Blackhawk Network has collaborated with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to quickly deliver stipends to healthcare professionals who are on the frontlines of the battle to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The $25M in aid—generously donated by Facebook—was dispersed in the form of 50,000 prepaid cards from Blackhawk’s OmniCard.com portal. The cards can be redeemed online or in stores to help with transportation, lodging, childcare and any other costs incurred by healthcare professionals.
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“We are in the midst of challenging times when many of our citizens are in need of medical assistance. The healthcare professionals and first responders on the frontlines are at higher risk for contracting the virus—yet they continue to put others first and help us work toward minimizing the impacts of COVID-19. We wanted to care for our caregivers and our “Heroes Program” is doing just that,” said Abby Browning, Chief, Office of Private Sector / NGO Coordination, CA Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “Thanks to Facebook’s generosity, we have received funds to help the everyday heroes our state is depending on. We are grateful for Blackhawk’s assistance in helping us put these funds on prepaid cards to get them into recipients’ hands.”
Blackhawk’s OmniCard.com offers prepaid and gift cards in physical and digital form—which can be extremely effective for non-profits and government agencies who need to quickly distribute assistance. Orders typically can be turned around in mere days; physical cards can be distributed in-person or mailed directly to recipients and digital cards are delivered electronically via email.
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“Many organizations don’t realize how fast massive orders of prepaid and gift cards can be delivered—or that these cards are incredibly efficient tools for delivering assistance,” Talbott Roche, CEO and president of Blackhawk Network, a global branded payments provider. “This collaboration demonstrates the power of leveraging available resources and payments technologies and applying them to new use cases. For organizations like non-profits and government agencies, the precious time saved by circumventing the traditional process of issuing and printing paper checks is making an enormous difference.”
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