Audra,
That is such a cute idea! Yes, that is what we need to do!! So many of our parents can not understand exactly what SCRIP is and think they will be giving more than they receive. Our PTO will be movie stars too and they don't even know it yet!
This site is soooo great and thanks for the idea!
We made a few of our PTO officers, office staff and a clerk at Schnucks movie stars!!! We video taped one of our moms going into the office and asking the important questions about SCRIPS.
1. What are they?
2. Do they cost me anything?
3. How do I use them?
4. This sounds too good to be true, what's the catch?
5. How can I order them?
We focused soley on the grocery stores first. We then taped them USING the Store Bucks (SCRIPS) at Schnucks. It was cute and got the point across to our parents that it really is easy and its FREE money for our school. We focused on how it is "getting in a routine" of purchasing the SCRIPS.
At the end of the video, we included a very quick, one minute informational segment. Another wonderful parent dressed in a cap and gown and stood in front of a chalk board and highlighted a simple equation:
If we have 100 families purchase $100 a month in SCRIPS that would equal:
100 familes x $100.00 a month = $10,000
$10,000 x 9 months = $90,000
$90,000 x 4% = $3600.00 OF FREE MONEY FOR OUR SCHOOL!!!
Since the video, (we showed it at our Back to School Bash) our SCRIPS profits have sky rocketed! Our families are now ordering, grandparents, neighbors..etc. It is awesome!
We are a private school, so we have parents picking up more than public schools, but another idea is to have a SCRIPS DRIVE THRU. We had parents volunteer to sell the SCRIPS in our parking lot after school for approximately 30 mins. Many of our parents appreciated not having to get out of the car, go in and make a purchase. (especially for many moms who have little ones that may be sleeping or sick)
Don't give up! It took us three years to get this program going at the speed it is now. Parents are soooooo busy these days. It took a little encouraging for them to honestly look at how easy this is but how profitable it can be.
We send home flyers in late October to push the Merchant Cards (Bath & Body Works, restaurants, etc)We remind everyone how they can be used for Christmas gifts. We push another campaign in April to highlight the cards for graduation gifts and as incentives or chore rewards during the summer.
Hope this helps! Dont give up! This is a wonderful program!
We call two local schools in our area that use a different scrip vendor. We rec'd great references on this vendor. They said profits are actually higher and turnaround is 2-3 days. If you're interested in who we're switching to, email me.....
I quess everyone is having problems with SCRIP. I can't get anyone to return my e-mails and today I called and was advised that their computer was done and they could not track incomplete orders. I placed my first order on 8/6 and 2nd one on 8/28 and I have yet to receive either one of them. And it is well over the new 10-14 day turn around. Our parent participation is better if we can fill on demand so we order what we think will appeal to them and just pray we sell it all. It has worked good so far but with these new guidelines I don't see how I can convenience more parents to participate. Especially with them not receiving their order 10-14 days but yet I deposit their check. We are going into our 2nd year with SCRIP and I had BIG plans but don't know now.
Someone recently emailed and I advised them on our scrip vendor. Just found out this week their profits have been slashed and their return time was 2-3 days and is now 10-14 days!! If you email me, I can let you know who we have referenced, researched and are now switching to. Sorry for some bad info...