RamBand Scrip
We’re
pleased to share a great fundraising program for
the Central Dauphin Band Boosters Association. It’s called “scrip,” and it’s
the fundraising program that works while you shop. Scrip is a term we use
to denote gift cards from national and local retailers-- they’re the same
gift cards that you'd buy at the store. But when you buy them from us,
you're helping
the
Central Dauphin Ram Band programs.
RamBand Scrip Upcoming Order & Pickup Dates
Many popular retailers participate in the RamBand Scrip program including Giant, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Office Max, Rite Aid, Gap, Macy's, Sears, Borders, Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Starbucks, and scores of others. RamBand Scrip Upcoming Order & Pickup Dates You’re probably asking yourself, "How can buying gift cards help us raise money for the Band Boosters?" Well, it’s simple -- scrip-participating retailers agree to sell gift cards or certificates to us at a discount ranging from 1.5% all the way up to 15% or more. We place orders for the gift cards for full face value, you redeem them for full face value, and the Band Boosters keep the difference as revenue!
Everybody wins:
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RamBand families get a powerful fundraising alternative that involves no selling;
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The Band Boosters get a regular source of revenue; and
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Retailers get cash up front and repeat business.
The beauty of scrip is that we RamBand Booster families put our regular household shopping dollars to work. We earn money for the Band Boosters without spending a single additional penny. We just spend our regular shopping dollars with scrip at the stores that participate in the RamBand Scrip program! And scrip can be used for just about any household purchase including food, clothing, entertainment, gasoline, and dining out. Ready to get started? Simply check out the details on this web page, fill out an Enrollment Form, then follow the instructions on your Order Form.
Not Convinced?
Check our the answers to frequently asked questions: (Click on the question below to navigate to the explanation.)
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How often will you order scrip and how long will it take me to get it? |
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I'm already buying scrip from my church; why should I buy from you, too? |
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What Is Scrip?
Scrip is a term that means “substitute money”. When you purchase RamBand
Scrip, you’re purchasing negotiable gift certificates and prepaid cards that
are used just like cash. You can use this scrip to purchase everyday
expenses like food, clothing, and other essentials. With every purchase,
you earn revenue for the Band Boosters and for your Student Ledger.
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How Will Scrip Raise Funds for the Boosters?
Our scrip vendor, the Great Lakes Scrip
Center ("GL Scrip"), acts on behalf of churches, schools, and other
non-profit organizations to purchase large amounts of scrip from grocery
stores, restaurants, department stores, and other retailers. Because scrip
is purchased with cash up-front, the participating retailers offer a
substantial discount. The Band Boosters buy the scrip from GL Scrip and
other vendors at a discount, and re-sell the certificates for full face
value. The discount -- from one to fifteen percent or more – is our
organization’s revenue!
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Why Should I Bother If I'm Not Saving Any Money?
Okay, you cynic! Here are a couple of reasons:
First, you're going to buy
groceries, clothes, and go out for dinner once in a while at a national
casual dining chain restaurant, anyway, right? So, we're talking about
money you're going to spend. In that sense, then, RamBand Scrip is
"shopping cart fundraising” that costs you nothing except a little bit of
time to plan ahead.
Second, you'll save time and aggravation in the long
run because the revenue raised in this program means the Band Boosters will
rely less on product sales.
Third, a significant portion of the profit goes
right into your Student Ledgers to help pay for stuff like band trips.
We're going to kick this program off with a general 30% contribution level
to the Student Ledger of the student listed on your
Enrollment Form. If you're lucky enough to have more than one student
in the RamBand, don't worry, we can split the Student Ledger contributions any
way you want. Participants also can elect to contribute the entire portion
to the general booster funds. Just indicate these details on your
Enrollment Form.
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How Much Potential Revenue Are We Talking About?
It depends. Do you buy lots of stuff from Home Depot, Banana Republic, Office Max, or Sephora? Do you travel a lot and stay at Marriott brand hotels? Do you eat at Wendy's or Burger King every day? If so, you can do an awful lot to help our Boosters with just a little bit of planning. And by encouraging some neighbors, friends, or relatives to buy scrip from the Central Dauphin Band Boosters, you could raise hundreds of dollars each year! Here's an example:
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Type of Purchase |
Monthly Purchases |
Typical |
Monthly |
Annual Earnings* |
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Groceries |
$300 |
5% |
$15.00 |
$180 |
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Dining Out |
$100 |
10% |
$10.00 |
$120 |
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Clothing |
$100 |
6% |
$6.00 |
$72 |
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Entertainment |
$50 |
9% |
$4.50 |
$54 |
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Home Improvement |
$75 |
2% |
$1.50 |
$18 |
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Gasoline |
$100 |
2.5% |
$2.50 |
$30 |
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Total |
$39.50 |
$474.00 |
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Does this look like a realistic monthly budget for your household? If not,
are there other vendors listed from which you make large purchases? Then
scrip could add up fast! And there's no reason you can't encourage your
friends, relatives, and business associates to start thinking about using
scrip, too . . . .
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What Retailers Participate?
A better question might be, "Which ones don't?"! Our Order Form includes the most popular retailers and amounts: It does not contain all vendors. For a complete list of retailers, discounts, and usage guidelines, visit the GL Scrip website. Keep in mind that you can order from any vendor listed by GL Scrip.
How Does the Program Work?
Here's an example:
You know you'll be taking the family out to eat next
Tuesday night to Olive Garden, and you know you've to go grocery shopping on
Sunday afternoon at the Giant, and that you want to order a gift from LL
Bean.
With this small amount of foresight, you log onto ShopWithScrip.com (or fill out and follow the
instructions on your
Order
Form) (as you've already completed and submitted your
Enrollment Form, registered on ShopwithScrip.com, and signed up for
PrestoPay) and order RamBand Scrip-- $100 in Olive Garden scrip,
$200 in Giant scrip, and $100 in LL Bean scrip. You use the PrestoPay
feature (or else write a check) for the
$400 you were going to spend within the next few days anyway. Within a week
or so, your order's ready to pick up.
Once you get your gift cards, you go
to Olive Garden for dinner with your family. The check totals $87.50. You
use your scrip. You still have $12.50 left to spend. You stop by Giant and
get groceries totaling $185.00; therefore, you still have $15.00 left. You
go online to LL Bean and blow the $100 on a gift for your nephew's wedding
gift. The Band Boosters pay $91.00 for the $100 Olive Garden scrip, $190.00
for the $200 Giant scrip, and $85.00 for the $100 LL Bean Scrip. (For the
current discount amounts, visit the GL
Scrip website.)
The three orders net $34.00 from these discounts-- the
Central Dauphin Band Boosters Association gets $23.80 and you get $10.20
credit towards your Student Ledger. All for purchasing stuff you'd have
bought anyway!! How totally cool is that?
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How Much Scrip Do You Think I'm Gonna Buy?
When you think about it, you probably spend an awful lot of money with the retailers listed above and on the GL Scrip website as part of your monthly family budget. An average spending family will raise a nice healthy sum over the course of the year in normal household purchases; however, by encouraging some neighbors or relatives to buy scrip, the dollars will accumulate even faster!
Plus, with some creativity, you can use RamBand Scrip for lots of other purposes besides groceries, clothes, dining out, and other stuff, including the following:
Other Repetitive Purchases: We've already talked about household purchases above. But there are other repetitive purchases you might be making. Do you own your own business? Work at a locally-owned business? Purchase lots of office supplies? Do the math: both OfficeMax and Staples offer 5% discounts. If you're making repetitive purchases such as office supplies, with a little bit of planning ahead, you can ensure a steady stream of revenue to the boosters and your Student Ledger that's totally pain-free!
Planned Purchases: Thinking about building a deck? Repainting your family room? Buying a new 'fridge? A canoe? A new prom dress? Well why not scope out the list of retailers and let that inform your decision about where to shop. For example, if you decide to buy a new 17' Penobscot canoe from LL Bean, just load up on LL Bean Gift Cards before you buy. LL Bean gives a whopping 15% discount on scrip. The canoe costs $1399.00, which means the Boosters and your Student Ledger will split almost $210.00! Okay, we know not many of you are planning on buying a canoe in the near future, but you get the point!!!
Gift Giving: Gift cards sales are booming: According to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, consumers bought $87 billion in gift cards in 2009! Why not join the trend? They're convenient, appreciated, and best of all, they'll help the boosters and your Student Ledger!
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Vacations: Do you plan your vacation ahead of time? Stay at
hotels? Fly? Well check out the various travel companies that offer scrip,
including Disney, American Airlines, Marriott, Best Western, Comfort Inn,
and Carnival Cruises. With a bit of planning, you can be sipping your pina
colada poolside (adults only, please), knowing that 8% of your airfare and
12% of your hotel bill are going to benefit the boosters and your student
account. Click
here for information from GL Scrip with complete vacation planning
instructions.
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What Are Special Offers?
From
time to time, GL Scrip and participating vendors offer bonus discounts on
scrip. These bonus offers provide even more benefits to using RamBand
Scrip; however, they end fast! To see the current list of bonus offers,
click here.
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How Do I Sign Up?
Follow these easy steps:
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Print out, read, and sign our Enrollment Form so you can turn it in with your first order.
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Go to http://www.glscrip.com for a list of all vendors and usage guidelines.
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Place your order using one of the following Four Options:
A. The Old Fashioned Way
ORDER: Print and fill out the RamBand Scrip Order Form. Note that the Order Form includes the most popular retailers and amounts: It does not contain all vendors. For a comprehensive list visit http://www.glscrip.com. If you find something that you would like to order that is not already on the list, just add it to the bottom of the Order Form in the blank spaces provided.
PAY: Place your check or money order, your Order Form, and for your first order only, your Enrollment Form, in the RamBand Scrip envelope in the Band Room. Or if you prefer, drop it off or mail it to:
Central Dauphin Band Boosters Scrip Program
c/o Weber Vision Care
4240 Elmerton Avenue
Harrisburg, PA 17109-2317
B. The Sort-of-New Way
ORDER: Place your order using ShopWithScrip.com, the online ordering system that offers the ultimate in convenience – you now can order RamBand Scrip from home, school, or office! Click here for details on how to sign up.
After you register with ShopWithScrip.com, manage your account with the Family Dashboard by clicking “My Account,” at the top of any page at ShopWithScrip.com. From here, you can check your account activity, change your profile and password, and read RamBand Scrip coordinator and site announcements. To place an order using ShopWithScrip.com, you can shop right from your Family Dashboard which provides you with these great shopping tools:
* Favorites: Order the same products each week? Add these items to your Favorites list for easy ordering in the future.
* Express Add: Know exactly what you want? Quickly add the items to your cart using this feature.
* Specials: Want to order the best discounts possible? Add these items to your cart directly from the specials list.
* Browse: Looking for a gift? Not sure what’s available? Use this feature to shop by category.
* Search Brands: Know what you want but not sure if it’s available? Enter all or part of the retailer name in the box to find a list of items containing those letters.
PAY: Place your check or money order, your copy of your ShopWithScrip.com order and for your first order only, your Enrollment Form, in the RamBand Scrip envelope in the Band Room. Or if you prefer, drop it off or mail it to:
RamBand Scrip
c/o Weber Vision Care
4240 Elmerton Avenue
Harrisburg, PA 17109-2317
Note that even if you've used the ShopWithScrip.com website, we'll not be able to process your order until we receive your payment.
C. The All-Out-Brand-New Way
ORDER: Place your order using ShopWithScrip.com, as described above in "B."
PAY: Sign up to use Presto-Pay™, a convenient way for your family to pay for RamBand Scrip on-line at the time you place your scrip order! Presto-Pay uses ACH, which is the same process used for direct deposit of your paycheck. Click here for complete Presto-Pay instructions.
Our RamScrip supplier, GLSC, accepts the payment on behalf of the Band Boosters and immediately debits your checking account for the face value amount of your RamBand Scrip order, plus a small ($0.39) convenience fee. Note that this means that GLSC will debit you immediately even though the RamBand Scrip Coordinator places our group’s order (usually, but with some exceptions) on the first and third Tuesday of the month.
To use PrestoPay, simply register your account information once in a secure environment, and then verify it again a few days later. Click here for complete Presto-Pay instructions. Though you can place your RamBand Scrip order, until your account is completely verified, you will not be able to use Presto-Pay for your order. From then on you can elect to pay with PrestoPay at the time you order, and pay a modest convenience fee of $.39 each time.
4. Reloads
Certain merchants allow you to reload gift cards, which means that by using Presto-Pay, you can instantly reload your RamBand Scrip. (You must have purchased the gift card through the RamBand Scrip program for this to work). -
Weber Vision Care has agreed to serve as a store front for the Band Boosters, so when the orders arrive you can pick up your scrip at Weber Vision Care. Weber Vision Care is conveniently located at 4240 Elmerton Avenue (which is just off the intersection of Elmerton Avenue and Colonial Road across from the Red Lobster at the Colonial Park Mall). Weber Vision Care is open the following hours:
Tuesday through Friday: 7:50 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday: 7:50 am - 1:00 pm
Check the Weber Vision Care website for a map and directions. -
Usually, RamBand Scrip will be ready for you to pick up on the Saturday following the Wednesday we place our order. If there's a problem or a backorder on your scrip order, we will attempt to contact you via e-mail. So, stop by, pick up your scrip, purchase, and repeat. That's it!
How often will you order scrip and how long will it take me to get it?
We place orders with GL Scrip before on
the first and third week of each month. So be sure to get your order
into the Band Room "Scrip" envelope, to Weber Vision Care, or use
www.shopwithscrip.com and
Presto-Pay before the close of
business on Tuesday. The scrip will be ready for pickup at Weber Vision
Care on the Saturday morning after we place our order, just in time for for
you to pick up for a weekend shopping extravaganza! If youre in a
particular rush, or if are purchasing a large amount of scrip (and you’re
willing to pay $12.00 for shipping), you may be able to arrange expedited
order processing. This is subject to our availability to respond to your
request. We also likely will keep an inventory on hand of popular RamBand Scrip,
including Giant cards, for you to pick up any time at Weber Vision Care.
Call first to make sure, though....
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Why don't you accept cash or debit/credit cards?
Hopefully, the cash part should be pretty obvious-- it's too
easily lost or stolen. We don't want band members running around with
envelopes full of cash! Processing debit and credit cards costs money, including an
application fee, a fee for leased or purchased equipment, and a monthly
minimum charge to keep our account open. But the real cost for credit cards is the "Merchant
Discount Rate." The Merchant Discount Rate is the amount the bank charges us
to process your credit card payment. Typical discount rates range from
2.00% to 4.00%. So each time you buy $100 worth of scrip using a credit
card, the boosters get only $96 to $98 of that amount. (And that's the rate
for a transaction with an actual card swipe: If we "hand key" a transaction
- for instance by taking your credit card number from our Order Form - the
discount fee is substantially higher!) During the first year of the RamBand
Scrip program, we averaged 5.68% rebate on face value scrip sales. That
means normal merchant fees could consume more than two thirds of our
organization's scrip revenue! Even worse, some retailers in very competitive
categories offer only single digit rebates. As or August, 2008, for
example, Wal*Mart offers a 2% rebate. If you buy lots of Wal*Mart scrip,
it could actually cost us money to process your order! So that's why we
don't accept credit cards.
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I'm already buying scrip from my church; why should I buy from you, too?
Listen, if
you're already buying scrip from your church, your girl scout troop, or your
cousin's flag football team, that's fine. We're not trying to elbow them
out of the action (well, we actually are trying to elbow out the latter two,
but definitely not the church!). Just think about whether there may be
opportunities to support the RamBand by purchasing scrip from us for
retailers or events for which you're not already buying scrip elsewhere.
For example, if you're getting Giant cards from your church, maybe you can
use the RamBand Scrip program for Borders cards or movie cards or clothing
cards or something else. Also, consider splitting your Giant card business
for the four (or five, depending upon whether your student is handing practice logs
in time to Mr. Ceresini!) years of high school.
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What else do I need to know?
Backorders: GL Scrip claims that 99.3% of its line items have shipped complete without backorder. While that sounds great, it also means that occasionally, GL Scrip may temporarily run out of a particular merchant's scrip. When that happens, they will place the item on backorder and ship it with our next order.
Terms, conditions, fees: As you can see from the above chart, in some instances, stores can impose a variety of terms and conditions on their cards, including, but not limited to, inactivity fees. So be sure to carefully check out the GL Scrip website or the retailer's website for the terms and conditions that apply to the gift card(s) you're considering.
Holiday Schedule: Click here for the GL Scrip Holiday schedule. Check out the RamBand Calendar for complete details on Order Deadline dates and Scheduled Pickup dates.
Disclaimers:
- Usage of the scrip sold through the Central Dauphin Band Boosters Association is governed by the issuing retailers. Terms and conditions are subject to change without prior notice. Please check for any restrictions imposed by the retailer. Be sure to check the discount prevailing at the time of order, as it may vary from the percentage listed on this website or on the order form. More information may be available at the GL Scrip website or at that retailer’s website.
- The Central Dauphin Band Boosters Association does not assume any responsibility for limitations on scrip usage. Scrip is purchased on your behalf and is not returnable. Scrip is the same as cash and should be handled accordingly. For that reason the Central Dauphin Band Boosters Association will not be responsible for certificates that are lost, stolen, or misplaced while in your possession and will not mail scrip to you.
- All scrip orders must be accompanied by a check or money order made payable to “Central Dauphin Band Boosters.” Please do not send cash. If your check is returned because of non-sufficient funds (“NSF”), you will be charged a $20 fee payable to Central Dauphin Band Boosters. After two NSF checks are tendered on your account, your scrip ordering privileges will be limited to money order only. Central Dauphin Band Boosters reserves the right to limit the quantity and amount of scrip certificates that may be purchased by one family and to impose any other limitations or restrictions.
What if I have more questions?
No problem. Contact our
RamBand Scrip Coordinator, Barbie Bloom, at
scrip@cdramband.org or leave a
message 24 x 7 x 365 on our RamBand Scrip Hotline 717.652.2661 extension
110.
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