Who'll Fuel Our Schools?
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Memo From The Front: Who'll Fuel Our Schools? October 31, 2005 By Diane Anderson THE Girl Scouts have known since 1917 that cute kids can move product. When my kindergartener came home last month all excited to sell Entertainment Books for her school, I jumped on board. Why not hit up friends and family for a good cause? In San Francisco, a good public school is a rarer find than a parking spot, so generous souls quickly signed a $30 check to get a book of coupons for things like Loews movie tickets, 2-for-1 deals at local restaurants and rental car discounts. Friends knew they wouldn't use all the merchant promos in the book, but they also like my daughter, so they ponied up. And she, of course, was excited about the incentives. If she sold enough books, she could earn a cool spy kit; top sellers could win a DVD player. It seemed like a good idea, overall. Get your children involved in bettering their own education system, teach them the value of hard work and compensate them in return. The youth of America get a lesson in economics; the schools get much-needed funds for supplies. Everyone wins, right? Instead of hounding people in person, I used technology, spamming friends and relatives all over the country with a request to go online to locate participating local merchants, and then decide to enter their credit card and delivery information; Entertainment Books would go directly to them. I didn't have to collect checks or hand out goods. Pretty painless. "How about I just donate directly to the school?" e-mailed my friend Jim, who has an MBA. "The school will get all the money, and crappy coupons won't collect dust on my counter." Others asked similar questions and opted to donate directly. They had a point. Turns out, the school only gets a small portion of proceeds. The program is managed by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp. (which owns Ask Jeeves, Ticketmaster, Evite, LendingTree, and Match.com) and bought Entertainment Book in 2003 (from the Carlyle Group) for $360 million. IAC brings in $6 billion annually. Diller's total 2004 salary was north of $156 million. If schools retained up to half the total proceeds, they'd be in pretty good shape. In fact, fundraising groups (churches and schools) received $90 million last year from Entertainment Book sales. How much money would our school actually see? "It depends on how much we sell," said the mom in charge. "Hopefully this year we'll sell a
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Transcript of Who'll Fuel Our Schools?
Memo From The Front: Who'll Fuel Our Schools?October 31, 2005By Diane Anderson
THE Girl Scouts have known since 1917 that cute kids can move product.When my kindergartener came home last month all excited to sellEntertainment Books for her school, I jumped on board. Why not hit upfriends and family for a good cause?
In San Francisco, a good public school is a rarer find than a parkingspot, so generous souls quickly signed a $30 check to get a book ofcoupons for things like Loews movie tickets, 2-for-1 deals at localrestaurants and rental car discounts. Friends knew they wouldn't useall the merchant promos in the book, but they also like my daughter,so they ponied up.
And she, of course, was excited about the incentives. If she soldenough books, she could earn a cool spy kit; top sellers could win aDVD player. It seemed like a good idea, overall.
Get your children involved in bettering their own education system,teach them the value of hard work and compensate them in return. Theyouth of America get a lesson in economics; the schools getmuch-needed funds for supplies. Everyone wins, right?
Instead of hounding people in person, I used technology, spammingfriends and relatives all over the country with a request to go onlineto locate participating local merchants, and then decide to entertheir credit card and delivery information; Entertainment Books wouldgo directly to them. I didn't have to collect checks or hand outgoods. Pretty painless.
"How about I just donate directly to the school?" e-mailed my friendJim, who has an MBA. "The school will get all the money, and crappycoupons won't collect dust on my counter." Others asked similarquestions and opted to donate directly. They had a point.
Turns out, the school only gets a small portion of proceeds. Theprogram is managed by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp. (which ownsAsk Jeeves, Ticketmaster, Evite, LendingTree, and Match.com) and bought Entertainment Book in 2003 (from the Carlyle Group) for $360 million. IAC brings in $6 billion annually. Diller'stotal 2004 salary was north of $156 million.
If schools retained up to half the total proceeds, they'd be in prettygood shape. In fact, fundraising groups (churches and schools)received $90 million last year from Entertainment Book sales.
How much money would our school actually see? "It depends on how muchwe sell," said the mom in charge. "Hopefully this year we'll sell alot and get around 30%." Of course a portion of something is betterthan nothing. But most parents would prefer a better solution.
One morning this October, the school's students assembled in theauditorium. A bright pep rally was underway, getting the kidspumped—again!—this time to sell wrapping paper, candy and doo-dadsfrom the Sally Foster catalog (another Entertainment Publicationsunit) with more prizes dangled before the kids. I didn't like that itcut into class time and wasn't very motivated to drum up interest.
EP/Sally Foster, Reader's Digest/QSP and Scholastic Book Fairs are thethree heavy hitters in school fundraising, each a division of alarger, publicly traded firm. Another online program called eScrip,which has raised $9.5 million for schools via links to sales atretailers, including Macy's and Safeway, is now offering "up to 8%" ofproceeds from purchases made to my daughter's school.
Alas, that site didn't feature many Northern California merchants. I'ma Trader Joe's fan, but sometimes shop at Safeway, so I gladly signedup.
But the truth was in the fine print: only 1% of Safeway purchaseswould help the school.
Nowadays, nine million Target cardholders can choose which school theywant to receive 1% of their purchases. That, too, is a start. Mygirl's school got $206 in August this way.
Around her 5th birthday, we got a form soliciting a donation for abook that would live in the school library and be inscribed with hername. As a single mom on a budget, I like the idea of buying a bookfor the school and letting my daughter feel it's her gift. I wrote acheck.
Instead of making our kids sell stuff, we should find out what ourschools really need and then go out and spend our dollars on thosebrands: Kleenex, Crayola and Apple computers would go a long way inRoom 1.
Anderson covers technology for Brandweek.
