I know many tuition-based schools do this and the one I personally know of handles $100,000's of scrip money every year. It's a huge job with huge financial exposure and huge responsibilities. But, it can be a big win/win for the school/parents.
I wondered if this sort of fundraising would violate the IRS's rules about personal benefit from a non-profit organization. A while back, I found an opinion at www.ptolaw.com
on this specific issue--basically, it's ok to allocate some of the profits to the family as long as the money is used only for the intended discount, and not paid to the family in cash.
Our school is trying to "move up to the big leagues" with our SCRIP program. We've heard of other schools making 10's of thousands of dollars with theirs, but the best year we had was about $7000 profit with a parent volunteer coordinating the program. Last year the office ran the program and it only broke even.
That said, they are wanting a parent to run the program again, but try something new to get more family participation, like splitting profits with families and allowing them to apply profits towards tuition. This would take a lot of time, coordination, and responsibility. Therefore, nobody is eagar to volunteer to coordinate this. Has anyone out there given incentives to their Scrip coordinator such as a deduction in their tuition? I've thought about a percentage of the profits to be applied to the coordinator's family tuition, but how much? Or maybe a specific deduction? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!!?????
Sorry for the lengthy message! I'll try to get better in the future at getting to the point quicker! Thanks!