RIVER TRAIL MIDDLE SCHOOL

Priority Report 2009/2010

INCENTIVES

 

 

1.     GOALS

The Incentive Committee’s goal is to raise funds for both the school and the PTA without directly soliciting parents or creating a fundraiser.  The objective is to find opportunities in the community that allow us to make money from the way we live our daily lives without asking more from our families.

In today’s troubled economy, families are still looking for ways to contribute to their schools in a meaningful way.  But, how can they feel that sense of playing a part, without spending extra income?  The right school incentives provide this outlet.

This year we decided to involve the student body in the incentive program to make a greater impact on school spirit as well.  Our target audience became both the student body and their parents.

 

 

2.     PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS

Before school begins, an incentive packet is put together for the first day of school package that goes home with the students.  The packet contains all of the programs that our committee will be utilizing for the school year and also includes a glued-dot grocery card on the front sheet.  There were a total of 1900 packets made, 1600 for the first day packets, 300 for our Sneak Peak information table.  These packets were completed with the aid of Jr. Beta help and other neighborhood children. 

 

GROCERY PROGRAM

Our grocery program includes only one local grocery store this year, Publix.  In years past we also had a great program with Kroger where the school would earn money each time someone swiped their Kroger Plus card.  That program was dissolved this year and a new one was put in its place.  The new program was an essay contest that was very involved and was only for a chance of a donation on their part, so with the recommendation of this committee, the board and Mrs. Melin passed on the program.

Publix’ Program-This program works through scan cards.  The cards are imprinted with the school’s name on the back of them.  We must order these cards 3 weeks before we need them from our local Publix, which is the Shakerag Publix, located on McGinnis Ferry and Old Atlanta Rd.  Because they are linked directly to our school, we adhere these individually to our first day packets every school year.  We also keep a basket of these in the front office of the school.

           Funds raised go directly to RTMS.

 

           DIRECTV

           Due to endless problems with Direct TV’s activation process, we passed on this promotion this year.  The code for our school wasn’t available until late August and when we did receive the code it once again did not recognize our school.  We ran into this last year and decided to spend our efforts elsewhere for fundraising.  Their program is detailed below for future use.      

This national program allows schools to earn money two ways, from current customers and from new customers.  Each August, DirecTV activates an initiative that helps schools earn money for programs by asking current customers to commit to another year contract to earn $50 for their school and $100 by signing up as a new customer. 

           We are given a school code and we create a letter for parents that contain this code.  This is supposed to be self sufficient, easy and a great fund raiser for the school.

 

           TRUEBLUE SCHOOL PROGRAM

           Our focus this year has been on this program.  GA Natural Gas has revamped the program to be very school friendly this year.  They have also made this an ongoing program now, where as last year it was set as a two year venture

When a family signs up for GNG service through the True-blue program, RTMS receives $40 for the enrollment and $5 for each month they remain a customer. This is a total of $100 per year per family.  Over $2000 has been raised so far from this program this year.

           We had to register the school online to participate in this program.  The information was included in our first day packets and PTA and WDN emails were sent out in early October and November to encourage enrollment.

           All funds go directly to the school.

 

 

BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION     

The Box Tops program has been used at the elementary school level for years with success.  When brainstorming ways to earn more money for RTMS and getting the kids more involved in doing so, this program came to mind.  But, how do you bring a program into Middle School that has an elementary feel to it and get involvement?  Searching the Box Tops website and looking at their ideas site lead to a dead end, so we created our own ideas.

We tried to think like we were in middle school.  What would motivate us?  What would motivate teachers at this level to get the kids involved? What would cause competition?  So, we thought like rock stars and why not?  We created collection sheets that had a “you rock” logo of a guitar player with Box Tops.  We offered a prize for the student who collected the most in each of our 4 three week contests throughout the year.  The prize was a $25 iTunes card.  That was incentive enough for the kids, they all wanted it. 

Now, to get the teachers involved.  We sent letters to the teachers before each competition began letting them know that they could win a class party of their choice if their homeroom class brought in the most collection sheets by the end of the competition.  Every day on the morning announcements the leading classes were announced which caused excitement and classroom rivalries.  Many teachers turned their collection sheets in envelopes that hid the true number their class had collected. The class parties were donated from our neighborhood Kroger.  Both parties to date have been Ice Cream parties at 8:15 in the morning!

Four contests are set for the school year:  August, October, February and May.  BTFE requires forms meet the deadlines of October 31 and February 28 to ensure payment within the school year.

This contest has produced and average of $1500 a year for us to date. These funds are raised for the PTA.

 

TARGET

This program is pretty straightforward.  Target donates a percentage of purchases through their credit card to our school. Parents need to go online to designate RTMS as their school of choice for us to receive these funds.  This is promoted in the first day package.

Other Incentive Opportunities

We also came across incentive programs that after reviewing we decided we not in the best interest of our school or parents.  This program included Foot Locker and Subway. The Subway card required that you add money to it before it activated instead of being a scan card for purchases to credit our school.  We thought the program was made to be too difficult and passed on this.

 

3.     RESULTS

 

We have been extremely happy with the outcome of many of these programs this year.  In a time when many families can give by doing fun and normal activities, it helps that we are able to contribute to school programs without asking for a dime from outside sources.

The Box Tops program has exceeded our expectations this year.  To date, we have earned over $2500 since this program began.  All of this from .10 cutouts.  We have had great involvement from all grade levels with 95% of 6th grade classes, 90% of 7th grade classes, and 75% of 8th grade classes participating.  That totals over 25,000 Box Tops from Middle School students in 14 short months.    The excitement and fun around this incentive is school wide.

DirecTV has been a bone of contention for many of us for the past few years.  This year the company had given us an incorrect “code” for compiling our school totals.  Actually, when you would call, they wouldn’t even recognize our school. After many frustrating hours and days on the phone trying to get it straight, we decided to fore go this promotion.  I am sure that more kinks are there and that the average person did not have the patience to argue with the DirecTV personnel about the program.  Is this program worth the headache?   Maybe by next year their system will be in better order and this will prove to be more meaningful to our efforts.

True Blue Schools program has made up for the Direct TV program.  This program will allow the school to earn over $2000 each school year.  The incentive is for them to earn new and maintain  customers  This is a program that needs to be pushed at the beginning of the school year in the first day packets and again in the fall when people are thinking of gas heat. 

 

 

 

4.     RESOURCES

Parents and students were involved through email on our varying programs.  Parents were informed about True Blue Schools, Publix and Box Tops through the PTA emails that go out weekly.  Students were sent emails through the Wolf Den News Emails about the Box Tops contests and were reminded during daily morning announcements.

The resources used to jump start these programs were word of mouth and on line resources.  The Box Tops website had useful information that was used to get our program off of the ground.  The relationship developed with our local John’s Creek Kroger manager also helped in developing the Box Tops program. With her influence, we were able to arrange the class party idea and work her store into each competition as our partner.  This kept our costs down.

Our budget for the school year was $300.  This amount included the following items:  color paper that was used as a cover sheet for our first day packets to grab attentions ($75), glue dots ($50), iTunes cards ($100), $25 miscellaneous and shipping costs ($50). 

Overall, we hoped to earn over $3500 for the PTA this year and $3000 for the school through incentive programs that have not asked the parents or students for additional funds from their pockets.  We are very pleased with the outcome, but will continue to search for other means to bring in other sources of income to the school to fund programs for students.