We’re pleased to present some exciting news about a change in the fundraising program for our diving club: the Avgen Gift Card Program. We participate in the program by purchasing gift cards and certificates from Avgen. They carry gift cards (sometime paper certificates) from a large number of major retailers. To see the retailers available, go to www.avgen.ca and click on the “Retail” button. The agreements in place with all the participating retailers allow Avgen to sell the gift cards to our organization at a discount. Our member families buy the gift cards from us for face value and redeem them for full value. Our organization keeps the difference as fund raising revenue.
With this program everyone wins:
The Retailer gets continuing business from our organization.
We receive a powerful fundraising alternative that involves no selling of unwanted items. We only buy the cards for purchases that we would normally make. No cookie dough – no chocolates – no raffles!!
Our organization gets an ongoing source of revenue, while you receive a direct benefit to your family from the profits your efforts generate.
The beauty of this program is that you put your regular household shopping dollars to work. You earn money for our organization, and your family without spending anything additional. Just spend your regular shopping dollars at the stores that participate in the discount program. Gift cards or certificates can be used for just about any purchase including food, clothing, entertainment, furniture, building supplies, auto repair, gasoline, dining out and much more. Most of them don’t expire, so you can start stocking up for Birthdays/Christmas/Anniversaries well in advance! Also, some retailers will allow you to use the cards after the fact – but don’t count on this!
We will be implementing the “TRIP” scheme as part of the program. This way, SDC pays back a percentage of the profits to a fund earmarked with your family’s name. That money will be available to your family for extra expenses (e.g. a trip!) associated with diving. So the more gift cards you buy/sell, the more your own family benefits.
The only DOWN side is that you need to get a tiny bit organized. How bad is that?!
I’ll be available at the Shaw pool on Wed, Fri, Sat, and at Harry Bailey on Tue/Thu, for information about the new program. I’m happy to go over all of details of the program, provide order forms, and answer your questions. Contact me to set up a date, and I’ll be so happy to be doing something constructive with my time there! I’m hoping to get a system running whereby you give me your order e.g. on Tuesday this week, and I deliver it to you on Tuesday next week. It will also be possible to place rush orders – sometimes with a one day turnaround time! And once we’re REALLY experienced, much of the work can be done online.
This program promises to be a simple and effective fundraising program. Thanks in advance for your support, and I’ll see you at the pool!
