FundScrip:

Carey: Ok, so we do it for the music department, both at the intermediate and high school level, including students from grade 7 through 12. We’ve taken it on so that our students can pay for their music trip at the end of the year. So basically, what we’ve done is to set up a student account for every music student – mostly those involved in the ensembles – but any student in the program can fundraise; and they can use it to pay for things within the department or if they want, can put it towards larger items like their trip this year to New York. So it’s a fundraising initiative for those students to raise as much money as possible to go towards the trips; and again, not everybody has to participate immediately, they can come in at any time. Some students focus on particular months; for example, I’m expecting more for December than the last two months. However, we have others that do it every month (which really adds up), and they put that towards their end of the year trip deposit.

FundScrip: I see, so how much does each student have to raise to offset the cost of their trip?

Carey: It’s up to them in terms of how much they want to do. So, that’s one of the fundraisers that we offer which is every month, and I really like how it runs because once we have it set up, it pretty much runs itself. We also do Citrus Fruits; we’re selling coffee this year too; and we do a couple of just department based fundraisers, so that we can also try to raise money as a department and bring the cost of it down for everybody. We’ll have people raising $150 to $200 or more towards their trip and it really depends on where we’re going as to how much that’s going to offset their costs.

We’re a new program as well… we’re in our third year. But the former school I was at we would have people that could raise enough money to pay for their whole trip. Now we weren’t doing FundScrip with that school – we were doing Loblaws – and our intention here was to get that set up again; but we heard about FundScrip through other colleagues and thought well maybe we should focus on that. We found that it attracted a lot more people because it wasn’t just [providing gift cards] for just one place. We find that a lot of people buy gas cards, grocery cards, and even restaurants. Certain parents also do focus on the specials offered each month where they’re going to get the largest percentage of profit back.

FundScrip: So you say your school has only been in existence for a few years; how long has it been since you started with FundScrip?

Carey: The school opened September 2009, and our first order went out for December.

FundScrip: Oh! So you started right away…

Carey: Yes. We were trying to get started in September, but there was so much going on at the beginning. So it took us a couple of months to get going. The last two years we have started right at the beginning of school, and I think this year was our best start-up yet. The same students keep participating in it, and in terms of numbers, it’s about 20 students that do it on a regular basis; and then we have those students that jump in at Christmas. We’re hoping as we keep growing that our numbers will jump. It’s mainly the grade 8 and high school band students that do it, and my band has gone from 22 kids in the first year to 88 this year. So again, we’re trying to get the tradition going so the kids know that that fundraising option is there… and I think it’s going to keep growing every year.

FundScrip: Ok, well that’s great! Now you mentioned that you do a lot of different fundraising programs; so, based on your past experiences with other programs, and the ones that you’re currently doing, how does FundScrip measure up?

Carey: I’m really impressed with it. I was a little bit nervous at the beginning – especially when I had to get the all the cheques which totalled over thirty thousand dollars, It was our very first one, and I thought “Oh my gosh, this is a lot of money!”; but, I have to be honest that it’s very straight forward to do. The Loblaws one was much more labour-intensive because that involved tracking all the profits, and bundling the packages together and everything. We find that this is great for us and doesn’t take as much time because once it’s all entered, the profit is accounted for – I can go back in and look at last year’s results if I need to – and it’s very easy to track. The only thing that took a bit of getting used to was the ordering process in terms of dates because in the first year, I wasn’t really sure of how the dates lined up, but now I have a much better understanding. So I ask for orders in on the Friday, we input them, and I send it off on the following Wednesday, and the order is process that Thursday. Knock on wood, there have been no problems. A couple of cards that we did have which weren’t working, we put a call in and things were cleared up. In the last 2 ½ years, there have been only two issues with cards and they were solved right away. So, I’m very happy with the program, and again feedback from parents has been very positive.

FundScrip: Excellent. Now it seems from what you’re saying that you do the ordering yourself and submit a single cheque. So I suppose nobody is using the EFT option or ordering themselves online?

Carey: No. The reason is the first couple of years we were running it, we thought it would be easier to do the paper orders, though I guess that’s something we could possibly turn to in the future. I find that it’s working really well the way we’re doing it …

FundScrip: So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?

Carey: Exactly! It might be something for us to look into, especially as we get bigger, but right now I am entering everything myself. We have a parents council at the high school level who are interested in taking on a little more; so starting in December, I am going to have another parent enter them all – which will help out a lot.

FundScrip: So you’ve mentioned that the program is not mandatory; so I’m curious as to what strategies you employ to gain supporters.

Carey: Some parents are really looking for fundraising opportunities, while others just find it easier to write a cheque for the full amount. However, we encourage our students to take part in these fundraisers because we offer them for their benefit. I tell them that this fundraiser is a no-brainer, because if you are going to be purchasing at these stores anyway, instead of using Visa or your debit card, you might as well use FundScrip and get some money in return. We also talk about it at our different events, so that the parents are aware of it. I think part of it is getting that message out to people as well. I have all the parents on my email list as well and send them updates every month and reminders that the orders are due. Additionally, we put all the information on our website, so that parents can go on and see what it’s all about.

FundScrip: That sounds great. So do you have any plans on how to improve supporter engagement and raise more funds to offset a larger portion of their trip cost by way of FundScrip?

Carey: I need to get them more aware of the special monthly initiatives. That’s one thing that I should be doing in my emails. I also think it might be an option to offer the program in the summer. We haven’t done that in the past just because of logistics, but if people are interested in it, it’s something we could offer. We can also talk about it at concerts and give examples of people who have raised the most profits to just show the parents that this is something that can be very helpful to raise funds towards trips. I think we have a few parents who aren’t quite sure of how it works or how much it adds up.

FundScrip: So if you were talking to somebody else – maybe at another school or what have you – that was considering FundScrip as a potential fundraiser for them, what would advice would you give?

Carey: I would tell them that it is really a great opportunity for your students to raise money; and once you kind of get a handle on it after doing it a couple of times, it’s very very straight-forward to run. Again, it almost runs itself. It’s something that can be open to everybody because it’s not just one store, it’s tons of places that people might have been going to anyway. So it’s a very open-ended fundraiser. I’ve been really impressed with the program and appreciate how well it’s run in terms of you guys tracking the profits – it helps us out a lot. The tools that you make available online to track everything are set up very well!

FundScrip: Well that’s great! We don’t want to take all your time today in the middle of your work day, so I’ll thank you for participating.

FundScrip: Hi Julie, thanks for agreeing to have this chat with us about your experiences with the FundScrip program. Perhaps you can start us off by telling as a little bit about the nature of your fundraising efforts?

Julie: It’s mostly for raising money for hockey fees. So the families receive the funds in return for the amounts they have raised at different intervals averaging around three months. They then put this towards the fees they’ve incurred for their child. So every family is able to join the program, or they can opt-out and pay the fees out of their own pockets. It’s not a forced fundraiser like many teams do.

FundScrip: I see, so what’s the name of the team and where are you located?

Julie: It’s Minor Atom Rep, and we’re located in Woodstock, Ontario.

FundScrip: Ok, and how many people are involved in your fundraising?

Julie: I actually also have some of my daughter’s team in my group… I kind of blended two teams so I can have a bigger group which allows me to collect more funds. My goal is always to get free shipping [from FundScrip] every time. So I currently have 16.

FundScrip: 16, ok, and how long have you been using FundScrip to raise money for your teams?

Julie: For the teams about two years, but actually I joined 3 years ago and for the first year I did it for the school here.

FundScrip: That’s great – so do you find that the FundScrip program covers your fundraising needs for your team then?

Julie: Yes, actually for myself (I also have my parents in the program too) last year I profited $500, so that paid exactly back what we owed in hockey fees.

FundScrip: So it’s basically 100% funded for you as a result.

Julie: Yep. That was my goal and it happened.

FundScrip: And are your other members experiencing similar results?

Julie: Yes. I have other members that buy cards for their families too and they also raised 100%; while other families use the cards less and have still raised $250.

FundScrip: So that offsets their costs by 50% then, which is still great…

Julie: Yes, they’re very happy!

FundScrip: Well in general, how do you think people have reacted to the program? You’re saying it’s not a mandatory fundraising thing…

Julie: They love it! I had one family that joined right away with my son’s team, and when I found him in the hall and handed him his cards for the first time, he was ecstatic. He said, “This is a great fundraiser!” And I just looked at him, because usually people do it [fundraising], because they feel they kind of have to… but he just thought it was fabulous, because as he said, “It’s just so easy”. He loved the fact that he could independently go on the computer, order, there was no pressure, and the cards showed up in his hand whenever I saw him. There was always a guarantee of delivery within 3 days.

FundScrip: Well that’s great! So, as you were saying earlier, the program isn’t mandatory, so how do you get people involved? What are your strategies?

Julie: Well, all three times I’ve led the fundraisers, I’ve started off with a letter describing how the program runs, and why I’m doing it. Of course the first time I did it, I couldn’t say how successful it was, but the last two times I’ve done it, I always say what I’ve raised myself. Then I put in the FundScrip website address, so they can check it out themselves; and I always provide my own email address, so if they have any questions they can send them to me. Honestly though, people don’t ask questions because the FundScrip website is very informative; so people can really make their own choices just by looking at that. Then I tell them what my expectations are of how the program’s going to run. So when I expect to receive the cards, when I expect to deliver them… I don’t put them in hockey bags. Also they’re welcome to pick them up at my house if they want to. I also tell them what to expect for how the money is going to be collected and distributed, the EFT and so on, so they always know and there’s no surprises.

FundScrip: So you mentioned the EFT [electronic funds transfer], do most of your supporters use that to pay for their cards?

Julie: Every single one. That way I don’t have to provide a cheque to FundScrip, I don’t have to make sure there’s enough money in the bank; it just makes my life easier. It’s an option I chose because when I did it for the school, I did do it the other way and it was actually a couple of extra steps in the whole process which was harder for me.

FundScrip: And does everybody do their own ordering as well?

Julie: Absolutely. They do get a reminder however. I remind them Monday or Tuesday (my batch date is Thursdays) to say “Hey, put in your FundScrip orders”. Then I have on occasion the night before been short a few hundred dollars and have asked for a couple of more people to order so that I could reach the threshold where I get free shipping. I’d say 9 out of 10 times I’ve done that, I’ve gotten people to sign up in time. I think in the past two years, I’ve only paid shipping twice.

FundScrip: Wow, that’s great! So when people talk to you about the program, what do they tell you that their impression of it is?

Julie: They find it easy… that’s what they love. They do wish there were cards for a few retailers like Tim Horton’s and the LCBO, but other than the word “easy”, I don’t hear other commentary.

FundScrip: I see. So no issues, no problems…?

Julie: I’ve never had any problems, no. I’ve never had a glitch yet.

FundScrip: Excellent! And you’ve been running it for three years glitch-free so that’s pretty impressive I think.

Julie: Yep! That’s why I signed back up because it’s easy and there are no problems for me.

FundScrip: Well that’s great. So, I guess if you were to think about starting it all over again, giving advice to a new administrator, would you have done anything differently?

Julie: I don’t think so. However, I did find the school a lot harder because of the distribution of cards; because putting them in back-packs is worrisome. As a result of confidentiality, you can’t find out people’s addresses; so you can’t deliver it to them directly, and you can’t phone them. So email address was the only contact information for me through the school. So they gave me their email and then I was able to communicate effectively. So I found that difficult. But for the hockey teams, it’s been so easy. The thing is, for new people to start this program, I find the more I provide accessibility, the less people have problems, because they know everything… there’s no secrets to anything.

FundScrip: Ok, so have you tried any other fundraisers in the past?

Julie: Yes. For the school, not so much for the hockey teams, oh yeah, we’ve done all kinds of things. We tried phone book distribution, which was very difficult… we all gathered up and said we’d never do that again! We also did candies and things like that which was hard because the participation wasn’t there. Oh, yes – and Elmira Chicken. That was a popular one. That was the only other popular and actually successful fundraiser we did. Profits there were $5.00 a box. So a lot of people bought their own chicken and got their own money back.

FundScrip: So how would you say these other programs compared to FundScrip?

Julie: Well FundScrip is continuous. Elmira Chicken is once or twice a season, and it’s in competition with the school as well because they like to do it too. But there’s always that arrival date… who’s going to distribute, who’s going to count the chicken and so on… and that doesn’t have to happen with FundScrip because it all comes in envelopes ready to distribute. I don’t have to do any managing of that. Plus the chicken of course takes up your whole freezer, so you can’t put a second order in three months later because you still have chicken from three months before!

FundScrip: That’s not very convenient! Ok, so if you were talking to somebody that was considering FundScrip as a fundraising program – a brand new administrator – what would be the advice that you would give them?

Julie: Um, other than trying to be the banker in the program as well, and making sure you are accessible, there’s really nothing else. It’s just so easy. You have to have 10 or 11 families to join – so that’s really the goal when you start for me to have that EFT group going. So that’s the challenge in the beginning. After that it’s smooth sailing…

FundScrip: Did you have any issues with getting people signed up with EFT?

Julie: No. Well… a lot of people don’t have fax machines or scanners, so I offered them that service. So when I saw them, I’d often print out an EFT form for them to fill out and I’d bring it back to my house and would send it in for them.

FundScrip: So basically your goal was to make it as easy as possible for your supporters.

Julie: Absolutely, yes… because people don’t want to be burdened by fundraisers. To me, that’s about 3 weeks of work intermittently; and then once you get going, you’re off to the races.

FundScrip: That’s great. So, any final thoughts that you’d like to share with people who are either thinking about joining the FundScrip program, or existing administrators that might be experiencing challenges?

Julie: Well I don’t know… there’s been no issues for me.

FundScrip: So you’d recommend the program to others?

Julie: Yes, for sure. One further thing I’d say is to make your goal to get free shipping. If you can do that, everything is gravy from there!

FundScrip: Ok, that’s great Julie. Thanks very much for spending time with me today and we’ll be putting the substance of this conversion up on the blog for everyone to benefit from.

Lori McAlpine is the FundScrip administrator for Montgomery Village Public School in Orangeville Ontario, and chatted with us today about her fundraising endeavours utilizing gift cards with FundScrip.

FundScrip: Hi Lori! As you know, what we’re doing is interviewing folks to discover how they’re doing with the FundScrip fundraising program in order to help other people who might be just starting out. So if you could share your experience and maybe tell me a little bit about what your effort is all about, that would be a good start.

Lori: Ok, well I work in a school and we run FundScrip for our intermediate students to help pay for their year-end trips that are generally three to four nights and are therefore rather costly.

FundScrip: I see, so does it vary as to where they are going, how much they have to raise and so on, or do you pretty much have a fixed amount that you require?

Lori: Well each student in the grade seven year tends to go to a program that’s about $200.00, while the grade eights generally go on a trip – usually to Quebec or Ottawa – that can run up to $500.00.

FundScrip: So, what made you get involved with the fundraising effort?

Lori: We were looking for something that wouldn’t be asking parents to bother their friends, neighbours or relatives to buy unnecessary items that they didn’t need and we were told about the [FundScrip] program by another school that was running it.

FundScrip: And what’s your function at the school? Are you a teacher there or a parent… what’s your relationship?

Lori: I’m an educational assistant with the school; and I’m also a parent. I actually run the FundScrip program myself – I’m the coordinator.

FundScrip: Ok, great! So, how many other people are involved in fundraising for your group?

Lori: How many people do we have registered with FundScrip?

FundScrip: Yes…

Lori: Um, well we have quite a few registered… I’d say we probably have 20 very active members and then some that are a little more sporadic. This is our second year, so as we go along we seem to get more and more interest. Every year it grows. It’s helping because the parents that get involved are very pleased with the program and then they’re passing on that information to others. Our difficulty is actually getting the information to the parents, because intermediate kids aren’t always great at taking things home.

FundScrip: Sure, so how do you go about doing that then? What are your strategies?

Lori: Well I send a lot of paperwork home – probably duplicates. I also talk about the program the very first “meet the teacher” BBQ that we have at the beginning of the year. I also talk about it at the meetings we have for the trips and other than that I’m telling the parents that if you like it [the FundScrip program], then tell your neighbours, friends and so on. It’s hard. It’s hard to get the information out to them. Also this year I’ve done a presentation to the students, hoping that if they see it, it might encourage them to take it home and talk about it with their parents.

FundScrip: Ok, so you’ve been running this program for two years… is this your third September coming up or your second?

Lori: This will be our third.

FundScrip: Great – so what do you think you are going to try differently this time around to help you gain even more supporters this year?

Lori: Well I think we’re going to try to get more people to come to the meeting at the beginning of the year; also, we recently had a meeting before they went on the trip and we discussed it there. As a result, we’ve actually had people sign up in advance for next September already. I also think we’re going to have a trip meeting earlier in the year and try to get more people out to that.

FundScrip: So, when you’re doing your pitch or what have you to the parents – and I guess you’re pitching the students as well – what have you learned to avoid when attempting to gain supporters?

Lori: Learned to avoid?

FundScrip: Yes… Is there anything you did and wouldn’t do again; or is there anything you try not to highlight while your giving your presentation?

Lori: Well the one thing I try not to highlight right now is the fact that other options of payment are available other than EFT [electronic funds transfer]. I mean we do the other options, but it’s a lot easier for me if people sign up for the EFT. So I will talk briefly about the other options, but I really push the EFT because it’s a lot easier for me.

FundScrip: Sure – and ultimately it’s a lot easier for your supporters as well I would expect.

Lori: It is; however, some people are still leery about giving their banking information to a company. There are some folks that are just really uncomfortable with that and are just not willing to go that route.

FundScrip: So how do you attempt to allay those fears?

Lori: Well, from personal experience. I let other parents who’ve done it speak to it, I let them know that now we’ve been doing it for two years and we’ve never ever had one single issue. None of our participants have ever had a problem. So we just talk about our own experience. Also, being a parent as well as a staff member at the school I think sometimes helps, because they know I do it as well.

FundScrip: It gives you some more credibility I guess…

Lori: Exactly. I’m not asking them to do anything that I don’t do myself.

FundScrip: Ok, so as the school year goes along do you do anything to help maintain supporter interest?

Lori: Well I send out emails for different things – around Christmas and occasions like that. The other thing that I’m doing this year to gain supporters is to really try to get my staff on-board. I’m slowly getting them, and they all know that any money that’s raised goes towards kids that are having difficulty raising the funds for the trips themselves. In our school we seem to have a lot of twins; so families that have twins or multiple children going on trips can find it very cost-prohibitive.

FundScrip: So how much money have you raised?

Lori: As a group?

FundScrip: Yeah…

Lori: Um – I couldn’t really tell you. I’d have to look it up. I will say that we’ve had several kids completely pay for their grade seven trip… and actually we have had one student pay for the whole grade eight trip. We’ve had many pay for the grade seven trip and have funds left over which we’re applying to their grade eight trip. So, they’ve already done fundraising this year that’s going to benefit them next.

FundScrip: Well that’s excellent! So, this will be your third year doing this, have you tried any other fundraising methods in the past?

Lori: Oh yeah – we’ve sold chocolates, cookie dough, you know… the usual school things like that.

FundScrip: Sure. And how did you find it compared to FundScrip?

Lori: It doesn’t compare. Trying to keep track of kids and chocolate bars – how many they had, how much they have to pay for, and knowing that they’re not eating them – it’s a lot more challenging. FundScrip is by far the easiest fundraiser that way in terms of paperwork and so on. Even the fact that we have to bring the chocolate in and store it in the school… We don’t have storage in our school; so it’s a lot more work to do anything other than what we’re doing.

FundScrip: That’s great to hear. So what’s the feedback been like from the parents?

Lori: The ones who get involved and really embrace it, absolutely love it; and then they say “well I don’t understand why people don’t do this” because you’re literally getting paid to do your shopping that you would always do… and that’s how I sell it. I’m not asking you to go out and buy gift cards for every store or whatever – even if you just buy your groceries and your gas, you’re getting paid to spend money that you’re spending anyway. So that’s how we promote it, and it’s gone very well.

FundScrip: Let’s say you were talking to someone that’s thinking about starting up a new program with FundScrip; what would be the one primary piece of advice you’d give them?

Lori: First of all I’d just tell them that I think it’s fabulous. We’ve never done anything easier; the hardest part is just getting the parents on-board and getting them to really understand the program because it sounds too good to be true. They just need to persevere; like I said, every year we get more, and every year more parents are really happy with the program.

FundScrip: Ok, well that’s gratifying to hear. So, you said that you were working towards getting all your supporters using EFT; what percentage would you say are actually doing that in your group?

Lori: Um, well probably 80% maybe. It’s quite high.

FundScrip: So, they do all their own orders online then…

Lori: Yes. We only do orders online; I don’t take paper orders. The only option we do provide is that if they want to pay by cheque, they can make it payable to the school and we in turn issue one to FundScrip.

FundScrip: Well I’m sure as a parent and an educator yourself, and having a limited number of hours available in the day, the ease with which you are able to fundraise with the program is pretty important. So how many hours would you say a week you’d be putting into this?

Lori: As an administrator? Probably 20 minutes at the most.

FundScrip: Really?

Lori: And that’s not every week… that’s probably every two weeks. It takes maybe half an hour to make sure I have the cheque ready to go and we get it Purolated on time etc. It’s not much.

FundScrip: That’s great! Well, I don’t want to take a ton of your time, so I’d like to know if you have any final thoughts, knowing that the people who are reading this are those that are existing admins who may need some encouragement or new ideas, as well as people who are looking to join the program potentially and wondering if, as you say, this is too good to be true. What would you say to these people?

Lori: I would just say that it takes minimum effort for maximum reward. There’s nowhere else that pays you to shop… literally. It gives you cash in your pocket for money you’re spending anyway. I think it’s a great program; and like one of my parents said, “Why doesn’t everybody do this?!”

FundScrip: Well we think the same way!

Lori: Yeah well if I am going to be spending money for groceries and gas every week, and FundScrip is going to be giving money for doing that, then why not? It’s just a no-brainer.

FundScrip: Ok, well I’ll thank you very much for your kind words today, and wish you continued success in your fundraising efforts in future!

FundScrip: Well, as you know, the purpose of this interview is to help other people that are either just starting out a fundraising program through FundScrip, or those that are already involved and may need a little help. You’ve been identified as somebody that’s had a very successful program, and so maybe you can tell me a little bit on what your project is all about to start us off…

Jocelyn: Ok, well our group is the Sudbury Laurels Gymnastics Club, and we’ve been around for a long time, but we’ve just been with FundScrip for this one year. And of course, as with any club, a lot of fundraising has to happen. We were involved with another [scrip] company before, so our members were somewhat familiar with the program; however we didn’t necessarily have a great experience with that other program. So, we were really happy to know that you were consistent, that cards were coming every week, and that there were no back-orders. So our members quickly trusted you and trusted the program.

FundScrip: I see, now these are issues that you had with the other program that you were involved with?

Jocelyn: Yeah – so we were going to drop it actually. Then this fellow from work came to me and said “you are doing these card things right?” and wanted to know more about it, but the company he was talking about was your company. I didn’t know that there was another company out there doing this. So I had given him my experience and since we were going to drop it, I thought I had nothing to lose by calling you folks, to find out what you guys do… and it sounded like you had the website all running and that’s what I liked the best: that our members can go online and do their own orders.

In the last year I was placing all the orders for all the members. Every Saturday morning I was doing the order and then going to the bank – so it took me like 2 hours a week…

FundScrip: Which still isn’t a lot, but not nearly as easy as having the members do it themselves.

Jocelyn: Exactly, and when you’re a parent, you know you’ve got a family and kids, and sometimes you’re away on the weekend and it’s very inconvenient to have to do that. So it doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you’re volunteering and this isn’t the only thing that you’re doing… the least amount of time, the more bang for your money.

FundScrip: So you’ve gone to this member-based program – how did you get your members on-board for it? I mean, obviously they had issues with the last program…

Jocelyn: Well we did have some die-hards who loved the program, who thought it was the easiest, no-brainer thing to do – to just get these cards, buy your groceries and gas, and not have to bug anybody or sell anything. So, I did have a group to start with. We were about 5 or 6 that were committed to do this. Also, one of the things with our club is that we have an obligation to fundraise. Every member has to fundraise a certain amount of money depending on the level of their athelete – their kids. So if they’re more advanced, for example my daughter is doing 12 hours a week, we came up with a formula that said ok, if she’s provincial [level competitor] and she’s doing that many hours, then she should have to raise $450. The newer ones that are coming in that are only 6-10 hours and are just at the invitational or inter-club level, raise $250.

So we knew as we started off in September that we had, well I had $450 to raise, and our club came up with about 4 fundraising activities that we can do during the year, and FundScrip was one of them. We also do tagging, BBQ fundraising with M&M’s, and sold Pepperettes. So the parents had some options, because some did not or could not manage to do FundScrip, because you have to have some money to start it off and you have to diligently use your cards every time.

So that was our incentive… I mean you didn’t have a choice. If you didn’t fundraise, you forked out the money… you either gave out $450 or you fundraised it. Some parents would do a combination of FundScrip and tagging for instance – that’s what our family did. We raised $100 with tagging and $350 with FundScrip.

FundScrip: I see; so, it sounds like you had two challenges: a) you were transitioning from one program that wasn’t really working for you, and b) you were moving to a member-driven versus an administrator-driven fundraising model where your members were basically going to be responsible for all the work that you had been doing. So, how did you surmount these? I mean, you had 5 core people it sounds like when you started FundScrip – how many do you have now?

Jocelyn: There are about 43 signed up, but we have actively every two weeks roughly 12 to 15 orders.

FundScrip: Ok, well you’ve gone from 5 to 43 signed up, how did you make that transition – especially with the earlier kind of sour experience?

Jocelyn: Well, we promoted it in that I was told, and it sounded like your company was not going to be having any issues with back-orders of cards… because that was one of the biggest frustrations; you’d get your package and out of the 10 cards you ordered you’d get 1 card. And then you’d have to come back and get it in a couple of days if it comes in…

So when I was talking to your representative, she was really helpful and I found the whole thing easy. She did the training about an hour or so over the phone and on the website she walked me through the online part of it. I was sold in that first hour.

The other thing that I was checking for, was when I got my first report I was checking the orders to see if the money that we were getting in the same as what we’re supposed to be getting, because believe it or not, that was an issue with the other company.

FundScrip: Oh! Well that’s a big problem.

Jocelyn: Yeah, well because what they had in their system did not jive with ours and some money seemed to be missing. Of course this raises flags. So one of the first things I did was when we got our cheque from FundScrip, I looked and it was exactly what we should have received, because I keep track. So that gave me the confidence that your company was going to be reliable. We never got any back-orders, the cards came in and we never had one issue.

FundScrip: Well that’s great to hear.

Jocelyn: We’ve been very, very happy.

FundScrip: So going back to the member-driven program that you have, how do you keep your members actually motivated and buying every week. I mean, certainly they have an incentive because they’re responsible for the fundraising… but beyond that.

Jocelyn: I think it’s because you don’t have to sell anything to anyone. You don’t have to buy anything that you don’t want. You have your cards, and you do your regular shopping with them. Then a portion of what you’ve spent comes in and you can see how much you’ve raised as you’re coming along. My target was $350 and I could even plan it out: what am I going to buy from now until the end of June so that I can meet that goal? So I have to buy groceries anyway and once you’re into the routine, there’s no issue because you know, your cards come in, you buy your groceries and for me it was just perfect because I know $250 every two weeks is what I spend.

FundScrip: So basically you find your members have no issues – they just know this is what they have to raise – and your interaction with them, poking and prodding, is at a minimum you would say?

Jocelyn: Yep. Our members were aware of the program from the previous company, liked the idea, but…

FundScrip: The implementation was off.

Jocelyn: Yep. With your program, I came in in September, made the presentation and said “This new company has a good track record” and I also gave a little more support. When I sent out emails it was easy to have them sign up. You sent them the link, it already had the membership code, and they didn’t have to do anything other than put in their name and address and activate their account. So I found that whole process very easy.

FundScrip: Are the majority of your members using Electronic Funds Transfer?

Jocelyn: They all have to. We made it mandatory.

FundScrip: Oh, ok… and you didn’t get any resistance or issues with that?

Jocelyn: I think whoever resisted just didn’t participate. The others knew that the company that you’re dealing with is a bank. So by having the bank do the funds part of it gave our members more confidence. When the members got on-board and saw how easy it was to order and the cards came in, they were convinced.

FundScrip: So in terms of the EFT, you’ve never experienced any issues with it I assume?

Jocelyn: Well at the beginning I did get some calls: “What am I supposed to do with my EFT” and so on…

FundScrip: But in terms of its function…

Jocelyn: No, no issues at all.

FundScrip: Ok, so just how to get set up was the question.

Jocelyn: Yes – and I gave the toll-free number to the members and I didn’t even have to deal with it! It was wonderful.

FundScrip: That’s great! So how much money have you raised?

Jocelyn: We’re over $4000 and I am estimating $5000 by the end of June.

FundScrip: Excellent – and how many months have you been doing it?

Jocelyn: Since September.

FundScrip: Wow, so only 9 months. That’s fantastic… and you’re doing is buying the stuff you’d be purchasing everyday anyway.

Jocelyn: Exactly

FundScrip: So have you tried any other fundraising methods in the past?

Jocelyn: Well we have done the chocolate bars, which I hate to do…

FundScrip: So how would you compare FundScrip with the other fundraising methods you have tried?

Jocelyn: This one to me is the best. You don’t have to do anything, it’s not a lot of administrative headaches, you’re not asking your members to go out and sell anything, they just have to buy cards online and pick them up. To me, FundScrip far surpasses any other fundraising activity that we’ve ever done.

FundScrip: Well that’s gratifying to hear. Now, I understand that the members that you have actually approach their places of work to buy cards as well?

Jocelyn: I’ve got a few that do that, and I have others that have signed up a parent so that they can order cards and help support their grandchildren. So not only do we have the member, but their families as well.

FundScrip: So, you seem to thing that the program is the best among those that you’ve tried, what’s the feedback you’ve been getting from your supporters?

Jocelyn: All of our supporters feel the same way: I’ve never heard anything but good things.

FundScrip: Well that’s great. So, understanding that obviously this is to go up on the blog and is designed to help new program administrators as well as those that might be having challenges in their fundraising, what advice would you give them on how to make the program effective?

Jocelyn: Let’s see, I think in providing the information to the members… you had a lot of pamphlets and suggestions in your treasure chest. You had a lot of examples of letters that I used to send to our members. I found those tools were really helpful to use. I also put up some posters in our club on our bulletin board so that our members could read up on it. Also, you want to tell them it’s not necessarily for gifts, because they’re called gift cards. You have to get them to really think about buying their groceries and gas.

When I met with the parents in September, I gave them a scenario. I showed them “this is what I do: $250 worth of groceries and $100 of gas every two weeks.” Then I do the calculations for them and show them that over the time period in question their fundraising is taken care of.

So providing that information to our members at the beginning of the year was very valuable.

FundScrip: So, your advice is to take full advantage of the tools that we provide you to aid communications with your membership and to demonstrate with tangible examples how they can reach their goals.

Jocelyn: Absolutely.

FundScrip: Ok, so let’s say you were talking to somebody that was sitting on the fence as to whether this program was a good idea for them – any final thoughts on what you would say?

Jocelyn: I would say that in my previous experience, with other companies, with this one I would tell them that I fully support them. They are committed, they’re consistent, and they do what they say they’re going to do. There’s no back-ordered cards, your shipments come in, even the activation wasn’t an issue… cards are always good, our parents have been very satisfied with the program versus the other that we were using. You know I’ve got that experience, so I could reassure them, and I would not be saying these things with that other company.

FundScrip: Excellent. Well I want to thank you for your participation – you’ve given us some great stuff and you’ll see it up on the blog on Monday!

FundScrip: So Cheryl, tell us a little bit about what your fundraising project entails – I understand you have two?

Cheryl: Yes, that’s right – I’m actually piloting two. The first is Camrose Skating Club and we’ve just noticed that it’s become a really expensive sport for our community. It’s costing each skater thousands out-of-pocket dollars per year so we tried to come up with a way to keep them in this sport rather than lose them due to costs. So we were looking into individual fundraising initiatives, and this particular one was mentioned to us, we researched it and signed up.

It’s been working really well; the club has about 24 active members using it and since May they’ve placed around $150,000 in orders and received about $5100 in rebates.

FundScrip: Wow!

Cheryl: And what we do for that particular club is keep track of what each individual raised and that comes off their fees at the end of the year. So it’s really a personal fundraiser.

FundScrip: I see, so that’s the figure skating… and you have another club that you’re fundraising for as well?

Cheryl: Same idea, it’s a soccer team with 17 players and they are fundraising to go to Europe in July of 2012. So the similar idea is just to do a personal fundraiser to help offset the costs per player to go to Europe and play soccer.

FundScrip: Great! So, out of the number of people that you have in the club, what percentage are actually participating in the program?

Cheryl: It’s 24 out of 35 skaters that are actually participating in it [ed. 66%] …

FundScrip: Excellent – and in the soccer?

Cheryl: 100%

FundScrip: Oh! That’s fantastic. What’s the feedback been from people that are participating in the program?

Cheryl: They were surprised at how easy it was to enrol and then to use. I send out a reminder about 3 days before an order is due to the clubs just to remind them to put their orders in on time. So far only the skating club has actually seen the money because our season has ended. So a lot of them were pleasantly surprised to see that come off their fees at the end of the year.

FundScrip: Ok, well what strategy did you employ to get people on-board in the first place?

Cheryl: Just a one-on-one explanation rather than trying to explain it by email – it’s just daunting for some people to go online and try to figure it out. So I had printed off everything and explained it to them one-on-one.

For the skating club I actually signed everybody up… I filled them all out and they just had to fax in their void cheques.

FundScrip: I see; and you got 100% participation in your soccer club; how did you achieve that – same strategy?

Cheryl: Same strategy yep. I was able to show them the success of the skating club, so it was an easy sell.

FundScrip: That’s great! So how did you go about explaining it to the skating club? What was the big selling point in your presentation?

Cheryl: Mostly that it gave them control and an opportunity to raise as little or as much as they wanted towards their fees… this is off of ice fees. Some people fundraised away their entire amount of ice fees so they didn’t have to pay anything. We told them at the beginning that there was that potential. If you engaged your family members and friends and get them on-board with you, you can actually not have to pay a dime towards your fees for the year.

FundScrip: So how long have you been working with FundScrip?

Cheryl: Since May of 2010.

FundScrip: And have you tried any other fundraising methods in the past?

Cheryl: We still do other fundraising – more like blitz fundraising. We do bottle drives, and we sell Christmas wreaths. So we have other little blitz fundraisers, but this is the only ongoing, continuous type of fundraiser that we have ever undertaken.

FundScrip: So how would the different fundraisers compare in terms of the level of effort you are required to expend?

Cheryl: FundScrip takes very little effort. So, I think it’s successful in that way – not much organization and very little effort. I’m a firm believer in it or I wouldn’t be running two clubs on it.

FundScrip: I see; now do you folks do all your orders individually online, or do you take..

Cheryl: Yes.

FundScrip: Ok, so everybody is responsible for their own – do you all use the Electronic Funds Transfer mechanism?

Cheryl: I believe almost everyone is. I might have one person that does credit card, I’m not 100% sure.

FundScrip: I see, and how’s the feedback been on that?

Cheryl: Um, good… I’ve had no concerns, no complaints. Everyone’s happy with how it works.

FundScrip: Perfect. So, do you have any plans to increase your level of participation (well obviously you can’t do that in the soccer as you already have 100%) but in the figure skating?

Cheryl: Well we have our seasonal start again in September and we will have new people joining the Star Skate program and we’ll also have people that are leaving that have graduated. So, I think with the success that we can show this year, and just the way that people have talked about it in the arena, any new members will join on.

I can’t see a big influx, because it’s a really small club, but I can see our numbers growing by a few.

FundScrip: Now, do you ever encounter any resistance when you’re explaining the program to people?

Cheryl: No; if people aren’t interested – anybody’s that’s afraid of the ‘fundraising’ word – it’s their choice whether they want to do it or not. The money’s not for our organization, it’s for themselves. So if they choose not to, it’s no skin off my back.

FundScrip: And how do you go about maintaining supporter interest to ensure the money keeps flowing into the program month after month?

Cheryl: Well we order every second week and I send out reminders by email. We only just had our very first week that didn’t exceed the $4400 threshold and that was while on Spring break here, so I think lots of our families were away. So that was the first one since May.

FundScrip: Ok, so you understand that the purpose of this conversation is to help out other people in their own fundraising efforts and that we’ll be posting the substance of it on our blog – so bearing that in mind, would you have any advice for people starting a brand new program? What would you tell them to keep in mind?

Cheryl: I think you just have to have a keen and knowledgeable leader, and a good supporter. Like my rep is Shauna Trainor… you need somebody that is easy to get ahold of and very supportive. The program basically runs itself as soon as you get buy-in from the members.

FundScrip: And how’s your interaction been like with FundScrip personnel?

Cheryl: Good – it’s been great. Any questions that I or any members have had have been resolved as far as I’m aware.

FundScrip: That’s great! Any final thoughts that you might have that you think might help people out in their fundraising endeavours with the FundScrip program?

Cheryl: Well I can’t think of anything earth-shattering… it’s just that it works. It’s effortless; and for us it’s been a really good program.

FundScrip: So Tammy, can you tell me, are you familiar with the Fundrazr.ca blog?

Tammy: Yes I’ve taken a look at it…

FundScrip: Ok, so you know that we do interviews with people that are having some success with the program, just to find out how they’re going about achieving their fundraising goals; and then we share your experiences with the community so everyone can learn from each other. So, perhaps you could start us off by giving us some idea of what your fundraising project is all about.

Tammy: Ok, well first of all it’s for the Etobicoke Youth Concert Band which is a community group near Toronto that gets together about once a week to rehearse. We have an upcoming trip to California that the conductors wanted to fundraise towards in order to cut down on costs. So because the conductor had been invovled in this program [FundScrip] previously at a middle school where he had been conducting, and I had been one of the parents that was contributing to it, he asked me if I would take on the responsibility for the program for the band.

FundScrip: Do you have a child in the band?

Tammy: Yes, I have two actually.

FundScrip: That’s great!

Tammy: So, we decided to to do bulk orders a few times a year, spaced about a month and half to two months apart. So each member would put in an order form and also try to accumulate orders from their friends and family.

FundScrip: So how many people do you have involved in raising funds for the group?

Tammy: Well that has varied. The very first order we have very few; but the numbers have increased as we have continued to do new orders. Some people were unsure of, (even though I’d spoken to them on the phone), what exactly they were going to get in their first order. So I recommended that they start off with a small order to see what it’s like and their orders increased as time went on.

So I was thinking when I was originally approached to do this interview, what might be the main reason for the success of the program at the Etobicoke Youth Band, and we though that it’s probably because I’m also a teacher with the board, so I know many of the students personally, and so they don’t think of me as a parent and there’s a little more trust there that they’ll get what they’ve purchased. So when I’m talking with the parents in the group, I’m familiar with so many of them over the years.

Our first order that we did in April 2010 we had about 26 students that ordered cards…

FundScrip: And how big is your group?

Tammy: About 100. As the trip got closer in October, (of course some of the membership changes in September as well) we had about 50.

FundScrip: So you doubled your subscription rate…

Tammy: Right. Now, not all of the students are actually going on the trip because of different situations, but some of them are ordering small orders just to help out.

FundScrip: Sure – now how do you structure it? I’m certain there’s a set amount that each student has to raise for the trip assuming they were to fully fund it. Do you put it all in a pool, or is everyone responsible for their own… how does it work?

Tammy: We have two ways that they can use their money. They can choose a specific student to contribute to, and at the end of our fundraising that child would receive a cheque back for the amount raised. We also have a trip fund; and so some of the conductors as well as the directors have all tried to contribute to that as well as talking to their friends and family to get them involved.

And in November we had about 75 people participating by that time. There were a couple of students in the band whose parents owned companies and they were able to give the gift cards out as gifts… so they might order a large number of small cards so they could give them as gifts to their employees. One person actually approached her boss who went to their union and they purchased around 120 cards to give as gifts to their union members… and in that case that amount went directly to her child.

FundScrip: Wow, That’s great! So that’s a pretty aggressive growth curve; you’ve gone from 25 to 75% participation essentially. What do you think accounts for that?

Tammy: Well I send an email out every month the week before the order’s due; but again, I’m thinking that it’s because the fundraiser itself has a person heading it that everyone’s comfortable with contacting. And when you receive a call or email, if you can get back to them right away… you know that’s sort of key.

So initially I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to individual parents about the program and explaining the safety behind it – you know they were worried that they’d write this cheque and not receive something. And because I’d already been involved as a parent in it for a year… actually I’m astounded that there have never been any errors. We’ve had no errors in the $125,000 worth of gift cards that we’ve ordered. Even for example, when somebody ordered 120 Esso cards… 120 were always there. So I’m really impressed with the system itself.

FundScrip: Is this your first scrip oriented program for fundraising?

Tammy: Yes it is. Basically, all we’ve done in the past is gift baskets at the concerts…

FundScrip: I see; and how have the two fundraising methods compared?

Tammy: Well, personally I really like the program, because being involved in fundraising for different groups over the years, other than asking our own families, the last thing we want to do is ask people for more money. What I think most parents love about this program is that they can just do it themselves and earn money towards their child’s trip without having to try to earn funds from other sources. Again if they are asking from family and friends, I found the best approach is to just ask them if they want to buy their groceries for the next month or so in advance.

Myself, I have been buying all our gas and groceries over the past year with gift cards, so now I know exactly how much I need to get for each order.

FundScrip: So is that what the folks in your group primarily order: groceries and gas?

Tammy: Well that’s basically on everyone’s order form and then there’ll be a few more items as well. For example for gifts, or I’ll buy cards for stores where I usually buy clothes for the kids.

FundScrip: What have your supporters been saying about the program? What are their opinions?

Tammy: [laughing] I only hear if there’s a negative!

FundScrip: Oh really?

Tammy: Actually, there’ve been a few parents I saw at the concert who have said they love the program, and that it’s just so easy.

FundScrip: So if you were to speak to someone who was just starting a new program, what would be the best advice you’d give them to help ensure their success?

Tammy: I’m repeating myself, but I think you need to make sure you have one person who you can contact with any questions and not have to wait too long to get the answers. That one person needs to be as informed about the program as possible. For example, if you order Pizza Pizza, will the delivery person be able to take the card? Just knowing answers to questions like that assists a lot.

FundScrip has all this information on the Internet, but there’s so much there it can be overwhelming, so we learn as we go along and I guess it’s best to be able to talk with someone who’s done the program before.

FundScrip: That’s good advice… Overall, what would you say your opinion has been of FundScrip as a fundraising mechanism?

Tammy: Oh I think it’s fantastic. Out of all the fundraiers I have been involved with – anything from selling scarves to auctioning, and selling gift baskets – this is definitely the easiest. The other thing is while it’s terrific if you can find other people to help support the program, you do it all yourself too.

What happens a lot with fundraisers is for example when you’re doing baskets it’s coming out of the same pocket… the parents who are donating the items are then again purchasing them in the end. So in the end they say ‘Well, why don’t I just write you a cheque’; whereas with this fundraiser, you can actually earn something on your regular spending everyday – fantastic.

FundScrip: Well it seems kind of typical of a lot of fundraisers that I’ve heard of where people do purchase product to sell back to their inner circle of friends and family and you wonder why would you have a middle-man in that equation? Why wouldn’t you just give the money directly right?

Tammy: Exactly! The only way to avoid that is knocking on businesses doors and asking for donations; and I personally don’t like doing that. I hate asking for something for free.

FundScrip: And with FundScrip you’re just using money you’d be spending anyway…

Tammy: Exactly.

FundScrip: Well thanks very much for your participation with the interview Tammy, I’m certain everyone will be interested to see how well you’re doing with the program, so we’ll post it up for them to read on the blog!

FundScrip: So Linda, as you know, we have this blog at Fundrazr.ca that’s designed to help people with their fundraising efforts, and we hoped you could provide some insights based on your experience with the program. So maybe you could begin by telling us what your project is all about…

Linda: Hopefully I’ll be helpful to others, but I certainly would like a little help from others too, ’cause I’m a bit frustrated I must say. I’ve not been as successful as I would like to have been.

FundScrip: Oh really​? Have you checked out the blog?

Linda: Ah, I had some time ago, but I haven’t done that recently I must admit.

FundScrip: Well you might find some great stuff there that might help; but I know your rep is quite willing to offer suggestions…

Linda: She’s awesome. She’s just awesome. I mean the timely response is wonderful and she’s always there with an easy fix to any issues – she’s very good.

Our group is a swim club; mostly kids. We have beginners – not beginner swimmers, we have beginner competitive swimmers – up to a handful of national and international competitive swimmers. We have a group of about 80 families. So pool fees and administration fees are quite expensive. So this [FundScrip gift card fundraising] is an attempt to help everyone at the club out and to help each individual family with expenses.

What we do is, when the profits come in, half goes to our club, and half goes to the swimmer’s family who’s made the order through FundScrip or their direct supporters, like grandma or whatever who are directly supporting that family. So we do a give-back to individual swimmers that can be used for in-house purchases including meet fees. So that’s how we give an incentive to families to participate, and also the incentive is that if we all participate, or most of us do, then we can keep our own club costs down, because half of it does go to the club.

FundScrip: And how many families do you have participating?

Linda: [sighs] Actively participating? Now about 5.

FundScrip: Oh wow.

Linda: Yeah. Many have signed up; probably about 15 but are not active. So I think there are a few roadblocks – one roadblock being getting them to buy into the program and get on their own computer (because I can’t do it for them) to sign up. The second roadblock is getting them to send in that EFT [electronic funds transfer] form. I have people who I’ve asked about it that say “yeah I should do that”… then I have I have the group that have signed up but haven’t filled out the EFT forms. I hand them the forms – they don’t have to download it through the website. I offer to fax it too; but I don’t want to appear to be a pest because people will run away when the see me.

So I have a whole group of people on my membership list who have not sent in the EFT form.

FundScrip: I see, and is EFT the only way you’re doing it?

Linda: It’s not; though it’s certainly the easiest way. One of our issues is the fact that we don’t have an office at our pool, and the coaches have requested the parents not sit on-deck, and there isn’t really a nice viewing area for our families at our pool. So they tend to do a pick-up and a drop-off.

FundScrip: So your opportunities to engage them on this issue are relatively limited I would expect.

Linda: They are, and I can see that that’s presenting a problem. So for families to sign up independently, instead of me just walking up to them and selling them cards, we have the EFT, and I also offered them the same 50% kickback if they place their order online (so I’m not doing all the work for them) and give me a cheque two days ahead of time. I mean it’s money in their pockets – it boggles my mind [why they wouldn't participate] – I just don’t get it.

FundScrip: Now how long have you been running this program?

Linda: Um, we were with a competitor of yours for a couple of years prior to coming to you, and this is the second year with FundScrip.

FundScrip: I see; and why did you move over?

Linda: Because we weren’t getting our rebate cheques for months and months, we were getting back-orders on cards, and when we needed to access them for customer service they didn’t get back to us – it was just an uncomfortable situation. When people are out several hundred dollars and were waiting 6-8 weeks for their cards…

FundScrip: Wow! Yeah that’s a long time. And that happened frequently?

Linda: Oh yeah… yes it did. So there was no question when I investigated (somebody had told me about FundScrip) and put a feeler out to other swim clubs that had just started using FundScrip or had been using it for a while, and they were very happy and reassured me that the cheque would come on time, there would be no back-orders, and that you would have time for customer service.

FundScrip: And your experience with that so far?

Linda: Absolutely on-board. I’m very happy. Unfortunately FundScrip has a smaller number of retailers to choose from than the last guys…

FundScrip: Well obviously having access to all these cards is fantastic – as long as you actually receive them… [laughing]I suppose it doesn’t matter what the selection is if you don’t get them for 6-8 weeks!

Linda: Oh that was a huge big deal! And obviously we weren’t just sitting around on our hands waiting for the cards to be delivered whenever the other company pleased. We would try to contact them, find out and encourage/demand that the cards be delivered because you know, you have our money… and calls and emails weren’t answered for lengthy periods of time – days and weeks.

Kathy [my FundScrip rep] calls me back within an hour. You know, if she didn’t… well it’s just never happened. You’re just so timely and my problems have never been “this family is out hundreds of dollars and has been for weeks can you help me out here?” There’s never been anything like that.

FundScrip: So given you guys don’t have much opportunity to interact with the parents, how do you handle communication with them?

Linda: We email. I’m at the pool some of the time, you know trying to do some face-to-face. But it’s mostly email. I have a list of the people who have signed up, whether they have sent in their EFT forms or not. Our order date is on Thursday; I send an email out to all of those families on the Monday of that week saying “your order date is coming up, look for the specials, make sure you have your EFT form in – you still have time”, and so on. On Wednesday morning, I send out another email: last call for your FundScrip orders. And the last couple of times I sent out an email saying “with just a few orders, this person has $60 in their account and so on… it’s not hard to do, it’ll take 5 minutes of your time” – I mean, I laid it on pretty thick and if I got a little trickle I’d be happy. I’m pretty frustrated.

So the other thing we’re doing is with the limited contact we do have with the families is we’ve purchased a very small amount of cards for direct sale; so I’m going to push that. When we do a direct sale however, there’s no kick-back to the family, because our whole organization is run by volunteers and we’re doing all the work… if you’re not doing any of the work then you aren’t going to get any of the money.

FundScrip: Ok so you have 5 families… what are your plans for getting more to participate? I know you have this problem, so obviously you’ve been thinking about it.

Linda: Yes, well the direct sale… if we do the direct sale with cards and you’re actually selling some cards and the money stays with club, it’s not a shared thing, so when you’re face-to-face with somebody who (and we’re keeping records of who’s buying the cards) is buying the cards all the time we can say “You know, if you did this on your own, you would have made this much money already, so you might want to do that”.

I don’t know if the EFT might be a little bit scary for them… I’m not hearing that directly…

FundScrip: So you think there may be some reluctance on behalf of your supporters or potential supporters in terms of signing up with the EFT… you think it’s a scary proposition for them?

Linda: I think so… when they realize that money gets withdrawn from their account. But this is one of the selling features of the program is that you can order at your own convenience and the money isn’t withdrawn from your account until the order date – so I try to promote that, but maybe that’s a bit counter-productive in the presentation.

FundScrip: Yes, but of course the same thing happens when you use an Interac card right? And people seem relatively comfortable with that… it’s just a different mechanism…

Linda: I know, I know. And nobody has come to me directly and said “You know what, I’d really rather write you a cheque because I’m just not feeling comfortable with this”.

I tell them all about it and hand them the forms. I tell them it’s bank protected and give them all the reassurances and then I just don’t get it back.

FundScrip: Hmm. Well I know that a lot of our program administrators essentially hold everybody’s hand at the beginning. They actually place all the orders, and they collect cheques and so on, until people become used to and comfortable with the program. Once they’ve achieved a certain scale that they can deal with in terms of the number of people that are involved, then they can transition them over to having them doing it on their own once the benefits and safety of the program have been demonstrated.

Linda: I’m thinking you know, is this blog supposed to be positive… you know about how what I am doing is really great?

FundScrip: [laughing]Generally, that’s what it’s supposed to be about…

Linda: I’m missing the boat here!

FundScrip: But if we can help you out and come up with some ideas here… other people might be in your situation too right? So, I don’t think that the blog should be all sunshine and roses. It’s got to be people’s real experience.

What I think we should do is turn the question over to our community and see what kind of suggestions they come up with – I’m certain that many have faced similar challenges and have overcome them.

Linda: That’s fine with me! Thanks for the help.

So, over to you folks. Let’s try and come up with some constructive ideas that address Linda’s issues and get her up and running with a significantly increased supporter base.

Summary of Linda’s Challenges:

• Little interaction with supporters or prospective supporters face-to-face
• No physical space (office) to interact with supporters
• Stiff competition for swimmers by other clubs with lower fees (not mentioned in quoted portion of interview but a factor for her in pushing fundraising)
• Reluctance of supporters to follow through on commitment to sign up for program and particularly EFT.
• Apparent supporter apathy with regard to the program
• The need, given the competitive environment, not to be too pushy and drive potential supporters away.

We, (and I’m certain Linda), would be thrilled if you could provide some constructive suggest or share stories of how you have overcome similar obstacles in your own fundraising efforts. Let’s all work together to improve our fundraising dividends!

FundScrip: Hi Pam, as you know we have a blog at Fundrazr.ca which is a collection of best practices from a fundraising through FundScrip perspective; and what it’s designed to do is help folks out that are just starting out with a new program with FundScrip or assist people that have an existing program improve the performance of it. So, maybe the first thing you could do is let us know what the fundraising project you’re involved with is all about.

Pam: Sure, so we are a competitive swimming club. Of course costs are high for any sports groups I’m sure; so how we use FundScrip to our advantage is that people purchase the gift cards, and then with that it becomes part of their fundraising commitment that they need to either pay off or work off. Some people choose to just pay it flat out, because for some it’s just easier if they don’t do any of the extras, while others do very well in this program.

So suppose a member earned $50.00 [with FundScrip], we do an 80/20 split with our members, so 80% of that 50 would go into their ‘credits’ as we call it, and the remaining 20 would be put towards our sports club.

FundScrip: Ok, so what is it exactly that you are raising money for?

Pam: Oh, for keeping our costs down for the most part, otherwise it’s paying for swim fees, paying for our pool, paying for our coaches and so on.

FundScrip: So what made you specifically get involved?

Pam: Well we have to go back to the beginning.We were initially involved with another scrip company along the same lines. There was another gal that was in charge of the program and it worked well for us at that point in time; however we had some issues that arose out of that program… So my sister-in-law in Battleford actually used FundScrip. So she was always talking about FundScrip; and the other gal that was doing it before, her kids are no longer swimming, so we joined the program; and because I enjoyed the card company fundraising end of it, I took it over.

FundScrip: Oh, I see – so what kind of issues were you experiencing with the other company?

Pam: Well with the other company we were having a lot of problems with the cards not coming in… I think they called it “back-ordered”. So I mean somebody would order $1000 worth of cards and get you know maybe $200 of the amount they paid for. And you know what, that’s money that’s already been spent. And yes, the cards eventually came in; but for sure they’d be at least a week later. And you know what? — that’s people’s money that you have. And then we were waiting and waiting and I think there was also some issues with the money coming in from the company as well. It would take a month to two months or three months.

FundScrip: Well that doesn’t sound good at all. So how has your experience compared with FundScrip along those lines?

Pam: FundScrip has been smooth; there have been no problems at all. You have a gal out here in Calgary, Shauna Trainor; she is wonderful. She’s really on top of her game. When I first contacted the company I think she phoned me in 10 minutes – which I so wasn’t ready for. The program was easy enough to get up and started with. It’s been smooth and simple. Getting the cards… even the courier I can pretty much time it to within two hours of when they will drop off the cards at my house. I know there were some courier changes that they [FundScrip] did, but again, that was all smooth at my end. There’s never been any issues ever that have arisen.

FundScrip: That’s great! So it seems there is a fairly stark contrast between the relative experiences.

Pam: Yep, it’s been very smooth.

FundScrip: So how long have you using FundScrip in total?

Pam: Well FundScrip we started in June of 09; so, 15-16 months?

FundScrip: I see; and how many people do you have fundraising for your group?

Pam: You know we only have about 40 families that take part in it, and we probably have about 70 families in total; but again, some people choose to, and some people choose not to. Out of those 40 that do, I’d say a solid 20 are doing a decent order every month; and some of them are only [participating] at Christmas.

FundScrip: Sure, so do have an idea of how much you’ve raised?

Pam: Well, yes I do. Since the beginning in June we’ve raised $6000.

FundScrip: Wow that’s excellent!

Pam: Which I think is very good. I’m very happy with that. Even the cheque I got back this last month – I got a $1000 check that came from FundScrip.

The other thing that works well with the program is that everything comes in their own individual envelopes. I mean, how much easier can that get? So I show up at the pool with my 15 envelopes and pass them out.

FundScrip: So your supporters mostly do their own ordering online themselves or do they pass their orders to you to process?

Pam: You know I try and get everybody to do their own, my reason being is that then they know what they are purchasing right? – and they know exactly what the percentage is. There are a few that aren’t that computer literate; but I had one grandma that actually contacted me here and she got into the program within the day. I wasn’t sure if she would be that computer literate, but then it was apparently very simple to her.

FundScrip: Have you tried any other fundraising methods in the past?

Pam: Well we have done a few in a sense, but that’s small potatoes. I know when we first started the club, we were new and I wasn’t in lead… there were always chocolates which people try to stay away from… spices… you know what? – that doesn’t fly for very long. It doesn’t last. It might be something you do once in a season; it’s not something you can do continuously.

FundScrip: So if you were to compare these other methods with FundScrip, I guess there’s not much of one from what you’re saying.

Pam: No. Nope. Nope. Nope. There sure isn’t. I don’t know what else there would be available. I look at the schools and they do their magazine sales once a year right? The only other stuff you can do for fundraising is once a year and sometimes it’s a lot more effort to do them too. At our swim meets we do have a raffle table set up, but that only brings in a couple of hundred dollars and that goes right to the club.

With FundScrip, when I was talking about that 80/20 split earlier, you’re still purchasing it for you. For the 80% that you have in your own funds [credits mentioned above] you can spend on your kids for something to do with swimming… it’s not yours to take out; it’s something that you have to buy through the club – whether you’re buying swimming suits, going to swim meets and using that for travel… that’s how we use it.

FundScrip: So what’s the feedback been like from your supporters? You say you’ve tried other things but they’re kind of one-offs. Given this is a continual fundraising effort, what have your supporters been saying about it?

Pam: Well because you have enough variety [in gift cards available] I think it’s very positive in that sense. But it’s through their word-of-mouth that really is how the program stays going. There are some parents that are there [at the pool] 5 to 6 days a week; and when I’m delivering the cards, that’s how you get the conversation going. It’s good, smooth, simple – I think that’s probably the easiest thing to say.

FundScrip: So you’re saying that in terms of promoting the program, your fundraisers are involved as well just by word-of-mouth.

Pam: Yep, for sure.

FundScrip: That’s great! So keeping in mind that this is for people that are starting up a new program or people that are trying to make improvements on their existing program, do you have any final thoughts?

Pam: Again, I’m going to have to come back to it’s so simple. It sells itself. That’s all there is. I don’t know if I can give you much more than that! You know you can put so many hours into some of those other programs for nothing in terms of money sometimes. This one is simple, sells itself, and you get lots of cash!

FundScrip: Well that’s excellent to hear. So it looks like we’re coming up on our time limit here so I’ll thank you again for your participation and we’ll post your comments up on the blog for our community to share. Thanks a lot, and best of luck in your continuing fundraising efforts!

Today we’re joined by Daniel McNamara who is in charge of fundraising for Calvary Christian Academy near Ottawa.

FundScrip: Hi Daniel! As you know, we have a website (Fundrazr.ca) which disseminates best practices on fundraising particular to the FundScrip program, and so we thought we’d talk about it with you to gain some insight into how you’ve succeeded with your fundraising efforts. Perhaps you can start us off by giving us an idea of what your fundraising project is all about?

Daniel: Ok, well I run the fundraising project for Calvary Christian Academy, which is a private school. Essentially the funds are used to fill wherever budget shortfalls occur. The school obviously doesn’t get provincial funding so the bills are all our own, so to speak. There are various fundraising programs within the school, but FundScrip is one that… well we’ve had it going for 8 years now [scrip fundraising in general] and we’re pushing it much harder this year because we’re trying to get people to understand that, particularly when it comes to things like gas and groceries, if you spend $100 at Independent or whatever, you’re paying cash for it, you’re not getting anything; whereas these corporations have offered discounts for spending money there – why not take advantage of it? This is especially true because we know these families are going to be spending money on gas and groceries, that’s almost a guarantee; it’s like breathing air.

So, we’d had problems with a competitor of yours in the past prior our joining FundScrip. We have about 92 families in the school and about 4 years ago we had about half of those, 40 families participating in the other company’s gift card program. When they failed to meet their obligations: late cards, cards that showed up without activations etc. etc., it really killed the participation from the families – so much so that in the first year we started with FundScrip [2 years ago], we only had 9 to 11 regularly participating families.

So this year we’ve put a major push on and set a goal of between $12,000 and $14,000, and we’re posting the proverbial thermometer in the hallway to show where we are at any given point.

FundScrip: That’s great – so how are you progressing toward your goals?

Daniel: This month it’s been well received and we’re actually ahead of our schedule. So, so far, I’d have to say that everything is going quite well, and this is the first month [of our annual campaign]. In previous years, families didn’t really come on-board until November or December, so if October is any indication of what we might see for the rest of the year, I’m fairly certain we’re going to exceed that goal.

FundScrip: So what made you get involved personally?

Daniel: Well, it was a program that was started by another school family member, and she moved on to other fundraising projects, and when my oldest daughter first started going into school I was approached. I have an accounting degree so I suppose they felt that someone familiar with numbers would probably do well trying to run the program. I felt that it was certainly a fundraising program that should work; I didn’t see any reason not to take advantage of that type of discount structure from corporations. Otherwise these guys don’t normally offer – you can’t just come in off the street and say give me 2 or 3 percent [of my purchase] and I’ll hand it over to my school as a fundraiser. Programs like FundScrip make that possible; and again this is money that without a shadow of a doubt people are going to be spending anyway, and this is a good way to take advantage of it.

FundScrip: You mentioned you were having some issues with the other scrip company you were with; and you had some falloff in terms of participation as far as your membership goes; how did you encourage uptake of the program once you’d changed over to FundScrip and it was a fresh start and you wanted to get the ball rolling – what did you do to reinitialize the program?

Daniel: Well, the number one obstacle that we faced was gaining confidence in the program. We have a lot of families, you know typical families that of course have children, have mortgages etc. and they budget for these things. For example, with the other company you’d order $200.00 worth of grocery cards and they don’t show up on the Thursday or the Friday that they’re supposed to, what does the family then do? Do they forego groceries for a week because you know chances are they’ve already issued the payment for those cards, So we had a hard time trying to convince people.

Both Barb and I who’s my partner in FundScrip had a conversation with Kate Smith [our FundScrip AdminCare rep.] and we were given reassurances that things were run differently at FundScrip than they were at our old company. So the first year was really kind of a feeling out process with a lot of families who stood by the sidelines and waited to see if the cards were showing up on time, were they the right quantities etc.

So, last year we tried to make a point to let people know that, yes, speak to some of the participating families and see if they’re getting the cards on-time and the right denomination and that yes, they’re activated. As the year progressed, we found there was a bit more interest near the end, so much so that this year we’ve regained confidence from the families in that they can budget and use this program to help the school without having to worry about their budgets being destroyed by cards not showing up when they’ve already paid for them. So last year was more or less a trial run to show people that FundScrip does have their infrastructure in order and that we can use this company and have it work for the school for raising funds.

FundScrip: So since the switchover what has the experience been like in comparison?

Daniel: Honestly, it’s night and day. This is my 6^th year running a program and the other company, even at their best, was not as reliable as you’d want it to be. You know, everybody makes mistakes, there’s nothing perfect in life; but the two previous years before I went with FundScrip, between you and I and the fencepost [I guess that means you dear reader], my feeling was – and I’ve been in business for a long time and I can smell it – that the other company was having financial strife: perhaps cash-flow problems. There were actually two instances where I didn’t see the cards for two to three weeks. You know you cannot run a weekly program at all when you’re waiting two to three weeks for these orders to come in. Then when they showed up, they were the wrong denominations – these were absolute disasters – and who were they going to call? They were going to call me because I’m running this system!

So it’s very difficult to assuage people’s concerns when I don’t have any answers, and to be honest with you, I didn’t have any answers. So to get back to your original question, with FundScrip I have not had one single complaint. Not one at all. Kate is my AdminCare rep; I’ve written to her manager that I’m more than well pleased. She’s been absolutely professional. I find that the FundScrip system is very streamlined, very easy to navigate through. The cards are showing up when they’re supposed to show up, there are no hidden fees, no hiccups. To be honest with you, I’d say right now that we’re emphatically pleased with the way things have been going… so much so that this is the reason why we’re really trying to push the program this year because we have that level of confidence to be able to do so.

FundScrip: Well that’s great to hear! So what’s the feedback been from your supporters now that the change has been made?

Daniel: Excellent! Because, I mean, essentially these families want to be able to participate given it’s helping the school. We have a high debt load from the construction and whatnot; and this is one means to try to lower that debt load or pay for regular maintenance without costing the school more money than it should. So these families, they want to participate, and knowing full well that they’re going to spend their $400 a month in groceries, but at the same time, now they’re getting a percentage back that goes directly to the school. So for them they’re very eager to participate in the program because they know it works and they can budget things: they know they’ve written a cheque for the cards and they’re going to show up on time like clockwork. That in itself will probably help us get the non-participating families to get more involved.

FundScrip: That’s very gratifying to hear. So, you say you have a big push on this year; how do you go about communicating with your supporters, and how do you maintain supporter interest?

Daniel: Well, we’ve got a school newsletter and again, we’re putting the thermometer in the hallway so that people, when they come through the front door, they can see where the program is, what our goal is, where we are at at any given moment. Barb and I correspond with the board members of the school; so we submit weekly updates at this point to show how many families are involved, and what kind of earnings we’ve had. The board then turns that around into our school newsletter, where they send it out to parents saying that, you know, this is what the program has generated for the month of October, this is how many families we have involved and then of course there’s a message at the end of it saying “if you haven’t signed up for the program or you want to know more, please contact either myself or Barb”.

So for September and October, that was the direction we had taken to keep the interest there because we still have about 2/3 of the families who haven’t committed. We’re really trying to get it so that come December, we’ve reversed that and captured 2/3 of them. You’re never going to get everybody; that’s the bottom line; but if we can get, we figure, 2/3 of the families participating at this rate there’s no way that we’ll fail our goal. To be honest with you we’ve been pitching $12,000 but have really been hoping for $18,000 to $20,000 which is completely viable if we had 2/3 of the families committing their gas and groceries to the project.

That being said, we picked a very low target in hopes of being able to show the thermometer bursting at the seams so to speak so that people will say “wow this has been a great success”. You want a realistic target… if I say $20K and we get $18K, people will go “oh, we were so close!”; but if I say $12K and we raise $18,000 they go “Wow! What a monumental success this was”. You know we’re trying to find ways next year to get it even higher.

FundScrip: Excellent – so any final thoughts or advice for people who are potentially looking to start up a fundraising program through FundScrip?

Daniel: More so than anything else, I feel that it’s a program that will generate the funds for whatever whatever activity of function it’s being used for. As a sideline, we had interviewed other scrip companies, but we felt the most confidence with FundScrip based on those interviews and certainly we knew that we had to move from the other company. Our choice was either find somebody new or discontinue the program because the previous supplier was not working. I highly recommend FundScrip; so far, I’ve not had a single mistake – that’s in two years and we order four times a month, so you figure out the batting average there. There’s a lot of room for potential mistakes and we haven’t had one. Because of that, we’re able to gain the confidence of supporters and again this is a program that generates money from daily, monthly, weekly purchases. You could walk into any of these stores otherwise and you wouldn’t get a percentage from them – it just doesn’t happen. So, the reality is, why not take advantage of these corporate structures that say, “if you buy our cards through FundScrip, you save 2,3,4,5… sometimes 10 percent towards what your goals are”. This is money that the average person spends – will always spend – why not get something from it?

I wouldn’t have done this program for six years (particularly the two years with the other company that I like to call the ‘dark ages’) if I didn’t believe that this program worked. But the facilitators have to know that the company they’re with is a reliable one, and we’re very confident with FundScrip.

FundScrip: That’s fantastic! Well we’ll thank you for all the great info you’ve provided and we’ll be posting the substance of the interview up on the blog – thanks again Daniel.

We recently sat down with Gail Wensink, FundScrip Group Administrator for St. Paul’s United Church in Bowmanville, Ontario, to speak about the church’s choice to use the FundScrip program.

For more information about St. Paul’s United Church, you can visit their Lion Lamb Blog where you’ll find David Mundy’s personal blog. David is now in his 31th year as a United Church minister and has kept a personal journal for 25 years. His blog contains his musing in a journal-like format, without the classified stuff!

Unique feature to their website is that parishioners can catch up on the sermons online here.

***************

FundScrip: Hi Gail, as you know we have a website that’s devoted to best practices in fundraising by way of the FundScrip program, and what we thought we’d talk to you about today about is your fundraising project, what it’s all about, how you got involved and that sort of thing; so maybe you could start by telling us that.

Gail: Ok, well a couple of years ago now, our church was looking for ways to fundraise, and this method had been mentioned – about selling gift cards – and it’s really great obviously because you aren’t asking anybody to purchase anything they don’t really need or want or can’t use; and it’s no extra money out of anyone’s pocket. If they don’t mind purchasing with gift cards, then they can be fundraising for the church at the same time. So it seemed like an idea fit.

We used to save our grocery [cash register] tapes for years for some grocery store – I believe it was A&P – and hand them in, but it was a lot of work for somebody to tally them all up and then we got a little bit [of money] back; but then they ceased that program. While that program was going, I thought “well I prefer to shop at a different grocery store” and I had actually looked into what Loblaws did [in terms of fundraising programs], and apparently you could buy bulk gift cards directly from Loblaws at a discount and then sell them to your members. However, the church never has any money on hand so that they can go out and spend a couple of thousand dollars on the cards, and I hesitated to even suggest it because, you know, you had all that amount on-hand all the time sitting there waiting for you to sell them, and I didn’t know how many other people might be interested in it.

So, anyway, at a board meeting, when it became clear that there were a couple of board members who were really anxious to get this started, and while they wanted to participate, they didn’t want to do it [administration of the program]. So when they were looking for a person to set it up and go with it, I volunteered. We signed up with another company, and that worked well for almost a year until suddenly we started having terrible back-order problems. Sometimes half my order would be back-ordered. So I had a lot of people’s money and nothing to give them in return and it was not a good picture.

Then we heard about FundScrip, and decided to look into it. It looked to me that it was pretty much the same type of program, only with a guarantee of no back-orders, which for me was a huge bonus. So we made the switch and we’ve had excellent service ever since. It sure is an easy way to raise money.

I’m still working on getting people in the habit of never shopping with cash: I tell them, “If you use a credit card or you use some other method, ok you’re collecting points, but if you’re shopping with cash, you’re leaving money behind when you buy your groceries that could be coming back to the church.” So I’m seeing increased interest in it all the time.

FundScrip: Well that’s great! So how many people do you have involved in fundraising for your group?

Gail: Well as far as helping me with this program, I just have one person for backup – and honestly she’s never had to enter an order or do anything, but it is handy to have her tallying up the cheques while I take their orders. Then we make sure I know what cheques are being handed in to the church before I come home to place the order. So it is better to have to [sets of] hands than one.

The program is for our general fund so it’s not for a specific cause at the church. It’s just that, you know, just like every church these days from what I hear, we’re in dire straits just in terms of meeting the everyday expenses. So, once I hit the “Oh, we’ve raised $1000.00” point, even the minister began to perk up his ears and start talking it up, and he and his wife started participating more.

I think the more people do, the more other people think “Oh, it must be ok”, because there’s getting to be quite a crowd that are purchasing cards.

FundScrip: So, how many people are actually supporting your church through FundScrip?

Gail: Well I would say about – over the course of time – I’ve had 30 to 40 families that have participated at some point… some more than others. Some haven’t become repeat orders but others have, and I actually have one gal – actually two gals – that go online and place their own orders and say “Wow it’s so simple that way” and of course it saves me work too.

FundScrip: So are you trying to encourage more of your supporters to go that route?

Gail: Oh absolutely, yes. I’ve been pointing out how easy it is, and actually just this week I sent out a notice to everyone that orders that I have an email address for, and I let them know that we’d be doing an extra order this week, because I’d been ordering once a month and I know a lot of people missed it this month for some reason or other and I had a couple of people come up to me last week wanting to place an order and I said “Oh, I’m delivering [the cards] this week; you’ve missed it”.

So I thought “Ok, let’s see how this goes.”, and I’ve got it here: it’s over $2000.00 in orders today, so it was a good thing to do. I may find that my orders are smaller in size and don’t qualify for free shipping this way if I continue to do this, but I thought that I’d give it a try doing it more often.

FundScrip: Do you find that people are often ordering the same items on a recurring basis?

Gail: Yes, the majority do. They have their favourite grocery stores and some do a mix of two or three grocery stores and that’s fine too, but they seem to do the same ones every month. One of the gals that does it online has made hers an automatically recurring order…

FundScrip: Ah; so don’t you think that would simplify your life considerably if more folks would shop that way?

Gail: It would… and even them going online and placing it. I think if they go online and do it themselves they will soon see the benefits of doing it as a recurring order, but we haven’t quite reached that point yet.

Another interesting thing is, I spoke to another local church before I was with FundScrip actually – I went and spoke to their board of stewards, and told them all about it and how simple it was and how it just took a little bit of time from the person who was coordinating it. So, it took them a year honestly to find somebody who would take it on. Eventually they did get two gals who would take it on together and they started doing it.

But I thought it was funny I didn’t hear that they’d joined and I actually asked Kathy about it; and it turned out that they joined the wrong one – they’d signed up with the old company I used to use. I had sent a message through my sister (because it’s her church) “tell them not to join that one, tell them to use FundScrip”. But anyway, I guess the message didn’t get through.

So I was talking to my sister, and I was telling her that she was with the wrong company – she’s one of the coordinators – and I explained to her some of the differences: like that orders all come in their sealed envelopes with the recipient’s name on them; so you don’t even have to sort the cards and she said “Wow, that would be a huge bonus”. And I said, “So, you’re getting good service are you?” and she said, “Well we’ve had a few back-orders but not too many” so, I said, “well you definitely are not with the right company!”

FundScrip: That’s great! So, what kind of strategies do you use to encourage participation from your supporters?

Gail: Well, I’ve spoken from the pulpit a couple of times. I’m not much of a public speaker, but I have gotten up in the pulpit a couple of times and explained that it’s so simple – nothing to it – and that was back of course in the beginning when I was with the other company. And I do print off the monthly specials and I have that on my table. I have a table set up pretty much every Sunday at church where people can place orders and I have a big sign: it’s like a fold out cardboard stand. It’s about 2 ½ feet high and when it’s opened it takes up the whole card table. So I put the monthly specials up on there and I have a pouch on there that holds the order forms. There’s always something new on that board that they can see, and when the monthly specials come out I also usually post those on the church bulletin board.

I think I’m going to start doing at least monthly emails if not every time I’m going to place an order. I think I’ll send one the middle of the week before, because some people forget to bring their chequebook on Sundays. I haven’t been particularly encouraging them to give me their email addresses, but I think I’m going to start. I’ve built myself up a contact list that I just hit to send them a message, and I would say this week 8 people ordered, and some of these people had just picked up an order last Sunday from me, and they were all on the list that got my email, so that tells me the email helped.

In the email I actually copied part of Kathy’s email to me to tell them what the monthly specials were and explained to them that I was going to start placing orders every couple of weeks from now until Christmas, just to see how that went.

I feel a little bit competitive with this other church!

FundScrip: Ok, so given, as you know, this is a conversation that we’re going to share with other groups and people who are potentially looking to start up a new program with FundScrip, what would be the main advice you would give someone who was just starting out and brand new in the program?

Gail: Just, I think you know, that it’s quite exciting. I certainly got that out there at first that “this is really exciting folks; without spending another cent on anything you don’t buy anyway, you could be getting money back for the church.” I took that approach right from the get-go, that it’s really an exciting program and the way it works best is if everybody gets behind it and at least give it a try. And you know I like the way they see just how much they’ve contributed, it’s on their envelopes every month when they get their cards… I just think it’s great. We aren’t asking you to purchase anything, just to purchase in a different way. Also it’s a really good feeling – I brought it out when I did speak to the congregation – that it’s kind of neat knowing that “Oh I’m stopping for groceries tonight and I don’t have to touch my bank account… they’re already paid for.” And I know you’ve paid for them ahead of time but I’ve actually had people say to me that not only is it good for budgeting, but it’s a really good feeling when you go to the grocery store and it’s not, “Oh I wonder how much it’s going to cost”, it’s already been paid for.

So I think it’s an exciting program, and I think if they start off with that message it encourages people to try it and see how easy it is.

FundScrip: Well that’s excellent Gail, we really appreciate your time today for providing some insights on the program that we can share with our existing and future groups. Best of luck with your continuing fundraising efforts!