How To Treat the Moms in Your Ministry to a Free Cup of Coffee!

What mom doesn’t appreciate a little caffeine? This Mother’s Day, give the gift of free coffee to the moms in your ministry in a fun and creative way!

You may have seen businesses, leaders, and even other churches share a Starbucks gift card on their social media to buy their community a cup of coffee on them (we’ve even done this at Deeper KidMin a time or two). Here’s how they did it and how you can do it for the moms in your ministry this Mother’s Day!

1. Download the Starbucks app to your phone and sign into (or create) your free account. (Lol let’s be honest you probably already have it downloaded right? KidMin leaders appreciate some caffeine too.)
2. Click on the Gift tab and choose a design for your gift card. The design doesn’t matter too much, but we recommend choosing a simple or generic “Thank You” or “Mother’s Day” design.
3. Then fill out the required info on the next screen. Enter your own email address as the recipient, and go ahead and skip the message part. To begin with, load $20-$50 onto the card. Don’t do more than that (more details later). Set up a credit card for the purchase and hit send.
4. Check your email and find the email that allows you to redeem the gift card. Click the Redeem eGift now, and it will open up a picture with a barcode. Screenshot the barcode and crop it so it’s just the barcode (crop out the picture, card number, and PIN – leaving just the barcode with plenty of margin around it).
5. Take the barcode and add it to Canva, Photoshop, or your favorite graphics program. You can add your church logo, or any image you want and make a more creative-looking post or image. All you need to do is make sure the barcode is clearly visible, not edited, and doesn’t have anything too close to it so that it can be scanned easily. We shared a Canva template our subscribers can modify and share with the moms in their ministry here.
6. Next, make sure to set up auto-reload on the gift card. Using the card number and PIN from the email, add the gift card as one of your cards in your personal Starbucks app. Then underneath that card, click on Manage and set the Auto Reload to $10. Now whenever the card empties or gets below $10, it will automatically add another $10 and no one has to worry about pulling up to Starbucks and the card doesn’t work. Note: Know your budget and watch the card balance the day you share the image. Once you come close to your budget, shut off Auto Reload and the card will be done once the money runs out.
7. Now share the image with the moms in your ministry via email, on social media, via text, etc. Moms will be able to pull up the image on their phone and use it at Starbucks to pay for their order just like it was their own card. They can display it right there in the post/email, or they can save the image and use it that way. Just be aware that if you share it on social media, anyone can use the barcode. If you share it in a more private place, like in an email or in your children’s ministry Facebook group, you’ll be better able to limit its use to only the moms/families in your ministry.

TIP: No matter how you share the image with the barcode, be sure to include directions for how moms can use it! Something like “Scan the barcode above from your phone at any participating Starbucks store for a cup of your favorite drink on (ministry name)! This is a first-come, first-served offer, so when the pre-loaded gift card runs out, it’s gone. Don’t miss it! (Limit = 1 drink per person please).”

You can try this with other restaurants or stores too! Any restaurant that has an app or e-gift cards that let you simply scan a barcode on your phone to pay should work. Some churches have done this with Chick-Fil-A and Dunkin Donuts and it worked just as easily.

And to all the moms out there – biological, spiritual, and everything in between – Happy Mother’s Day!