American Eagle Donation Request: How the Gift Card Lottery Works (2026 Guide)

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) takes donation requests from nonprofits and public schools through one online form, and it gives one thing: a $25 e-gift card. There are no store-level requests, no mailed letters, and no phone calls. Qualified requests go into a random lottery, each organization can receive at most one gift card per year, and your event has to primarily serve teens and young adults to qualify. Across 4,132 tracked applications on TheShareWay, about 9% of American Eagle donation requests are approved.

The form is here: AEO E-Gift Card Request Form. Before you fill it in, it's worth understanding how the program actually works, because most of the advice circulating online about American Eagle donations describes a process AEO retired years ago.

What are your odds?

Figures as of September 2026, from applications tracked on TheShareWay.

A 9% success rate sounds discouraging until you remember it's a lottery among thousands of entries. Your request doesn't need to be persuasive; it needs to qualify. Nonprofits submitted 395 American Eagle donation requests through TheShareWay in the past 12 months, which makes AEO one of the most-requested apparel brands in our directory. If your audience fits, it costs a few minutes to enter.

Two ways American Eagle supports nonprofits

AEO runs two separate programs, and they don't overlap.

1. Gift card donations (in-kind). The $25 e-gift card program described on AEO's contact page and run through the request form above. This is the route for raffles, silent auctions, prize baskets, and student incentives. Most of this guide is about this program.

2. AEO Better World Foundation grants (cash). The AEO Better World Foundation makes cash grants through the AE Foundation (teen and young-adult mental health, up to $10,000), the Aerie Real Foundation (confidence for women and girls, up to $10,000), and Community Grants in the cities where AEO has offices. These use a separate application portal and have nothing to do with the gift card lottery. Details are in the grants section below.

If you want a prize for a fundraiser, use the gift card form. If you run year-round programming for teens or young women and want funding, look at the foundation.

How to submit an American Eagle donation request

1. Confirm your audience. The first question on the form is whether your event will predominantly serve teens and young adults. If the honest answer is no, stop here; based on the decline reasons tracked on TheShareWay, an audience that isn't mainly teens or young adults is by far the most common reason AEO says no.
2. Check that no one else at your organization has requested this year. AEO asks organizations to request no more than one gift card per year. A duplicate request from a different volunteer doesn't get you a second card; it can get both requests disqualified.
3. Gather the basics. Organization name, your 501(c)(3) status (or public school status), event name and date, what the gift card will be used for, and a contact email where an e-gift card can be delivered.
4. Submit the E-Gift Card Request Form. AEO doesn't publish a deadline, so plan on submitting 6 to 8 weeks before your event. There's nothing to attach and no letter to write.
5. Log the request on TheShareWay's American Eagle page so you can track the outcome alongside your other asks and see when to follow up.

Don't mail a request to AEO's Pittsburgh headquarters, and don't ask at a store. Today the online form is the only application method AEO supports.

Who is eligible

AEO's contact page says gift cards go to nonprofits and public schools whose initiative primarily supports teens or young adults, and it warns that "not all donations are granted." In practice, eligibility comes down to three things:

• Organization type. 501(c)(3) nonprofits and public schools. Booster clubs, PTAs, and school districts requesting on behalf of a school qualify.
• Audience. Teens and young adults, meaning roughly high school through college age. High school PTAs, teen sports clubs, youth mentoring programs, college scholarship fundraisers, and school-district events fit. Elementary-only events, adult galas, and general community fundraisers usually don't, and AEO has told applicants exactly that.
• Frequency. One gift card per organization per year.

AEO doesn't restrict by geography for gift cards; requests tracked on TheShareWay come from all 50 states, and the e-gift card is delivered by email.

How the gift card lottery works

AEO is unusually candid about this. Its request form says the company receives "thousands of requests annually" and that "qualified e-gift card requests are awarded using a random lottery system" because of the demand. Three things follow from that:

• Polish doesn't help. Once you clear the eligibility questions, your request is a ticket in a drawing. A compelling story about your event doesn't change the odds.
• You can only lose on eligibility. The ways to be excluded are an audience that isn't mainly teens or young adults, a non-qualifying organization type, or a second request in the same year.
• Pick your best event. Because the one-per-year limit is per organization, choose the event where a $25 American Eagle card does the most good (a teen raffle beats an adult gala) and put your one request there.

American Eagle responds to donation requests in a median of 29 days, based on applications tracked on TheShareWay. Winners hear back; based on applications tracked on TheShareWay, most requests that aren't selected never get a reply at all.

What you'll receive

American Eagle donations tracked on TheShareWay are almost always a single $25 e-gift card; 110 of the 115 awards with a recorded value were exactly $25. It arrives by email, usually with a short donation letter attached, and roughly nine in ten recipients on TheShareWay report electronic delivery.

A $25 card is not a headline prize, so plan for it accordingly: pair it with other apparel or teen-friendly items in a raffle basket (see our raffle basket ideas and donation request links), use it as a student incentive, or add it to a silent auction lot. Organizations reviewing AEO on TheShareWay consistently describe it as a popular raffle item with teens.

After you apply

• If you're selected, you'll get an email with the e-gift card. Forward it to whoever is running the raffle or auction so it doesn't sit in one inbox, and send a thank-you; our thank-you letter for donation template takes two minutes to adapt. Winners reviewing AEO on TheShareWay often mention hearing back within days.
• If you hear nothing after about two months, treat it as a no for this year. There's no appeals inbox for the lottery, and re-submitting would breach the one-per-year request.
• Either way, record the outcome on TheShareWay. Outcome data is what keeps the odds and response times in this guide honest for the next organization.

AEO Better World Foundation grants

If your organization serves teens, young adults, or women and girls year-round, AEO's foundations are a bigger opportunity than a gift card.

• AE Foundation. Grants of up to $10,000 to U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits and registered Canadian charities for programming that supports the mental health and well-being of teens and young adults. Applications go through the foundation's portal only (no email or mail), and funds must be spent within a year. Read the AE Foundation grant guidelines before you start.
• Aerie Real Foundation. Community grants of up to $10,000 to U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits and Canadian charities building confidence in women and girls, including menstrual equity, product access, and leadership programs. See the Aerie Real Foundation page for the portal link.
• Community Grants. Local grants for organizations serving teens and young adults in Pittsburgh, New York City, Hazleton, Ottawa, and Mississauga, with spring and fall cycles. The AEO Better World Foundation page lists the current deadlines and the application portal.

Note that AEO says an organization can hold a grant from either the AEO Better World Foundation or the Aerie Real Foundation, not both. A grant application doesn't affect your gift card lottery entry, and vice versa.

If American Eagle isn't a fit

If your event doesn't primarily serve teens and young adults, don't spend your annual request on a long shot. Other apparel and department-store brands accept requests without the age restriction; start with our Kohl's donation request guide and the roundup of clothing companies that give back. School groups should also look at 15 companies that donate to schools and PTAs, and anyone building a raffle can work through the 1,000+ companies with online donation request forms. For the brands that still want a written ask, our donation request letter template covers the basics.

How TheShareWay helps with your American Eagle request

TheShareWay tracks American Eagle donation requests from thousands of nonprofits, which is where the odds, response times, and donation values in this guide come from. On the American Eagle company page you can open the request form, log your application, and get a nudge when it's time to follow up or move on. Because AEO limits you to one request a year, it's also worth browsing the most popular in-kind donors in your state so your raffle isn't riding on a single lottery ticket. And if this request is part of a bigger school event, our step-by-step school fundraising guide walks through the planning around it.