Purchasing Gift Cards

Role  Actions Timeline
Staff
  • Prepares a spreadsheet with student names and emails for Gift Card delivery 
  • Acquires approval from the department supervisor
  • Submits the request to the Admin Team
 Varies
Admin Team
  • Verifies that all documents are correct and complete 
  • Submits to BearBuy for purchase 
 1-2 business days
BearBUY
  • Purchases and sends electronic gift cards to students
 3-5 business days
Admin Team
  • Communicates with staff that gift card purchases have been completed
 1 business day
Staff
  • Must confirm with every recipient that they have received their gift card

*** Important to let admin team know that all the gift cards were received by the recipients

 2-3 business days

Gift Card Policy

Gift card policy differs depending on whether or not the recipient is a university employee. Please check with students prior to awarding them gift cards to confirm which category applies to them based on their UC employment status. This will determine the amount they are eligible for.

Non-UC employees

  • Can receive gift cards up to $600 (total) per calendar year. 
  • Students who are not employees fit in this category and may be given a gift card only as an incentive, recognition, or appreciation. 
  • When awarding a student a gift card as an incentive/appreciation for attending an event, please include that in your business purpose.
  • Students may also be given promotional items as gifts with the limit being <$75

Employees

  • Can receive up to three gift cards per calendar year of up to $75. 
  • These gifts should be occasional and infrequent and should only be awarded as special recognition/appreciation for work-related accomplishments

General Gift Card Guidelines

  • Departments are responsible for logging and tracking gift cards internally and being mindful of amounts and frequency

  • Business purposes must clearly outline the rationale for awarding gift cards

  • Examples of clear business purposes: 

    • “Non-employee appreciation gift cards for students who participated in ____ workshop about ____”

    • “Employee recognition gift cards for completing ____ survey about ____” 

  • Gift card amounts cannot be under $10 and must be stored-value bank, department store, and other retail cards. Grubhub/grocery cards are fine to use for appreciation business purposes only. We cannot purchase Visa/Mastercard gift cards. 

  • Departments must explicitly inform recipients that the card should not be transferred to another individual. (e.g., “This card is for your personal use only; it cannot be transferred.”)

  • Departments who wish to purchase gift cards for emergency student support (and not as an incentive, recognition, or appreciation) must first receive approval from FASO to do so. Please contact (awardentry@berkeley.edu) with questions about this. 

CE3 Admin Home

Submit Request