited cumulative giving figure.
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