A wrapping paper profit of $15,000 is certainly a nice amount to get. But if you were to use the same concept to sell scrip as you do with the wrapping paper sale, just think of how much money your school could make!
Luckily, my children's school doesn't do a wrapping paper fundraiser - they do scrip. They buy grocery stores directly, and get scrip for other merchants from New England Scrip. But I have friends with children who sell wrapping paper at their schools for a fundraiser, and they always call me to buy stuff. Of course, I usually feel obligated to buy something. (Let's face it - it's the adults who are selling the various items, not the children.)
Schools are able to come up with ways to get children motivated and interested in selling wrapping paper; they could use the same types of things to promote scrip sales. Prior to my school doing scrip, there was a mandatory chocolate bar fundraiser. Every child was required to sell at least 1 box of chocolate. They were bombarded with reminders to sell chocolate bars, lured with fancy prizes, etc. I accompanied the children for many boxes and people would often say "Here's a dollar, please don't make me get any chocolate".
So people don't really want chocolate, wrapping paper, or pies - they just do it because they feel they have to.
Realistically, would you rather spend $20 for a couple of rolls of wrapping paper or would you rather spend $20 for a $20 gift card/certificate? Suddenly instead of people spending $10 or $20 they'll spend $100. They no longer feel like they're overpaying for something that they don't want anyway.
So scrip actually can be that "big" fundraiser, but you may have to approach it differently.
Originally posted by pwalther: I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you. We have tried pretty much everything. It is more of a mindset. Parents don't understand that they aren't spending any more $$..........only what they would have spent anyway. One thing that does help out our SCRIP committee is standing orders. Several teachers as well as parents have standing orders that are ready for them each month. We also keep an inventory on hand and sell curbside every Friday a.m.
Please keep in mind that this is a year round job. We just did a catalog fundraiser and profited about the same in 3 weeks as we profit on SCRIP all year long.
Although it is a great fundraiser it can be difficult to make a good profit.
Hoosiermom is right, if you have grocery chain that you can get certificates from it helps greatly. We are in southwest Ohio and can get Kroger at a discount. I still run into the same thing though of people not wanting to buy the scrip even though I see them at Kroger fairly often. Also, if you have Kohl's in your area you can buy scrip through them as well. The neat thing about the Kohl's scrip is it can be used to pay on your Kohl's card. Log onto their website and go the the Kohl's Cares for Kids area (I think) to get more info.
Critter you too have a good point, will it ever replace that big fundraiser...probably not. I guess our school started scrip with the thought of being able to replace the fall fundraiser with the wrapping paper and such....this was 5 years or so ago...for us it is just not going to happen.
The good thing for me at least, I have another 5 years in this school, I really enjoy doing the scrip (even though I get frustrated), so it will probably be my baby for a while.
Good luck to all of us. Any time you come up with good ideas let us know.
Are you all in a area that can capitalize on the grocery store scrips? We, too, use Great Lakes, but in our pocket of southern Indiana, we don't have access to many of the large supermarkets. When approached about it, our regional grocery stores agreed to sell us their certificates at a 5% discount. Therefore, we've made several thousand dollars in less than a year. If it weren't for the groceries, we would have taken a nosedive in profits after the holidays. If anyone is located in the Midwest, Schnucks offers its own scrip.
We also are new to scrip. We did our first sale in December to capitalize on holiday needs and made about $800. We're continuing on a monthly basis but have earned only about $150 since December. I think scrip can be a decent ongoing project, especially if you have a dedicated volunteer in charge. But from what I've learned, the really big profits in scrip (I mean thousands of dollars per month) are found at the private schools that credit the profits to the parents' tuition accounts. People need to feel motivated to participate in any project - a tuition credit is big motivation. Since we are a public school, our profits aren't given back to the families. We'll continue the program and maybe over the year with enough experience, enthusiasm, and good marketing, our results will improve. Will it ever replace a two week long $15000 profit wrapping paper sale? Hmmm.
I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you. We have tried pretty much everything. It is more of a mindset. Parents don't understand that they aren't spending any more $$..........only what they would have spent anyway. One thing that does help out our SCRIP committee is standing orders. Several teachers as well as parents have standing orders that are ready for them each month. We also keep an inventory on hand and sell curbside every Friday a.m.
Please keep in mind that this is a year round job. We just did a catalog fundraiser and profited about the same in 3 weeks as we profit on SCRIP all year long.
Although it is a great fundraiser it can be difficult to make a good profit.
