need help with school scrip program

[2thfairy]

I'm am one of the people helping to get the scrip program going at my son's school. We have started it this last fall.
We are having a hard time getting people to sign up and order the cards. Some don't understand that it's not all or none type thing. They want to use their credit cards to get points (which I totally understand) but they could still buy a 10.00 card to panera or something and they are not going to lose a ton of points.
Does anyone have any advice on how to get families to understand what scrip is and how beneficial it is. We have sent emails and newsletters home but people are just not going onto the site and signing up.
We were trying to do it all by not accepting checks so we could get the cards sooner. Not sure if this is a problem or not.
Should we stock cards in the office for people to buy??
Thanks for any help you have
Melinda

 

[vegasnative]

I'm am one of the people helping to get the scrip program going at my son's school. We have started it this last fall.
We are having a hard time getting people to sign up and order the cards. Some don't understand that it's not all or none type thing. They want to use their credit cards to get points (which I totally understand) but they could still buy a 10.00 card to panera or something and they are not going to lose a ton of points.
Does anyone have any advice on how to get families to understand what scrip is and how beneficial it is. We have sent emails and newsletters home but people are just not going onto the site and signing up.
We were trying to do it all by not accepting checks so we could get the cards sooner. Not sure if this is a problem or not.
Should we stock cards in the office for people to buy??
Thanks for any help you have
Melinda

Our scrip lady at our school does stock a lot. She also is available at the school 2 days a week, in the mornings, for people to buy them off her right there. She also has local gift cards to some restaurants and they offer great percentages back, some are like 15-25%. Hard to beat that deal imo, especially since it goes to the school.
She also sends home flyers once a month, like an order form flyer.

 

[java]

Our program folded this year. It wasn't getting interest.
The only time we had success was around holiday time- when people were buying gift cards anyway. We also made a teacher wish list- so people could buy a teacher a gift card through scrips. It was more work than it was worth for us. We have better fundraisers that are less work.

 

[Mixie]

We have better fundraisers that are less work.

Would like to hear what is working for you. Fundraising has been hard these last two years and any new ideas would be welcome!!!

 

[kiddisney]

hi - i did the scrip program a couple of years back - we used to run it all year - but like you said it gets more sales during the holidays - so i started out in sept w/a schedule - 5 times before christmas - and then 2 times in the spring - what helped was the pta meetings when we publicized the program as a two-fold program - you get gift cards for the holidays and the school gets a rebate - my old president was good at this - but the one this year didn't sell the program and it didn't make a lot - it's all in the sales pitch - so hang in there and try to get the families excited about the ease of presents

 

[disneyorvegas]

We do 2 sales before Christmas and 1 in the spring. Our goal is to make about $250 a sale, and we're usually right around that. Not a big money maker, but it was really easy for not a ton of work for 2 people. (Many hands make light work!)

 

[kkwis2]

The Scrip program at our school is run by one woman who receives help at times from other parents. She has dedicated herself to the program. She takes weekly orders. Orders must be in, with payment, by Tuesday in order for her to deliver the cards by Friday. Cards are delivered to kids (she walks with them to their lockers to be sure the cards are zipped into a pocket in their backpack) or you can choose to pick them up in the office if you prefer. She also keeps quite a few on hand of the most popular cards. She sets up a table with "cash and carry" for any event that brings people into the building - conferences, concerts, etc. She stocks more cards at that time and accepts cash or check as payment.

I think it tends to bring in about $1500 each year, give or take. Good luck! I just hate fundraising and fundraisers but they are a necessary evil at most schools.

 

[java]

Would like to hear what is working for you. Fundraising has been hard these last two years and any new ideas would be welcome!!!

Our top income generator is the tricky tray by far. We raised just under twenty thousand last year on that function alone! Fifty fifty raffles are big ones for us too. And surprisingly market day has continued to be a solid performer.

Edit to add we are a small rural public school.

 

[Mixie]

Our top income generator is the tricky tray by far. We raised just under twenty thousand last year on that function alone! Fifty fifty raffles are big ones for us too. And surprisingly market day has continued to be a solid performer.

Edit to add we are a small rural public school.

Gosh! You must get some great donations to make that much! Our silent auction (that's our big one) rarely nets us more than $10k

 

[java]

Gosh! You must get some great donations to make that much! Our silent auction (that's our big one) rarely nets us more than $10k

We have about 100 "baskets" that go for the tricky tray portion- a bunch sponsered by classrooms- and others from local businesses. We combine some of the smaller donations to make a bigger "basket"

Then we have about a dozen silent auction items. Always 2 week long trips to various vacation homes. Usually a couple golfing outings. A fishing Day. Tickets to a ball game *(family gets season tickets and donates a pair every year) A mom that has a catering business donates a night of a dinner party in your home.

 

[NotUrsula]

I couldn't tell you how to entice people to do it -- I guess the simplest way would be for the PTO to accept credit cards for the payments, if that is the primary objection people are having, not getting CC points.

Participation is mandatory at our school, obviously it is private (ordinary parochial school). We are required to buy a minimum of $1500 worth per family, or else buy out with an upfront cash payment of $100. Lots of people go way over that, however; we had 10 familes last year who purchased over $4K, and two that bought over $8K.

 

[woodkins]

We have about 100 "baskets" that go for the tricky tray portion- a bunch sponsered by classrooms- and others from local businesses. We combine some of the smaller donations to make a bigger "basket"

Then we have about a dozen silent auction items. Always 2 week long trips to various vacation homes. Usually a couple golfing outings. A fishing Day. Tickets to a ball game *(family gets season tickets and donates a pair every year) A mom that has a catering business donates a night of a dinner party in your home.

I would LOVE to have your fundraising committee working for our PTA!! 2 weeks at a vacation home? Tix to ball games? Those are some high ticket items! Getting donations is a huge nightmare for us.

 

[java]

I would LOVE to have your fundraising committee working for our PTA!! 2 weeks at a vacation home? Tix to ball games? Those are some high ticket items! Getting donations is a huge nightmare for us.

Yes we are a pretty convincing bunch

 

[Mixie]

I would LOVE to have your fundraising committee working for our PTA!! 2 weeks at a vacation home? Tix to ball games? Those are some high ticket items! Getting donations is a huge nightmare for us.

Agreed! Doesn't help that we live in a small town, either...

 

[java]

Don't give up. We are a very small district. We are under 550 students total. What helps is trying to get people to donate things that won't cost them anything- The vacation homes are not ones that are rented out- they are family homes so they volunteer up the weeks. No money for them and they get a tax write off.
The baseball tickets- again that's one that they have and are away every year the same time so those are the tickets they always donate. You'd be surprised at what people are willing to donate or even what people have to donate.

 

[allison443]

My dd's elementary school had a mandatory scrip program (not a public school). Every family had to purchase $3500 worth of scrip per year. The year ran from June 1-May 31.

I think the only way they made this workable is that many gift cards are kept in stock at the school, and available for purchase daily from 8:00am to 8:00 pm. In stock are all the various local supermarkets, home depot, lowes, macys, sears, movie theater, dunkin donuts, fast food, applebees-type restaurants, barnes and noble, all gas stations, etc. Other cards could be ordered with a one week turnaround time.

We got in the habit of buying scrip if we had to make a large purchase (flooring from lowes, a washing machine from sears). Also when I was at school for my kids activities I would pick up some grocery cards.

Our school didn't take credit cards, but could your school accept credit cards for the scrip? Not sure if that would work.

 

[2thfairy]

wow...thanks for the info.

We can't use credit cards from the people buying the cards because the company we use doesn't take them. They can use their bank account and order online.

We may have to go to limiting the times of year we place the orders and we did hear today that the secretaries in the office would be willing to sell them.

We have a huge fundraiser in a few weeks that we do a raffle with lots of good prizes for two weeks and a carnival type event at the school to end the raffle. We call it Wacky Winterfest. Last year when I helped with it for the first time we made over 23,000 after our costs.

The problem is that we do a spring fundraiser also. Many parents have said they hate going out and selling the stuff so we thought the scrip program could replace that. How easy would it be to just buy a few gift cards and make the same amount for the school. Just wish all the parents who complain about fundraising would buy some cards.

Thanks for the ideas...I'm going to pass them onto my commitee...keep the ideas coming.
Melinda

 

[Mixie]

My dd's elementary school had a mandatory scrip program (not a public school). Every family had to purchase $3500 worth of scrip per year. The year ran from June 1-May 31.

OMG - if every family in our school had to pay that much extra our school would be empty!

 

[NYCDiane]

I never understood the "scrip" program. First, what does "SCRIP" stand for? Also, what benefit do I get by purchasing a $25 gift card for $25??? It's not like I'm getting some bargain so there's really no incentive for me to buy.

I dislike all school fundraisers, though. It's all overpriced junk. Whoever runs it should find a way to get quality items at a decent price, not some dollar store garbage selling for $15 or some 99 cent tote bags selling for $18.

 

[SunnieRN]

My daughter is turning 27 this year, but this is what worked well when she was in school.
1) Halloween carnival. The kids would bring in non perishable food during the month of October. The class that brought in the most food, won pizza party. So, one booth was ring the canned food. Other booths were 'fishing' for trinkets or candy. Cupcake walk. Rubber ducky races. Bean bag toss, etc, etc. Tickets were $.25 each and we sold soda, nachos, hot dogs and candy. We made a good amount of $$$. The kids had a blast! The biggest money maker was the dunk tank, with the principal inside! Parents paid $1 to dunk the principal. Kids $.25 like everything else.

2) Raffle with donated items, from parents, teachers, the school and local business owners. The way I got HUNDREDS of items donated was to have an instant tax write off letterhead from the school. No headaches, wondering if they could write off the donation on their taxes.

3) The annual Thanksgiving Feast. We would get everything donated. Turkeys from local supermarkets, mashed potato's from KFC, bread for stuffing and eating, from day old bread stores, etc, etc, etc. Usually the school would spend about $75. The lunch ladies roasted the turkeys, made whatever the planned veggie was, the parents made all the sides, in the school kitchen and the teachers made cookies (or bought them) for dessert.

The kids paid $.75 each, as that was the lunch cost at the time, but parents could come have lunch with their children for $2.50. Little siblings were $.75 like their brothers or sisters.

We also had other food donations and raffles off food baskets and donated ornaments. Raffle tickets were $.25 each. It was loads of work, but SO much fun and made a lot of goodwill for the school. We would get grandparents, parents, neighborhood people eating, even district bigwigs. FUN times!

4) In spring we had an annual spagetti dinner. The school band played the choir sang and we sold a hecka lot of spagetti!

All told, 21 to 17 years ago, we averaged about $20K yearly. For a school district that 97% of the students were living under the poverty level, that was pretty darn great!! It got the students a lot of needed items! And it was fun!

When my daughter was cheerleader we had a raffle and InAnd Outbrought a truck to the school. We had to pre sell 'dinner' tickets. The truck came, made burgers, with chips and soda and the cheer squad got $$ per ticket sold! The money was used for their uniforms, than after, we had the raffle. Wemade a LOT of $$$ that night, for very little work. Selling dinner and raffle tickets is all.

Phew, sorry to be so long winded!