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TL;DR: money gifts have become more widely accepted, and with the right gifting tools, they can even be personal and fun. Let your guests know that you are saving for a larger goal with Greatest Gift's personalized gifting pages as your cash baby registry.
Congratulations! You’re having a baby! Soon you will hold the little one in your arms, and you’ll be filled with feelings of love and happiness. Sleepless nights and endless diaper changes are on the horizon, but nothing the newborn’s first smile can’t fix.
Cash gifts provide endless possibilities and allow you to use the funds in the best way possible.
Everyone is so excited – grandparents, uncles and aunts, the whole family and your friends too. They can't wait for the baby shower to spoil you with baby gifts.
Unfortunately, some of the gifts they’ll buy are things you already have, and many are things you don’t need. In all honesty, you would just rather get money as gifts instead. You’re in luck because we’ve put together some tips and facts on how to ask your friends and family to give cash gifts for your baby shower.
As the parents, you know what your baby needs best. Cash gifts provide endless possibilities and allow you to use the funds in the best way possible.
Gift cards can also be nice, but even they miss the mark. Gift cards are often not utilized, with $3 billion left on the table in unredeemed gift cards per year that goes to waste. Like all new parents, you want to make sure you are doing everything right for your newborn, and that includes looking out for their financial well-being.
Baby shower gifts can be used as a steppingstone for your child's future. Cash and investment gifts for your baby can kickstart their journey to college and set them on the path to financial security (away from their parent’s basement!). Remember, every dollar invested when your child is born can grow by as much as three and a half times by the time they go to college.
People enjoy investing in children's futures, but they don't always know how to go about doing that.
Most young parents already prefer to receive cash as gifts and understand why you would like to receive them as well. In fact, in a 2015 survey by Upromise 7 out of 10 parents said money was their preferred gift. Online wedding registries and honeymoon funds provide cash registries for couples, and make cash gifting the new norm.
Young couples follow this trend when planning their baby shower and open cash registries for their baby funds. Having said that, even the best baby registries may be missing an easy to use cash fund. Adding Greatest Gift as a cash fund registry solves this for many parents.
People enjoy investing in children's futures
In addition, it is still a major priority for people to invest in a child’s future. Until not too long ago, US Savings Bonds were still popular gifts for babies, but this form of monetary gifting is very outdated. Many people still have one or two of them in paper form lying around somewhere in their attic.
Baby shower gift ideas are not always easy to come up with. There are baby shower gift ideas for a boy and baby shower gift ideas for a girl, minimalist baby shower gift ideas, and the list goes on.
Asking for financial gifts solves another problem for your baby shower guests - finding a gift that fits how much they want to spend on the baby gift. Financial gifts are flexible and fit every price tag.
Taking all of this into account, cash gifting is not as taboo as you may think. Also, with the current global events people are trying to be more careful, skipping events and shopping less in stores. The solution of sending a monetary gift is more desirable.
Some new technologies, like Greatest Gift, even make cash gifts more personal by adding customized greetings with pictures and videos and allow receivers to invest the funds. This turns money gifts into thoughtful gestures.
If you still feel awkward at first to ask your guests for cash gifts, below are some ways to politely suggest it.
Asking for and receiving money for a baby shower is the perfect opportunity to kickstart savings for bigger goals.
Giving cash as gifts might feel impersonal or unthoughtful but giving a monetary gift that goes towards a savings goal can be considerate and generous.
When gifting for a goal, gifts gain greater purpose, and a $100 dollar gift can turn into a gift of college savings.
There are a number of goals that you can set for your new baby, including saving for college, saving for a future down payment on a house, the first Disney trip, or even a crypto fund.
Socialize your goals when discussing the shower with guests and let them know how they can contribute if they ask.
If you have baby shower party planners, make sure they know about your savings goals so they can share them with your guests by including it on the invite for example.
After learning about your savings goals, even your Great-Aunt Rose will send you cash gifts instead of the crochet blanket she usually sends everyone.
If you use a traditional baby shower registry, like the target baby registry, amazon baby registry or buybuybaby baby registry, only add items that you actually need. This will ensure that you get exactly what you need, and you don’t choose any unnecessary gift options just to fill out the registry.
Keep your baby registry minimalistic and only add the baby registry must haves to it.
In addition to the traditional baby registry, refer guests to a financial gifting website like Greatest Gift, so that they have both options of cash gifts and traditional gifts.
Share your goals and target uses for the funds In the cash registry
In the cash registry, share your goals and target uses for the funds to make potential gift givers understand and see the greater purpose of the gift.
One way to ask for financial gifts is to actually open a fund for the baby, and let your guest know how they can contribute directly to that fund. Gift givers may feel more comfortable knowing they’re sending a financial gift towards an existing savings fund for a specific purpose.
There are great options for setting up saving and investing funds for babies, including 529 plans for college savings, custodial investment accounts, and even regular savings accounts, to name a few.
Until recently, sending gifts to these accounts was difficult and a tedious process, but Greatest Gift’s gifting process makes it easy and exciting
The baby shower invitation is the perfect place to share your savings goals for your new baby.
If you are sending out digital invitations, simply add a link to a cash baby registry, gifting website or your own personalized gifting page.
If you are sending out printed invitations, make sure to let people know your preference. If you have a cash gift registry or gifting page, share the website address on the invitation. To make things easier on your guests, add a QR code that links directly to Greatest Gift or your online cash registry, where they can send cash gifts to go towards long term savings.
Either way, make sure to write a few words to let people know how they can help support your goals and what you need most for your baby. This can help guests who are on the fence about what gift to get you.
Gifts are not expected, but if you wish to send a gift, a financial gift for our little one's future would be very welcome.
We’ve provided a few example in this article.
Greatest Gift is an online cash gifting platform for children’s long-term savings.
Greatest Gift lets you share with your friends and family that you are saving for a brighter future and introduces them to an easy and exciting way of investing in your children's futures.
Setting financial goals and sharing them through Greatest Gift's personalized gifting pages helps gift givers see the greater purpose of the gift and how they can kickstart a young one's financial future.
In addition to gifting pages, Greatest Gift also helps you share directly over text messages and emails. If you don't want to send a message yourself, we can send an email for you. Sign up and check out all the great ways to share on Greatest Gift.
Once you receive gifts, you can send thank you notes directly from the Greatest Gift platform. We'll even suggest a few opening lines!
After the party is over, and the baby is born, we’d like to remind you not to forget the “Thank You” notes. Give your gift-givers the credit they deserve in helping you start your child on the right path to saving!
Make it personal by adding a picture or cute video of the newborn.
Specifically, with cash gifts, you can show your gratitude by sharing a bit of how you will use the money. If you open a savings account or fund for the baby, let them know their money was used to help start that account! If you buy that stroller you always wanted, share it with them and let them know they made it happen.
Sending a thank you note can have a magical effect on gift givers.
The greatest wonder of life is about to happen. From all of us at Greatest Gift, good luck, and happy gifting!
I love how easy it is to give a meaningful gift to the kids and tots in my life!
It means a lot to me that I can contribute to their future, and Greatest Gift makes the experience seamless and fun.
Alana S.
Our son just turned two. We created his gifting page with Greatest Gift and shared it on the birthday evite. The results were amazing! We received 12 gifts that will be going to his college fund and savings.
Love this platform.
Daniel A.
We have a 2-year-old and another baby on the way, and we love Greatest Gift’s discover section. I look forward to learning about the right financial tools to help build their future and set them up for success financially.
Hillan K.
