Looking for thoughts and feedback

My daughter was recently invited to a birthday party. I know this is nothing new nor is it exciting but the form in which she was sent the invite and some other things got me thinking. The invitation was sent via Echoage which is a nice idea but the problem here was I didn't actually receive the invite. My email accounts are set up so that almost anything sent to me via an outside source (as in not in the contact list) goes straight to junk mail and then deleted without reading (prevents a large amount of viruses on our computer) The mother of the birthday girl then sent me an email asking if we were coming to which I replied I didn't know we had been invited...altough it all worked out in the end. But that isn't the real issue here...the real issue is that invite said that in the name of the "environment" please refrain from bringing a wrapped gift and just give a donation instead. Half of what you give would be going to a charity chosen by the birthday child and the other half would be used to purchase a gift the child really wants. I was leary of this whole idea as I thought it was kind of tacky to ask for money rather than gifts even if the premise of the request is the help the environment and give to a charity all at the same time. I know that the money isn't going to be used for a gift, it is going to be put into an RESP and saved for the child's future- which is great but at the same time didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In the end I did donate towards this cause as I was just too lazy to look for a gift and I could just pull out my credit card right here in the comfort of my home.
I am just wondering what any of my readers think about this new age of birthday party gift requests! Is is okay or tacky ??