Sierra has a great opportunity to make additional funds at no additional cost to the school or the families that participate in the scrip program.

What is Scrip?
Sierra buys scrip (gift cards) from Great Lakes Scrip Center. This is a company that has made agreements with many retailers to purchase their gift cards at a discounted price. Each retailer has agreed to sell their gift cards for a certain price and in turn Sierra gets to purchase the gift cards from the scrip center at a discounted price. Sierra then sells the gift cards for the face value to the families. Sierra makes money by selling these gift cards for the price they are worth and keeping the difference for the school.

Why buy Scrip?
Most people think that you only would purchase gift cards if you were giving them away as a gift. This is not true. Many families purchase the gift cards for their own personal use. They use them for the weekly shopping at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Safeway, etc. They are useful when filling up the family car at AMPM, Shell, Chevron, etc. They come in handy when you go to dinner at Applebees, Chili’s, Claim Jumper, and Cheesecake Factory plus many more.

Why is Scrip so great?

• No more ATM fees that apply when using your bank card. When you use Scrip there is no charge. So, no more paying .49 at the pump just to use your own money.
  
  
• Use the Scrip to help you budget. Buy only what you can budget for in one month and when it is gone then you are done for the month. This is great for the extra activities and not so necessary things.
  
  
• They make great Gifts. It is very easy to get in touch with the Scrip coordinator. So, if you need any scrip for a planned gift or a last minute gift, the coordinator is just a phone call away. There is a wide variety of scrip available in stock for these special occasions.
  
  
• They make great rewards. Kids love gift cards. They will do anything for a $2 Baskin Robins gift certificate. It is great because they think they are getting this great thing, it didn’t cost you much and you were able to get things done.
  
  
• Do you ever find yourself without any cash? Scrip is great for this. Give a Burger King card to your husband for his lunch break, send your child off to the movie with an AMC card, and keep the Starbucks card for yourself. Scrip is easy to transport and very easy to keep track of.
  
  
• Gift cards are reusable till they are gone. So no more carrying around change. Just use your gift card till it is done then toss it. Buying gas is great, because they come in many denominations and make it very easy to use and then just throw away when finished.
  
  
• Gift cards can be re-loadable. Starbucks just came out with a re-loadable gift card. You register it online and this helps assure that your purchase is protected. Go to Starbucks.com for more information on the re-loadable gift card.
  
  Gift card companies keep track of your usage. This is great when you are not sure when you used your card and where. They have the information on where, when and how much your purchase was.
  
  
• Great Lakes Scrip Company is trustworthy. Sierra has been using GLSC for 3 years now and we have never encountered a problem with them. They always have the product in stock and if they don’t they will never back order. They simply notify the coordinators ahead of time of the out of stock products. Plus they will not even make the product available for purchase online. They have a very easy to use website. This is good for the families and the coordinator. Families can track their order history as well as the coordinators. They now offer a plan where you can pay for your purchase by registering your bank account with them. This makes it very convenient for the people that do not have access to the check book, or cash. They just place their order and pay all at one time.
  
  
• Sierra keeps track of all our purchases.  The Scrip coordinator documents all gift cards that come in and out of their program. Each serial number is entered into the computer. A serial number then can be linked to a family purchase. This is great to show family history of a certain type of retailer or can be used to help someone figure out when they actually purchased a gift card they have or if they even purchased it from Sierra.

How to place a Scrip order? Log onto shopwithscrip.com you will need to register. This is free. When you register your family you will then have access to use the shopwithscrip.com shopping page anytime. You need to make sure to choose Sierra Elementary as your school of choice. We have a school access code. This code is 67217E8F12L12. Once you do this you are ready to shop. After you place a scrip order, the coordinator will process your order. The order usually takes a few days to ship out and get entered into the computer. Once that is done the scrip is ready for pick up. You can also click here to download an order form to print and turn in to the office

How to pay for your Scrip? You can pay for scrip a number of ways. You can prepay online and then you do not have to worry about getting money to the coordinator. You can pay with a check made out to Sierra Elementary PTC. Cash works just as well. Also, we may next year start taking Paypal. Payment for Scrip is due when your order is placed. You may always leave your payment in an envelope marked for the Scrip coordinator at the office.

How often is scrip ordered? Scrip was ordered on an every other week schedule in the past. The coordinator will continue with this schedule as long as there are orders coming in.

Is there scrip available on hand? Yes. Scrip is always available to purchase at anytime. Popular retailers are kept in stock for this purpose.

How much of a benefit is Scrip to our school? The Scrip program coordinator is a one man job. Therefore it does not require a lot of volunteer time from families. What it does need is for families to participate in the program. Our school can make loads of money just buy making the purchases they would have already made any way. If families can just readjust their thinking to purchase scrip instead of shopping without it, we can really see the benefits. It will take some planning and some great understanding of the program, but once you can see how easy it is, scrip will become a part of your daily spending. In the past there have only been about 10 committed families to the scrip program, but in the last year alone those families brought in nearly $2,000 to our school. Can you imagine what could happen if the entire school participated?

How much does Sierra make off one purchase? This depends on the retailer, see our example below:

This is just some of what a family spends each month.  Then there is extra like clothes, bookstores, travel, etc. Just imagine if everyone in the school used scrip. This could possibly be the biggest fundraiser our school has and it would cost nothing extra to the families, it would only take one person to manage it and would not require any additional time or money from the school. If you are looking for a program that is beneficial to the school and all of its members, this is it.

Our school has a potential of making over $10,000 in a single school year. If you take this example of $32.24 and multiply that by 300 families = $967.20. Now multiply that by 12 months (this is the amount of months that scrip operates). You get $11,606.40. This is just an example of how scrip can work for Sierra.

For any questions about Scrip please call Karreen Pedro at (916) 415-0445 or email her at karreen27@yahoo.com.