With SCRIP how do you deal with the checks clearing prior to giving the gift cards? Do you make sure all the checks have cleared before giving the person their cards?
I am the coordinator for our scrip program with great lakes. It seems to be going fine. We started this in October. Basically.. we aren't earning a lot.. but we are earning.
I place orders every Friday. So 1st friday I got $60 profit. Next week I got $20 profit, next week I got $5. So it's not great... Not going to make the PTO rich.. But it's going. I'm promoting this as.. buy gift cards for the items you already purchase on a normal basis and earn your school money. I know that every payday I spend $75 on groceries at Walmart, $50 at Sunoco for gas, $25 to 99 Restaurant and $20 at Dunkin donuts. So my purchases alone generate about $6 for the school.
But I think as people start buying Christmas Presents it will increase the amounts.
I place orders by Friday at 1pm and I get the orders usually Wednesday or Thursday. So it isn't a long wait at all for the cards. And I don't do express shipping. I do standard shipping.
We just started Scrip in August. Our school does not have the funding to pre-purchase the cards to have "in house". Parents want things now! They do not want to wait for the cards to come in. It does take a while even if you are on auto-pay. So having the cards on site would be great.
Scrip is a great program and you really don't have to do any of the "hard work"... they have all of the flyers, etc. ready for you.
We have 240 families and only 20 are participating at this point. So don't clear your calendar for other fundraising events just yet!
I think my school does Great Lakes. It is awesome. If you have the right person that is able to run it. We pay a former parent in script to order, keep track of families account, etc.
I think this is probably a perfect time to introduce a scrip program, because great lakes scrip just set up a really nice and tidy process for automating scrip orders. You can even pay onine now, without fees. Our school system uses them and they're great. Good luck!
We are in the initial stages of considering a new scrip program. We have done local grocery stores for several years but they are cutting their percentages and our school community enthusiasm has really decreased for the current program. I am looking at Great Lake Scrips. I know this is alot of work, any personal testimonials? Our school is close to 300 students with a pretty large amount of involvement. I'm open to all input. Thanks!
