Every gift becomes a money lesson.
One wishlist. Three lanes: Buy It, Give It, Save It. Built for kids 5 to 18 and the whole family around them, with real financial lessons built in from the very first birthday card.
See how it worksAlways free · parent-approved · no login for gift-givers
Everyday gift-giving, turned into a lasting money lesson.
The people in your child’s life already give, for birthdays, holidays, and milestones all year round. Giving Trunk$ channels that generosity into something that lasts: every gift becomes a hands-on money lesson, delivered at the moment real dollars actually arrive. Your child still receives gifts they genuinely want, with no duplicates, no clutter, and no guesswork for the giver, and learns to spend, give, and save with intention along the way.
Lauren’s listshared · no login neededA peek at a wishlist in the app: one link, three lanes, every gift a lesson. (Product preview.)
Buy It
Things they'd love to have
A real retail wishlist. Paste a link to any store, or browse the ones kids already love.
Give It
Causes they care about
Kids pick the cause (not the parent, not the gifter) and it goes straight to a real, verified charity. Gifters can choose to cover the small fee, so 100% reaches the cause.
Save It
Goals they're building toward
Real savings and investing accounts, not a pretend piggy bank, so the habit starts early.
One link. No app, no account for the people giving.
Grandparents, aunts, and friends just tap your child’s link and give. No download, no sign-up, no password. That’s what makes it easy to share, and easy for the whole family to join in.
You share one link
Build the list, a parent approves it, and a single link goes out to everyone.
They give in a tap
Buy, donate, or chip in toward a goal. Duplicates are prevented automatically.
Your kid learns
Every gift unlocks a quick money lesson and a thank-you back to the giver.
Safe, private, and parent-controlled.
Built for families first: you approve everything, and kids’ information stays protected.
Parent approves every item
Nothing goes public until you say so. You set budget caps and tag the occasion.
No account for gift-givers
Givers see only the item and price. Never amounts, other gifts, or your dashboard.
We never sell your kid’s data
No ads, ever. We collect only a first name and age (nothing we don’t need) and you can delete it all anytime. Under-13 kids are protected under COPPA.
Be one of our first families.
Giving Trunk$ is live and running in a small private beta today. Join the beta and help shape what it becomes. We’ll be in touch directly.
No spam, just a note from us when there’s a spot open.
Gifting is broken for kids, in three specific ways.
Birthdays and holidays are the biggest financial moments in a child's year. Right now, they pass with no lesson, no memory, and a lot of waste.
Gifts go to waste
Over $10B goes to unwanted gifts every year, and ~$27B sits unused on gift cards, a lot of it around kids' occasions. Nothing remembers what was asked for, what was bought, or what was learned.
No lesson, when it matters most
Money habits are largely set by age 7, and the gap rarely closes. Financial illiteracy costs Americans an estimated $246B a year, and Gen Z can answer only 38% of basic money questions, a record low.
Three tools that never talk
Gift registries, savings apps, and charity sites live in separate silos. Nothing pulls all three into one purposeful, shareable place a family actually uses together.
And here’s the part everyone misses: gift money doesn’t come from just parents. It’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends, all year round. It arrives constantly, and it slips by without a single lesson attached. Giving Trunk$ turns that incoming gift into the lesson.
One wishlist. Three lanes that actually mean something.
Every item a kid adds gets sorted into a lane, and every lane teaches a different money lesson, before a single gift is ever opened.
Buy It
Things they'd love to have
A real retail wishlist. Paste a link to any store, or browse the ones kids already love.
- Amazon, Walmart, Target, Sephora, Nike, etc, or paste a link to any store
- Or send cash with a direct Visa eGift link
- Parents set a budget cap on this lane
Give It
Causes they care about
Kids pick the cause (not the parent, not the gifter) and it goes straight to a real, verified charity. Gifters can choose to cover the small fee, so 100% reaches the cause.
- 2M+ charities to choose from
- Teens get a shareable cause card so friends can pitch in too
Save It
Goals they're building toward
Real savings and investing accounts, not a pretend piggy bank, so the habit starts early.
- Acorns Early, Greenlight, or Capital One, or link an account you already have
- Now including federal Trump Accounts
- Open a new account or connect one you have
Five steps, zero friction.
Kid builds their list
They add items across Buy It, Give It, and Save It, as many or as few as they want.
Parent approves
You review every item, set a budget cap per lane, and tag the occasion before anything goes public.
Share one link
A single link goes out to family and friends. No app, no account, no login for gift-givers, ever.
A gifter picks one
They buy, donate, or contribute in a couple of taps, and duplicates are prevented automatically.
Kid learns
They see their impact, work through a quick Money School lesson, and send a thank-you, every single time.
Free for families, always.
Every feature, every kid, every lesson: free. No trial, no paywall, no ads, and we never sell your data.
It’s not a registry with a lesson bolted on. The lesson is the point.
Every gift a kid receives becomes a small, real moment of financial education, not a worksheet, a moment. The learning rides along with the gifting.
Money School
Short lessons and quizzes tied to each lane, unlocked as a kid builds their list, not dumped on them all at once.
Teen Money School
A deeper curriculum for teens: budgeting, compound interest, and giving strategy, built for ages 13-18.
Peanuts, badges & avatars
Kids earn Peanuts for gifts received and lessons learned, unlock badges for real milestones, and customize their own avatar.
Sort It!
A fast sorting game that drills the exact Buy / Give / Save judgment the app teaches, unlocked after acing a lesson.
Budget Blitz
A live-budget spending challenge that turns a fixed allowance into fast, practiced decision-making.
Thank-you notes
Kids send a note back to whoever gave the gift, and every confirmed gift auto-emails a thank-you too.
Gifting isn’t just a nice moment. It’s one of the best financial-literacy tools there is.
A birthday check or gift card is a real decision with real money, at a moment a kid is actually paying attention. Every gift on Giving Trunk$ walks through the same four questions researchers point to as how kids actually build financial capability.
What did I receive?
Counting, tracking, and understanding value.
What do I want it to do?
Goal-setting and intentionality.
How will I divide it?
Spending, saving, giving, and the tradeoffs between them.
What happened afterward?
Reflection, gratitude, and feedback.
The research backs it up.
a year is what grandparents already give their grandchildren. 90% provide some support, mostly with no plan attached.
AARP, 2026
of parents and grandparents name financial giving as something they teach, unprompted, yet almost no kids' app treats giving as a core lane.
University of Arizona
the age by which money habits are largely set. The CFPB says kids learn best through real, hands-on money decisions, not worksheets.
Univ. of Cambridge · CFPB
Why an elephant?
Our name and mission are inspired by one of nature’s most remarkable creatures. Just as the elephant is known for its extraordinary intelligence, deep empathy, and strong family bonds, we’re building a gifting community founded on wisdom, compassion, and connection.
The trunk is the elephant’s most versatile tool, and it does three things at once: the same three things we built this app around.
The trunk gathers nourishment, the same way we help kids gather the financial knowledge that nourishes their future.
It protects the young, the same way we aim to protect a child's financial wellbeing through education, not just transactions.
It shares resources within the herd, reflecting how central both giving and sharing are to real financial wellness.
Like the matriarch who guides her herd through hard terrain with wisdom built over years, Giving Trunk$ is here to guide kids through purposeful giving and real financial literacy as they grow.
From gift to growth.
Books We Love
Keys to My Heart
For ages 3–8· Best Seller and Mom’s Choice Awards® Gold Recipient 🏅
Introduces money management to young readers through a story about perseverance and reaching your dreams, alongside practical lessons on earning, saving, spending wisely, and giving back.
Find it on Amazon →
Garage Sale Goldmine
For ages 6–8· Best Seller and Mom’s Choice Awards® Gold Recipient 🏅
Introduces earning, sales tax, borrowing costs, and compound interest through a fun story about problem-solving, sibling teamwork, and letting go of things once treasured.
Find it on Amazon →