Traditionally, Christmas presents are purchased for the enjoyment of the recipient exclusively. But a new innovative Israel-based organization is allowing holiday shoppers to purchase a charity gift card that benefits both the recipient as well as the less fortunate.

Here’s how it works: You buy a gift card. And like any other gift card, you purchase value for the card so that the recipient can redeem it. But instead of redeeming it at the Home Depot or Starbucks. Ten Gav’s Charity Gift Cards are only redeemable at www.tengav.org, where you can read a story about a needy Israeli family and choose whom to help yourself. The personal stories on www.tengav.org consist of needy families or individuals who are in dire need of some of the most basic appliances that most of us take for granted.

This means that the funds can be redeemed for a water heater for Einav and Shaul Frishman. This ensures that they as well as their 11 children can bathe in hot water during the cold Jerusalem winter. Or, they can dedicate the donation to 62-year old Talya and help buy her an oven to cook warm food.

And if you’re environmentally conscious, you can rest assured that the entire process from purchase to donation can be done online. This means that you can buy the card and send it to the recipient from your PC, laptop or mobile device. 

The purchase can be made in a few easy steps. Each available cause has its own detailed backstory that is prominently featured on Ten Gav’s site.

They even made an instructional video to show you how the entire process works. 

Naomi Jacobs-Brounstein, Ten Gav’s spokesperson explains: “The recipient receives the charity gift card by email, together with a personalized theme and note, as well as a dollar value (and code for later use and identification).  The recipient has been given the ‘gift of giving’ and he is then entitled to visit this page to read a story about a needy Israeli family, and apply the value of his gift card to the family of their choosing.”

Each story has been verified by social workers in the field. So whether you’re sponsoring rehabilitation programs for a traumatized young Israeli girl named Aya, a hearing aid for poverty-stricken Rivka or a washing machine for a single mother named Mazal, Ten Gav’s Charity Gift eCard will certainly feature a cause with which you (or the recipient you’re giving the charity gift card to), will connect.