RRN News Brief: SITE Adds Certifications; Executive Moves at Reward Gateway and Madison; CharityChoice Expands Gift Card Donations
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The latest news in total rewards.SITE Launches Three Specialty Incentive Travel Certifications
Reward Gateway Edenred Promotes James Holman to Head of Merchant Partnerships – Enterprise
Madison Recognition Names Steven Trompeter Senior Vice President of Sales
DonateYourCard.org Turns Unused Gift Cards Into Charitable Donations
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The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence adds specialized certifications focused on psychology, risk and wellness; Reward Gateway | Edenred promotes James Holman to lead enterprise merchant partnerships; Madison Recognition names industry veteran Steven Trompeter Senior Vice President of Sales; and CharityChoice provides a way for people to turn unused physical and digital gift cards into charitable donations.
SITE Launches Three Specialty Incentive Travel Certifications
The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) has launched three on-demand specialty certifications covering The Psychology of Incentive Travel Planning, Risk Ready: Assessing and Reducing Risk in Incentive Travel, and Integrating Wellness into Event Planning. SITE says the programs respond to member demand for focused education that can be immediately applied to program design. Of particular interest to incentive program planners, the psychology course explores how attention, emotion, motivation, social connection and memory affect how participants experience and remember incentive travel. The programs complement SITE's existing CIS and CITP credentials.
Reward Gateway Edenred Promotes James Holman to Head of Merchant Partnerships – Enterprise
James Holman has been named Head of Merchant Partnerships – Enterprise at Reward Gateway | Edenred after eight years with the company. Holman says that during his tenure, annual sales volumes for gift card merchant partners grew from £311.5 million to £1.01 billion. He also helped manage commercial integrations following the Xexec acquisition and Reward Gateway's subsequent acquisition by Edenred, launched a reloadable eGift card in 2022, and helped introduce a gifting program that generated £3.3 million in incremental global spend in 2025. His new responsibilities include both gift card and affiliate partnerships.
Madison Recognition Names Steven Trompeter Senior Vice President of Sales
Industry veteran Steven Trompeter has joined Madison Recognition as Senior Vice President of Sales. Trompeter brings more than 20 years of experience in recognition, rewards, incentives and SaaS. Madison says he will help drive sales strategy, expand the company's enterprise reach, strengthen strategic partnerships and accelerate growth. Trompeter cited Madison's 100% employee-owned structure and its focus on investing in people as factors that attracted him to the company.
DonateYourCard.org Turns Unused Gift Cards Into Charitable Donations
This year alone, $15 billion in merchant gift card value will go unused—sitting forgotten in drawers and purses. Let's put those unused balances to good use is the premise of this new service. "Donate Your Card," powered by CharityChoice, is a digital solution that enables consumers to convert unused merchant and restaurant gift card balances into charitable contributions.
According to Marc Tepfer, COO and Director of Marketing, donors can use either physical or electronic gift cards by entering the card number and required details online. By partnering with CardCash, a major US gift card exchange provider, the platform converts unused balances into a market-value cash donation. Funds are then distributed to the chosen charity, minus a small fundraising processing fee. Donors receive a tax receipt for the full remaining value of their donated cards.
Donate Your Card accepts gift cards from hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants, including Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Applebee's, Domino's Pizza, and many more.
Donations can be directed to over 2,500 carefully vetted charities, including Feeding America, ASPCA, American Red Cross, Urban League, WWF, National MS Society, and the American Cancer Society.
CharityChoice and CardCash are also developing a physical collection program for corporate sponsors, events, and fundraisers. Supporters will soon be able to drop off unwanted or partially used gift cards on-site, which a "Team Captain" can ship for processing. The resulting proceeds will then be forwarded to the organization to be credited to the team.
Learn more at DonateYourCard.org.
Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services
Celebrating our 17th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:
- ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards since 2020
Management Academy to enhance future equity value for your organization.3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.
4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.
5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.
Contact: Bruce Bolger at TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230.
