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 physical 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?
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