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A screenshot taken from the PayForward website
A screenshot taken from the PayForward website

Santa Clarita Businesses, Nonprofits Looking To PayForward

Thanks to a burgeoning network of businesses and nonprofits, PayForward is helping Santa Clarita Valley residents give back while they support local businesses, a nonprofit official said Friday.


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“It’s a way for nonprofits to get hooked into the community to get money back (from purchases),” said Linda Davies, executive director of the Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley. “And it’s also a way for businesses to be a social platform and give to the community — and they can also promote their business.”

How PayForward works is like this: A customer makes a purchase with a prepaid PayForward card, and then depending on the location, the customer earns a small percentage of that purchase back, she said.

Click here for a link to PayForward website.

PayForward logo

PayForward logo

“Every time you purchase, you’re going to get a certain rebate on whatever you buy,” Davies explained. “You can use that yourself, or you can designate it to a nonprofit of your choice in the Santa Clarita Valley.”

By creating local partnerships with business owners in the area, as well as sponsoring the new skating rink at the Westfield Valencia Town Center shopping mall, the company has already garnered anticipation for its January launch, she added.

Salt Creek Grille owner Greg Amsler said he signed up for his restaurant for the program early on, and he’s eagerly anticipating the launch, calling PayForward a “win-win-win.”

“Well the main thing is, it’s a good easy way to help the nonprofits,” he said, but PayForward also helps promote businesses.

“And people will be able to say, ‘OK, I want to go to the PayForward business, because I can give to my charity without really giving anything,” he said.

The money is donated by the businesses as a cash-back rewards system for customer’s purchases, a system many credit cards use, Amsler said. But PayForward is focusing its efforts in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Davies likened it to a grocery store teller soliciting a $1 donation, except now it could automatically go to a nonprofit of the customer’s choosing.

Consumers were still have the option of keeping their cash back, or a portion thereof, Davies said. But with more than 200 charitable organizations in the Santa Clarita Valley, it’s a provides way for people to give here and there when they can without feeling as though they’re being “stretched too thin.”

For the Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, the added revenue is a great boon to the local programs like the DASH clinics the center holds, Davies said, which provide vital information to domestic violence victims.

“We’re very excited about it,” Davies said. “It’s a great opportunity and I think it’s going to be a great gift to all the nonprofits in the community.”

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Santa Clarita Businesses, Nonprofits Looking To PayForward

One comment

  1. we are excited to be part of this at Laura’s Beauty Supply in Canyon Country!!!

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.