New Ideas For School Fundraising Reveals Some Of The Latest Trends In Fundraising

Scrip Fundraisers

What is scrip, anyway?  Scrip is the use of paper as a substitute for money, such as a gift certificate or prepaid gift card.  This is a concept that has been used for centuries for different purposes.  Now, it has evolved into a unique fundraising tool for charities as well as schools and other groups.

Here’s how it works.  Schools buy gift certificates (scrip) from local retailers at discounted prices.  Most retailers will be happy to do this because they know it will generate guaranteed customers and positive publicity.  The school then offers the scrip to parents at face value, while the school keeps the profits.  The parents can then spend their gift certificates at these retailers, where it’s worth the face value.  The great thing about this type of fundraiser is that the parents can purchase scrips from businesses in which they would normally shop.  Therefore, they don’t have to spend one extra dime donating to the school.  They simply shop, as usual, while the school earns money by purchasing the discounted scrip’s from the retailers. 

Some tips for Scrip fundraising:

Choose your scrip broker carefully.  Make certain that the retailer list is a good match for local parents, complimenting their overall shopping habits.  If you don’t want to use a broker for this event, you can set up your own programs with local retailers.  This takes much more effort.  However, it could be well worth it if you want to get a great list of participating local vendors willing to sell gift certificates at discounts in order to drive traffic to their stores. 

Start and grow slowly.  Even with just a few supporters, you can rake in hundreds of dollars in profit.  Remember though, you’re asking donors to change their habits by purchasing these gift certificates from you before shopping.  So, be polite and take your time with your supporters.  Be grateful for their purchases.

Profit-sharing with scrips.  Many schools grossing over $50,000 annually from scrip sales offer some form of profit-sharing program to further encourage participation.  For example, the school might allow a family to apply 20 percent of the money they raise towards school tuition, a college fund, or an activity program for the school or their child’s homeroom class. 

Schoolpop

Schoolpop is similar to scrip sales except that parents and families earn money for the school by shopping at online merchants they’d use regularly and there are no scrips to purchase.  Basically, parents register their credit cards at participating online merchants that have been set up with your school.  Every time they make a purchase, it generates rebates that go directly to your school.  Visit www.schoolpop.com for in depth details about this interesting new program that can generate hundreds to thousands of dollars for your school all year round. 

Spinners

Spinners are an effortless and amusing method of raising money for your school’s fundraising needs.  Participants simply spin the arrow on the spinners a couple of times and donate the amounts in which the arrow’s pointer lands.  In return for their donation, you give them a coupon sheet worth $100 off products from different retailers.

You can research companies online that offer this program.  From them, you purchase customized spinners that you and your volunteers use to ask people for donations.  Spinners are generally the size of a DVD container and amounts of the spinners usually range from $1.00 to $4.00.  With each spinner, you’ll receive approximately 50 sheets of coupons (depending on the merchant you use for your spinner fundraiser).  After your supporter spins it twice and gives you their donation, you write their name and amount of their donation on the receipt portion of the spinner.  Then, you tear off a sheet of coupons and hand it to them as a thank you gift for their participation. It’s that simple! 

This is a very effective program, giving contributors something of value for their money.  They can easily make up for their donation after using even just one of coupons they receive.

After your fundraiser is finished, each volunteer or member of your fundraising group turns in the funds each has collected, as well as the spinners and receipts.  Each spinner will generate an average of $210 in donations if all coupon sheets have been given out.  Visit www.spinnersfundraising.com/ for more details.

For more free articles and new ideas for school fundraising, visit Charitable-auctions.com.