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Online school donations just a mouse-click away
By Michelle Alaimo
Internet savvy shoppers in Cupertino and Sunnyvale are finding that donating to their local school can be as simple as the click of the mouse. With companies like Schoolpop, eScrip, and SurfMonkey, parents can purchase anything from food to computers and still earn money for the school of their choice.
Schools are raking in the financial benefits with internet and electronic-based fundraising programs, earning hundreds to several thousand dollars a month. The funds come as incentive programs from purchases made on-line or at participating stores.
"[These programs] are definitely raising our profit and lessening our workload," said Sunnyvale Middle School parent Debra Loomis.
Parents and Electronic Scrip Incorporated (eScrip) officials said one of the main benefits of Internet and electronic-based fundraising is that schools no longer need to stock large amounts of scrip.
Scrip is a type of gift certificate commonly used at grocery stores and sold to schools at a discount. In the past, school organizations had to purchase the scrip in advance, without knowing how much they would sell. Volunteer parents also had to be on campus before and after school to sell the script.
With eScrip, all of the hassle is eliminated, said Joanne Remillard, eScrip's executive vice president of community groups.
Schools simply enroll in the free program and, in return, receive a packet of registration materials and hints on how to sign up parents. Parents can log on to the company's website and print out an enrollment form and register their credit cards and grocery discount cards, or they can register through a toll-free number.
Each time a purchase is made at a participating merchant using a registered card, the sale is tracked. Retailers then set aside a certain sales percentage, based on a previously set amount by the retailer for the school of that cardholder's choice.
Schools then receive a monthly statement detailing which parents made the purchases. The money the school earns is electronically transferred into an account of the school's choice, Remillard said.
"Our program is built around the many merchants where you spend most of your dollars," Remillard said. "We see real high-earning potential for these schools."
Local merchants participating in the program include Whole Foods Market, Fresh Choice, Round Table Pizza, Web Van and Safeway. Remillard admits that eScrip really took off last September when Safeway made the move to use the electronic scrip program rather than their paper-based program.
West Valley Elementary School fundraiser and parent Jody Gosnell said the money earned adds up fast. The school puts money it receives from various fundraising programs into the West Valley Educational Endowment Fund. The fund pays for teachers' aides, physical education teachers and other school personnel.
WVES earned nearly $460 from $14,909 in sales of eScrip in January, The school is one of the top 10 eScrip schools in the Cupertino-Sunnyvale area. St. Joseph of Cupertino is the number one school in the area, with total purchases of $43,146 and January earnings of $1,283.
Remillard said eScrip has helped schools earn more than $2 million since April 1999.
Gosnell's school, as others, also uses Schoolpop, an Internet-based shopping mall with over 190 stores. As much as 20 percent of total sales revenue from the site is distributed back to participating schools. Schoolpop Founder Rea Callender started the enterprise in January 1999, in order to help schools have more efficient supplemental funding.
"Schoolpop simplifies the process of fundraising for everyone involved, making it an easy, direct, hassle-free way to support local schools," Callender said.
WVES recently received nearly $1,700 from Schoolpop for purchases made for the last three-month quarter. SMS received nearly $370 for the same quarter. Callender adds that Schoolpop helped schools earn almost $600,000 in the last quarter alone.
Loomis said Schoolpop is great for middle and high schools where parents are a little less involved in schools because of busy lifestyles. One parent at SMS even bought a computer from the Schoolpop website, earning $50 for SMS, Loomis said. Both Loomis and Gosnell agree that the Schoolpop organization is one of the most supportive programs they work with. Gosnell said Schoolpop even sent a staff member out to man a booth at a recent school event.
Other Internet companies, such as SurfMonkey, also are scrambling for school support and parental dollars. SurfMonkey offers an online shopping center and recently launched its school-based fundraising program in February. While not many schools in the Cupertino-Sunnyvale are registered for the program yet, parents said they already have found the site and are making purchases that will benefit their favorite schools.
Gosnell said that WVES recently signed up with SurfMonkey after company officials notified them that parents had already made purchases toward her school.
For more information on how to sign up with some of these fundraising programs, check the company websites at www.schoolpop.com, www.surfmonkey.com, www.escripinc.com. Parents can also look for the company logos on their school's website.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
