The first company we worked with was New England Scrip. We had nothing but problems. Cards on backorder - never knowing when our order would arrive and if it would be complete or not. We also had a terrible time last Christmas with this company with missing cards and delivery. This caused a big problem with our parents at the school. NES actually had a customer go and pick up their order - over 1-1/2 hours away instead of overnighting it - only to find out it was incomplete. If you ever called with a problem you constantly got an answering machine and you were lucky to receive a phonecall or return email. I do not recommend NES. Since then we found GLSC. We have had nothing but wonderful service! It has been almost a year that we have been with this company. Every card we have ever ordered has been received - and on time! Every time I have called the company with a question, I have always spoken to a live person. If I had to leave a message, I did receive a call back the same day or an email. Don't be fooled by others GLSC is great in our eyes!

Thank you Critter & Supermom06 for the replies. Truly appreciate the info given!

I am a PTO President and we also participate in a SCRIP program. When we began the program, we opened a separate bank account so that we could keep track of the money for that program. It was much easier this way because the SCRIP money moved more often than our regular budget money. We also use the school's tax id number. Our only 2 differences are that we are a public school and that our SCRIP Coordinators did not have access to the bank account. I know this because I was the coordinator last year. Only the Board had access to this account. This way it could be tracked throughout the year. I honestly believe that having the account separate is your best option, but you must be involved. SCRIP can get away from you easily and it is sometimes hard to notice mistakes until it is too late. Trust me, I speak from experience. Good Luck!!!

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm just going by what you've written...but it sounds to me like the issue is the church's, not the parent group's. If the scrip money is help in an account owned by the church's tax id number, then the church owns the money. Maybe this is how other parochial schools with large scrip programs handle it, but seems to me you have two separate parent groups: one set up for parent involvement, and one set up for fundraising (the scrip committee). And periodically, the scrip group makes a donation to the other parent group in the form of a bank account transfer. I wouldn't be comfortable with a loose system, but I'd take my concerns to the parish priest or other head of the church/school.

If you're handling $1,000's of scrip money, as I suspect you are, it seems cleaner to me to keep it in a separate account. Scrip generates a ton of transactions and a ton of money. HOWEVER, who is overseeing the financial controls of the scrip group?

Before I got too focused on consolidating bank accounts, I'd focus on ensuring the finanical controls are in place so everyone feels secure with the money handling. Do you get monthly financial reports from the scrip group? Are all transactions documented properly? Is there a separation of duty in the scrip processing? Are checks and balances in place?

One of the biggest risks with scrip (though it's a pretty cool fundraiser) is the potential for the person who is placing the order with the scrip company to "tack on" a card or two that haven't actually been paid for yet. It could be innoccent or purposeful. All it takes is for the scrip coordinator to think, "here I am placing our week's scrip order and I would really like to get a Victoria's Secret $50 gift card for Aunt Millie's birthday, but I haven't gotten paid this week yet. It's ok. I'll just add that card to our order and pay the kitty next week when I pay. No harm done." Yikes! When we did scrip, I found it nearly impossible to reconcile this sort of thing due to the timing of transactions and the lack of information flowing between the coordinator and me, the treasurer.

Ideally, one person should take the customer orders, verify the money, and prepare the consolidated scrip order. That info should be handed off to another person who actually places the order with the scrip company. Another person should verify that the scrip ordered matches the scrip that your customers paid for. And someone else should open the scrip package when it arrives and match cards to customers. If all those financial controls are in place, I'd feel better about all that money moving around in its own little world.

I am a new president of a parent group in a small private school. One of my first goals in the position was to join the 3 separate bank accounts into the main parent group account. 2 of the accounts are already in process to accomplish this goal but the one account that is separate for Scrip has not. The volunteers in charge of scrip have refused to comply and are prepared to present their reasons at an upcoming meeting.

From a fiduciary duty point of view I believe that having an account separate from the parent group main account solely for scrip (biggest fundraiser for parent group) set the parent group for potential dilemmas and future financial problems. Neither the treasurer of the parent group or the president (or any other executive team parent group member) has access to the scrip bank account. Only the individuals running the scrip program have said access. The parent group is not separate from the school and the school is not separate from the church's nonprofit tax id number and therefore my fear is of major repercussion to all constituents should something be mishandled by keeping scrip bank account separate.


Have any of you run into this type of situation? Do you have any words of wisdom or factual information of what is required from a financial and/or legalistic point of view? Are scrip funds required by law(s) to be kept in a separate bank account?

Please any and all info is most welcomed!

Guilt by assocaition is strong- when Millions of stolen $$$ have been involved