City chips in $15K for gift card program to help businesses

Gift cards, which can be used at any registered Canyon Lake business, are going to be made available to shoppers to purchase and to spend locally. The City of Canyon Lake will contribute a bonus amount to each purchased gift card, making the gift cards a substantial bargain for local shoppers.

The city is teaming up with the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce to run the gift cards program. The promotion tagged “Canyon Cash” is currently signing up businesses to be a part of the program. Businesses must be located within the City of Canyon Lake and can be home-based businesses. They are not required to be members of the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce, however, those businesses that are not members, but sign up for the program, can join the Chamber at discounted rates.

Once the businesses have registered to participate, the cards will be available for purchase June 6 by the shopping public via a website that will be set up for that purpose. The cards will be in denominations of $25 (the city will add a free $10 bonus), $50 (the city will add a free $25 bonus) and $100 (the city will add a free $50 bonus). The city’s bonus money is coming from funds it received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which are to be used to benefit its businesses.

“The City of Canyon Lake is pleased to be able to offer this program to its residents,” City Management Analyst Tyler Ferrari said.

“This year, the City Council has made it a goal of the city to begin the implementation of our plans for ARPA funding, to expand community services and to maintain a positive relationship with local partners.”

This program helps the city meet its goal of finding ways to continue supporting local businesses, Tyler said. The city encourages all of its residents to take advantage of this program and help support its local businesses.

“The Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce is proud to partner with the City of Canyon Lake as we work together to implement this program,” Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce President Jeanne O’Dell said. ”The Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce is committed to engaging with and supporting chamber members and the business community at large. The Canyon Cash eGift Card program is a perfect example of that commitment. It is designed to help local businesses with pandemic recovery and most importantly, keeps the dollars local.”

The city is utilizing California vendor Yiftee to provide support for the program. Yiftee has provided communities across the country with the technology to begin similar programs and these programs have been immensely successful, Tyler said.

Once the $15,000 ARPA funds are exhausted, the city’s bonus it tacks onto each card will end. The gift cards will still be available for purchase, but their value will be just its denomination.

Canyon Lake businesses can sign up for the program at the chamber website, canyonlakechamber.org.

There is no fee to participate in the program. The only requirement, beside the business being located in the City of Canyon Lake, is that the business needs to be able to accept Mastercard payments and do so by processing manually-entered transactions. Payments come to the business as would any Mastercard transaction.

The Chamber of Commerce is offering a discount on new chamber memberships for those who register for the Canyon Cash program. The cost of an annual Business Access membership will be reduced by $25.00 and a Business Access Plus membership will be reduced by $50.00.

The chamber membership discount is a one-time offer and applies to those businesses that are not current chamber members.