Frequently asked
questions

Care Package is an app that helps parents coordinate a year of monthly gifts for their college-bound graduate. You create a page for your student, share a QR code at your graduation party, and guests can claim one month to send a care package — completely free for them. Your student gets a surprise every month for their first year of college.

Care Package is designed for parents and guardians of high school seniors heading to college. It's especially perfect if you're planning a graduation party — you can include the QR code in your invites or on a sign at the party. Guests (family friends, aunts, uncles, coworkers, neighbors) use it for free.

Barely anything. On the Plus plan, we automatically send a thank-you card to each sender after 7 days — no action needed from your student at all. If they want to add a personal photo, they can tap a link in their delivery notification email. That's it. The whole point is that it runs itself.

One month per guest, and one guest per month. This keeps things intentional and special — each package comes from a specific person who genuinely thought about your student that month. Multiple guests can co-sign a month together by reaching out to each other directly, but the system allows one claimer per month slot.

About 10 minutes. You'll enter your student's name, college, and move-in month, paste in their Amazon wishlist URL, and optionally upload a photo and add a personal message for guests. After payment, your QR code is ready to download immediately.

Required: student's first and last name, college or university name, move-in month and year, and their Amazon wishlist URL. Optional but recommended: a student photo and a short personal message from you to your guests (up to 280 characters).

Yes — you can update your student's photo, personal message, wishlist URL, and gift category tags from your dashboard at any time. Your student's name, college, and move-in month are set at signup but can be changed by contacting us.

That's totally okay — most students will have some open months, especially at first. On the Plus plan, we'll send you an alert if 4 or more months are still unclaimed at the halfway point of your student's year, along with a shareable link and suggested message you can forward to friends or post on social media.

100% free, always. Guests never pay anything to use Care Package. The only cost is the gift they choose to send — which can be as small as a $10 coffee gift card or an item from the student's Amazon wishlist.

No account needed. Guests just scan the QR code, enter their name and email, and claim a month. That's it — the whole experience takes under 60 seconds on a phone.

Yes — guests can unclaim their month up until 14 days before the start of their claimed month using the cancel link in their confirmation email. After the 14-day cutoff, the month is locked to protect the student's expectations. The parent can always manually unclaim a month from the dashboard.

No — guests send the gift themselves directly from Amazon or wherever they shop. Care Package handles all the coordination, reminders, and thank-you cards. Think of us as the organizer, not the shipper.

On the Plus plan, we send a delivery notification to your student at the start of their claim month. If they want to add a personal photo, they can tap a link. After 7 days, we automatically send a warm, branded thank-you email to the guest on your student's behalf — whether or not your student responded. No nagging required.

Automated thank-you cards are a Plus plan feature. On the Basic plan, your parent dashboard will remind you to have your student send a thank-you personally. You can upgrade from Basic to Plus at any time for just $10 more.

In May of your student's first year, we send a beautiful summary email to your student listing every person who sent them a package that year, month by month. We also send you a parent version. It's a lovely keepsake of the community that showed up for their first year away from home.

No subscriptions, ever. Care Package is a one-time payment — $14 for Basic or $24 for Plus. You pay once and the platform handles your student's entire first year. No surprise charges.

We accept all major credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. Payment is processed securely by Stripe — we never store your card information.

If you haven't completed your student's page setup, we offer a full refund within 7 days of purchase. Once your page is live and guests have started claiming months, we're unable to offer refunds. If you have any issues, please contact us and we'll do our best to help.

Yes — you can upgrade from Basic to Plus at any time from your dashboard for $10. The upgrade takes effect immediately and all future thank-you cards and reminders will be activated.

During setup, you paste your student's Amazon wishlist URL. We display their wishlist items on the guest page so guests have a clear idea of what your student actually wants. All links include our Amazon Associates tracking tag, which earns us a small commission at no extra cost to guests.

Not at all — the wishlist is just a suggestion guide. Guests can send anything they'd like, from any store. Many guests send local treats, homemade baked goods, or gift cards to their student's favorite coffee shop. The wishlist just removes the guesswork.

We don't track shipping directly — we simply send a delivery check notification to your student at the start of each claim month. If they confirm, great. If not, we automatically process the thank-you card after 7 days regardless. Your parent dashboard shows the status of every month.