Goodbye BakeSales, Hello Internet: Going Online For School Fundraising (NAPS)—More and more consumers are shopping online—and raising money for schools and local PTA organizations at the sametime. “E-fundraising” is an increasingly popular alternative to tradi- tional fundraising activities. From the comforts of home, committed parents, grandparents and other consumers are shopping online at their favorite merchant Web sites and designated schools or PTA organizations receive a percentage of the proceeds from their purchases. Thousands of schools andlocal parent organizations are already participating in No more bake sales? There’s now a simpler way for parents to help raise money for school and other organizations. these programs. For example, visitors who log onto SchoolCash.com (www.school cash.com) designate a school or local PTA organization to support. own pockets every year to provide classroom supplies, videos and other instructional materials. For teachers who are constantly burdened with the rising they purchase from more than 200 well-known participating online raising programs such as Teacher- Then, it’s shopping as usual, as costs of school supplies, e-fund- merchants, including Buy.com, Points.com (www.teacherpoints. com) give teacherspoints for shop- Flowers and Gifts, PetSmart.com, Cooking.com and Amazon.com. can then be put toward the pur- Gap.com,eToys, OfficeMax.com, PC Schools and organizations then receive rebates of up to 20 percent off online purchases. A typical e-fundraising scenario workslike this: A dad buys a $178 suedejacket online and his desig- ping at more than 150 leading merchant Web sites. These points chase of classroom materials from Officemax.com and other online merchants. Under this program, purchasesare not limited to what teachers spend on classroom supplies—points are also accrued receives $7. Parents find that the beauty of e-fundraising is that through everyday spending on goods andservices for personal or household needs. ManyU.S. classrooms lack the necessary tools and materials shopping that they would be doing throughout the year anyway. Par- successfully. Using e-fundraising programs, teachers can provide nated school receives $8.90. Or a grandmother buys a $70 gift bas- ket and her designated school they’re donating directly through ents are really on board because there are no extra steps or hassles to makecontributions. Schools and PTAs are not the only ones benefitting from e-fundraising. There are similar programsthat give teachers access to free classroom and teaching supplies as a reward for their everyday online purchases. Studies show that the nation’s 3.5 million teachers spend an average of $500 each out of their required to help students learn students with needed supplies and improve their classrooms without having to spend money out of their own pockets. Parents, teachers and other consumers are finding that efundraising services like School- Cash.com and TeacherPoints.com make it more convenient to support local schools and PTAsand, ultimately, to improve the nation’s education system and help kids succeed.
