Simple ways for you to help raise money for your child’s school

Did you know there are several ways you can raise money for your child’s school just by just shopping and it doesn’t cost you anything? It’s true, as you head to the stores to do back to school shopping here are a few simple ways parents can help schools earn extra income. Some of the ideas are things you may already have at home and could be throwing away, not knowing it’s worth actual money.

Have you seen those small little labels on some of your boxes of food? They are called Box Tops. Since 1996, America schools have earned more than $800 million dollars from Box Tops for Education by collecting those labels. My daughter’s elementary school earned $1,600 cash last year and more than $29,000 over the years.  Schools can receive 10 cents for every box top collected. Start looking at you food boxes more closely and start clipping the box tops. If you don’t save the box tops, it’s like throwing 10 cents out the window.

If you have a printer at your house or your office, start saving the empty ink cartridges. Did you know that every “used” ink cartridge is worth at least $2? You can recycle up to 10 ink cartridges each month. Not only are you raising money for your child’s school, but you are also recycling. You can recycle the ink cartridges locally at any Staples or Office Depot Office Max. There’s also another great way to make your school money by using Funding Factory. This is a way for your school to collect recyclable empty printer cartridges for money. You can register at www.FundingFactory.com. Since 1997, organizations have raised more than $35 million in cash and rewards.

Office Depot Office Max also offers a program called Give Back to Schools, where 5% of your qualifying purchases can go back in free school supplies to the school of your choice. It’s very easy, all you need to do is sign up.

Do you shop on Amazon? If you do, start shopping on www.smileamazon.com, it’s the same as shopping at Amazon, but a percentage of what you spend can go to your child’s school. It’s not a huge amount it’s actually 0.5 percent, but it can add up. More than $54 million has been given to charities over the years. If your school is not registered, let them know so they can register. This is an easy way to raise money.

How many of you use the computer to look up things? I know I do. I discovered by using www.GoodSearch.com as your search engine, you can raise money for your school. It’s simple and easy to do. Every search you do, GoodSearch.com will donate a percentage of your purchases to your school.

It’s great to see businesses willing to help our schools, but we as parents need to make sure we are doing our part by participating. It only takes a minute to clip a box top, cut a label or charge our search engine on our computer. If each family helps we can make a difference in our children’s education.