A Seattle-based nonprofit organization, TisBest Philanthrophy, is teaming up this weekend with First Alternative Natural Food Co-op in Corvallis to distribute some $13,000 in charity money to a variety of organizations.

The effort is part of a promotion for TisBest, which uses gift cards to promote charitable donations.

Here's how it will work in Corvallis: This weekend, both First Alternative stores will give away 13,000 TisBest charity gift cards, each one valued at $1, to customers from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The stores are located at 2855 N.W. Grant Ave. and 1007 S.E. Third St.

Recipients can take the card home, go to the TisBest Web site (www.tisbest.org) and choose to donate the money to any of some 300 charities that have been selected by the Seattle organization.

TisBest hopes that users like the idea, and are inspired to buy charity gift cards from the organization in amounts from $10 to $5,000. TisBest's charity gift cards are tax deductible for the purchaser; the selected charity receives the entire amount on the card, less a $1.95 transaction fee and 3 percent received by the credit card processor.

"I think the idea is really cool," said Emily Stimac, the marketing manager for the co-op. "We're excited."

While it's true that most of the nonprofit organizations on the TisBest site are national in scope, Stimac said the program provides a nice national counterpoint to the donations that the co-op makes to local nonprofit groups.

First Alternative is one of three co-op sites nationally that have been selected to participate in the charity promotion. The others are in Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. In all, TisBest said, it's donating $45,000 to the effort.