What is Scrip? Scrip is a year-round, national fundraiser that benefits schools by raising money to support everyday operations. It’s basically an exchange – dollar for dollar – it costs you nothing!
How does Scrip work? It’s easy! Your Scrip Coordinators purchase gift cards directly from local and national vendors at a discount and then sell them to you at face value. The school earns money on the cards we sell (usually 5-20% on every card!).
- Example: You order a $100 Fred Meyer scrip card, we sell it to you for $100 (no gain/loss for you) but Fred Meyer sold it to us for $95; the school makes $5 (5%!) from the transaction.
It seems like a small amount is earned per transaction, does Scrip really make an impact? Yes! Scrip currently earns over $50K EVERY YEAR for St. John School and we can do even more with increased participation. The funds generated by Scrip are used to directly support the daily operations of the school including salaries and benefits for our incredible teaching assistants, technology, campus improvements, and more.
How do I start using Scrip? The easiest way to incorporate Scrip into your monthly budget is to review your routine expenses and note the vendors you use that are part of our Scrip program. Do you buy groceries? Scrip has cards for that. Do you buy gas? Scrip has cards for that too. Do you buy coffee? We have a great selection of coffee vendors… etc., etc. Soon you will see how easily you can use Scrip cards for everyday expenses instead of your normal payment methods, and feel great about earning money for your child’s school while shopping! How amazing is that?!
Now you are ready to get your Scrip; you can do this a couple of different ways:
- One-time orders: Fill out a Scrip order form and send it, along with your check made payable to “St. John Scrip” to the school office or in your child’s weekly folder. Most orders are delivered the same week (scrip deliveries come home with your youngest child on Fridays). You can also skip the order form and simply email your order to stjohnscrip@st-johnschool.org and then drop off your check via the school office/child’s folder.
- Setup a Standing Order: You choose the frequency: First Friday, 2nd Friday, 1st and 3rd Fridays, or Every Week. You can provide post-dated checks for these orders and your Scrip team will deposit them on the dates you have indicated on your check. Adjustments can be made to your standing order at any time by emailing your Scrip team.
- Live sales: We sell after Sunday masses twice per month (generally the 1st and 3rd Sundays). Please see our order form or website for exact dates. We also try to sell at school functions. Keep an eye out in NewsViews for upcoming sale dates and locations.
Note: Our order form includes a list of vendors that are purchased most routinely and thus are kept stocked on-hand. This is certainly NOT an all-inclusive list. Are you going to be redecorating? Remodeling? Buying an appliance? Taking a family vacation? Giving gifts at your office? Please contact us and we will special order Scrip from your preferred vendor so the school can benefit from your larger one-time purchases.
What methods of payments do you accept? Currently, we accept cash and checks (made payable to St. John Scrip) for payments. We are working towards accepting both ACH and credit card online orders/payments and will send out info on these options as they become available. Many people setup automatic bank checks to pay for standing orders, which works great! You can also setup ScripNow and Presto pay accounts via Great Lakes Scrip (if you are interested, please contact us at stjohnscrip@st-johnschool.org for more details).
Scrip is an awesome program, how else can I get involved? Scrip is run entirely by volunteers and we need your help! Visit our SignUp Genius page: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080445a5ab23a75-stjohn2 for ways to participate (live sales, filling orders, making weekly classroom deliveries and more).
One last note from your Scrip Team: Scrip may seem confusing and not worth the effort but it is actually very simple and really makes a difference! Your Scrip Coordinators work tirelessly to bring this program and its benefits to the school and we would love to work with you to identify the easiest way to incorporate Scrip into your monthly spending. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions – we are available by email around the clock! Currently, we have ~20% participation from school families – let’s work together to increase that number and make our impact even more meaningful! Remember, Scrip is part of your Fair Share – parish member or non – and the great thing about Scrip is that you don’t have to spend any additional money than what you are already spending – you just use our gift cards instead of your normal method of payment. Together we can make Scrip a huge success!
Many thanks for your support!
Tricia Kane-Yi and Andrea Vaught, St. John Scrip Coordinators
Stjohnscrip@st-johnschool.org
