Passive Fundraising

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One of the biggest problems with people needing to sell wrapping paper or candles or candy is that it requires you to go out and harass your friends for money. Some of the more successful fundraisers at our school are more passive fundraisers including scrip and e-scrip.

There are many companies that sell scrip--essentially gift cards--these days. The company acts as a clearinghouse and has all forms of gift cards available for purchase. The school starts with a small investment, or can do it all by pre-order. The nice thing about having a small "stockpile" is that you capture parents needing last-minute gifts. How the programs work is fairly simple. The gift cards are sold at face value to parents ($25 gift card to Starbucks costs $25), but the school gets to keep a percentage. The percentages vary with each company: sometimes as high as 20% but often in the range of 5-10%. Certainly a few cents here and there can't help a school if only purchased for gifts, but here's where scrip can transform into a major fundraiser at a school: you start buying it for everything. A fillup at the gas station is $50, but you just gave the school $1.50 for something you had to do anyway. If you buy $100 of groceries a week, that can be $2 or more a week for your school. That $1000 hotel stay over the summer netted your school $120 and you did nothing but take your yearly vacation. And the list goes on. Our school uses Great Lakes Scrip Center, but I know there are many companies across the country.

Escrip is similar, but it requires connecting your supermarket loyalty card or your credit card to the account. More can be found at escrip.com.

Our school only started using scrip last year, and it's quickly becoming a major portion of our fundraising.

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A challenge with Scrip and eScrip is that, as a general rule, it's still limited to people that are directy involved with the school. And, it only works if you're going to patronize those particular vendors participating in the scrip/eScrip program.

To really make the biggest dollars, you need to get access to "OPM" -- other people's money. When you open up your fundraising to a broader base of potential supporters (think friends, corporate sponsors, alumni, etc) and offer items to them that make your school money, THAT's te way to make real money for your school without burning out the same set of parents or neighbors.

This is one reason auctions continue to be big draws and big moneymakers, if done properly. Even in this period of econmic challenge, well-run benefit auctions for schools and other not-for-profits continue to make increasing dollars. Yes, it can be a lot of work, but what successful fundraiser isn't a lot of work?

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