ALDI Community Gift Card Donation Request Form: Steps and Deadlines

The ALDI Community Gift Card donation request form is submitted online through ALDI’s Grants Connect portal, and it takes a 501(c)(3) nonprofit roughly 15 to 30 minutes once you have your IRS determination letter, EIN, mailing address, and a specific program description in hand. The 2026 window runs March 1 through October 31, with awards of $100 to $1,000 and a four-to-six-week review turnaround.¹²

Who Can Submit a Request

The program is open to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including schools, whose work falls into one of two buckets: after-school or out-of-school youth programs focused on health and wellness, or food banks and pantries serving people facing food insecurity.¹²

The 501(c)(3) requirement is firm. Individuals, for-profit businesses, and political committees are not eligible. If your organization has applied for tax-exempt status but hasn’t received the IRS determination letter yet, wait until it arrives. ALDI also describes the program as supporting local nonprofits, so your organization should operate near an ALDI store.

The person completing the form must be an official representative or employee of the organization. Volunteers and board members without formal affiliation may not be accepted as the applicant of record.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Open the Form

Collecting these items first will let you finish the application in a single session rather than saving a partial draft and hunting for paperwork later.

Your IRS determination letter, saved as a PDF or clear image. This is the tax-exempt documentation ALDI requires you to attach.¹
Your nine-digit Employer Identification Number, which appears on the determination letter and on your Form 990.
Your organization’s legal name exactly as it appears in IRS records.
A physical street mailing address. ALDI ships cards by mail and will not send them to a P.O. Box.¹
The name, email, and phone number of the representative submitting the request.
A specific description of the program or event the cards will support. “Weekly after-school cooking class for 30 middle-school students” is more useful to a reviewer than “youth programming.”

Filling Out the Form Step by Step

The application is hosted on ALDI’s Grants Connect portal, not the main shopping site. You can reach it from the program page at corporate.aldi.us or go directly to apply.yourcausegrants.com.¹

The portal opens with a short eligibility quiz that checks your 501(c)(3) status and mission fit. Answer honestly. If your organization does not qualify, the portal tells you before you invest time in the full form.

Next comes the organization profile: legal name, EIN, mailing address, and contact information. Confirm the legal name matches IRS records exactly. A mismatch between name and EIN is one of the most common reasons an application gets flagged during review.

Then upload your tax-exempt documentation. PDF is the safest format, though a high-resolution image usually works. A blurry photo of the determination letter will slow the review.

The program narrative is where most applications rise or fall. Describe how the cards will be used: how many people you serve, what specific products you plan to buy, and how the work connects to children’s health, youth wellness, or food access. Concrete numbers and a clear tie to those stated priorities give reviewers something to act on.

Before submitting, scroll through every field. Typos in your EIN or email address can cause delays or a rejection. Once you submit, the portal generates a confirmation.

Deadlines and What Happens Next

The 2026 application window is March 1 through October 31.¹ Requests submitted outside those dates will not be accepted, which matters if your event lands in early spring or late fall.

ALDI reviews applications on a rolling basis, with a response typically arriving within four to six weeks.² Submitting early in the window doesn’t guarantee faster approval, but it does build in a cushion if your event has a fixed date. If you need cards in hand by a particular day, count back at least six weeks for review and add mailing time on top of that.

Approved organizations receive cards by mail at the street address on the application. Denials come by email. ALDI does not publicly detail its denial reasons beyond general budget and alignment considerations.

Award Amounts and Purchase Restrictions

Awards range from $100 to $1,000 per approved request, with the amount set by ALDI’s review.¹ You may not receive the full $1,000 even if that is what you ask for. Cards are redeemable only at ALDI U.S. stores and cannot be exchanged for cash or used to buy other gift cards.³

ALDI’s bulk gift card system supports two optional exemption tiers beyond a standard unrestricted card. An alcohol exemption blocks alcoholic beverages at the register; a food-only exemption blocks both alcohol and non-food items such as household products, paper goods, and reusable bags. In either case, the register deducts eligible items and asks for a separate payment for the rest.³

ALDI does not publicly state which exemption applies to donated community gift cards by default. If your program is food-focused and you want spending kept to groceries, mention that preference in your application narrative.

Practical Ways to Strengthen the Application

Name the priority you fit. The program page lists children’s health, youth wellness, and food insecurity. Make the connection explicit rather than assuming a reviewer will infer it.²
Use real numbers. “We serve 75 families weekly” or “120 children attend our summer program” is stronger than “many community members.”
Say what you will buy. Because cards are only usable at ALDI, describing the actual products, whether that is produce for meal kits, snacks for an after-school group, or pantry staples for emergency boxes, shows the reviewer you have a plan.
Give yourself lead time. A request submitted two weeks before an event puts the reviewer in a difficult spot when the stated window is four to six weeks plus mailing.

After the Cards Arrive

ALDI’s program page does not describe a formal post-event reporting requirement. Your own compliance obligations still apply, and standard nonprofit practice is to keep receipts for what was purchased, document the distribution or event, and record the number of people served.

ALDI is the donor and your organization is the recipient. For any single charitable contribution of $250 or more, the receiving nonprofit should provide the donor with a written acknowledgment that includes the organization’s name and a description of the non-cash contribution.⁴ Since awards can reach $1,000, that threshold is easily met. The acknowledgment should state whether your organization provided any goods or services in return, which in most cases is no.

For your own Form 990, gift cards are non-cash contributions. If your organization’s total non-cash contributions for the tax year exceed $25,000, you’ll need to file Schedule M with your annual return. A single ALDI award is unlikely to trigger that on its own, but it counts toward the aggregate along with every other in-kind donation you receive during the year.

1
ALDI US. ALDI Community Gift Card Program
2
ALDI. ALDI Community Support Programs
3
ALDI. ALDI Bulk Gift Cards
4
Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions: Written Acknowledgments