Is anyone involved with a scrip fundraising program?

[disneysteve]

Largely thanks to my research, our synagogue is starting a scrip fundraising program. For those not familiar with scrip, it is a system of purchasing gift cards at a discount and selling them at full face value. The gift cards are the same ones you would buy at stores, restaurants, theaters, hotels, etc. Since the organization gets a discount on the cards, they make money on every sale, from about 2% up to 18% depending on the store. The buyer gets full value for his purchase but gets to help the organization at the same time without spending an extra penny.

I'm wondering if any of you have experience working with a scrip program through your schools or religious organizations. I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions since we are just starting out. How did you spread the word about the program? How successful was/is your program? Do you do anything special to promote it?

[Shzasaver2]

I was involved with the Scrip program at the schools my children have attended. It is a great program but it takes work to get people to realize it does not cost them a dime and they are still raising funds.
It also requires a few people to continualy maintain the data base(I did this part, several hours a week), sell the scrip (where and when will it be sold) and maintain the stock(also about 1 hr week).
We did have Business owners participate. They would use it in various ways such as, employee gifts during the holidays, paying off their business expenses such as lumber, or gas cards for company vehicles, etc.

We also asked local business, such as grocery stores or restaurants to allow us to purchase discounted gift cards and resell them. (Great way for the local business to generate extra business.)

It is a great way for families to budget! I still use it personally as a budget tool for groceries, gas, clothing (my teenage kids love a gift card to use for clothing purchases), books, restaurants, etc.. And in some cases, it can be used to pay off or down credit cards at local chain stores such as Kohl's but check into this before advertising it. Some do not allow it anymore.

It was a huge challenge to get people away from the credt card. Everyone wanted to buy the scrip with their credit card but the credit card fees for the school would have eaten into our profit so we never intiated it. So only about 25% of the families participated. If we could have had 100% particiation it would have ended all other fundraiser. We could never get people to see this as a great goal. But this was before this most recent economic downturn. You may have more luck since many people now want to pay cash and not use their credit cards since rewards programs have been reduced.

I know it is a great program but you really need to sell the idea to people to use the gift cards.
Good luck!