As schools try to balance their budgets while keeping up with always-increasing expenses, they are looking more to families and parent-teacher organizations to help with school supplies, field trips and other programs. Doing a little can sometimes go a long way. Below are some funding ideas that you can do regularly to contribute to your kids’ schools without digging into the family’s own monthly budget. Bonus: You will feel good about what you are doing.
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Box Tops for Education: There’s an app!
You probably know about Box Tops for Education (if not, see the explanation below). What you may not know is that you don’t have to cut boxes and turn in bits of cardboard any more. Now, an app makes it easy: You can just scan your grocery receipt and the app automatically finds eligible products. (The app also works with online orders too.)
Each Box Top is equivalent to 10 cents. The question becomes, is 10 cents really going to do any good? Yes. If every student on average collected just 10 Box Tops a month, your school would collect thousands of dollars every year (depending on number of students in the school). Many schools have a Box Top coordinator who collects and redeems the Box Tops. If your school doesn’t have a collection program, it’s very easy to get one started. Go to Box Tops 4 Education for more information.
Use Goodsearch and Goodshop
Goodsearch is a search engine from Yahoo that pays your charity of choice one penny for every search you do on the web. How many searches on Google or Bing does your family do each day? Each week? If you make Goodsearch your homepage and try searching with Goodsearch first, the money you earn will be donated to your designated charity. Plus, if your family makes online purchases, switch over to Goodshop as your online shopping source. For every retailer on Goodshop, (including Kohl’s, Staples, Travelocity, Apple, Staples and Best Buy), a percentage of each purchase is donated to your charity of choice. If you are buying something online anyway, why not have your local school benefit?
Donate My Coke Rewards
If you drink Coke products including Dasani water, Powerade and Fuze, you can earn points toward rewards by scanning the code from each product through the My Coke Rewards program. Codes are located under caps and inside the tear-off on 12-packs and multipacks. Donate the points to the school of your choice through My Coke Rewards for Schools. Points are converted to cash and sent to schools in quarterly payments that allow schools to purchase equipment for sports, school supplies and technology. Some schools have a My Coke Rewards coordinator who will collect product codes and enter the information for you on behalf of the school. How much your school participates will vary depending on school.
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