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Cash Back Reward Programs

What Is A Cash Back Reward Program?

You will most often see these unique fundraisers around the back to school time in the fall, but could be conducted anytime, especially during Christmas.

Local merchants will partner with a nonprofit organization, school or school booster program. The local merchant will typically offer 5% to 10% cash back to the organization if anyone representing the organization or school shops at their store.

Example #1

Office Depot conducted a big promotion aimed at the school supply buying public. It's cash back emphasis would be to give 5% of each purchase to the school of interest to the buyer.

For the most part it was an ideal success story or a win-win situation for the store and the consumer. The great part was that Office Depot handled the promotions and marketing costing the schools or school system nothing.

Example #2

K-Mart now has a program called the K-Mart School Spirit Program (825 Hylion Road, Pennsauken, NJ 08110) www.kmartschoolspirit.com.

Each student is presented with a bar-coded card and several bar-coded key-ring tabs that they can provide for their family, friends, or their own personal use. The front of the card has the K-Mart logo on a blue card that reads "SHOP AT KMART...YOUR SCHOOL WINS!"

Each card must be presented with purchase at register and even has the School name printed on the back. And all of the cards are packaged in an envelope called the KMart School Spirit Parent Pack.

K-Mart give 5% back to the school to use for its purposes. Again it's a win-win for the school and the store. Many parents will shop at K-Mart anyway so why not raise money for their school as well.

Will It Work For Other Organizations

Sure it will. It may take a few phone calls to a few company marketing departments before you settle on the one that is right for you. If you are a large nonprofit organization, university or charity hospital it will be much easier for you to convince a corporation it's in their best interest to work with you. Local geographically situated companies will want to get on the good PR bandwagon that you can provide them.

Don't Forget The Internet

Sign up as an affiliate with some of the Affiliate Websites and earn a percentage of sales that the visitors to your site generate. One good example is Commission Junction or Linkshare . They have companies that will pay 5% to 30% in cash back to their affiliate partners. Even though it's easy to partner with a company, the downside is that It usually takes a few months to generate any return on your efforts.

So go get started and begin earning back your organization's share of cash from purchases made with your corporate partners. As a side note, you may need to pay a UBIT (Unrelated Business Income Tax) to the IRS if this is not your normal means of raising funds. Check with a volunteer CPA with your group to determine if this applies to your group.

Donate Rewards Program Points To A Charity

Donors can now donate their rewards points from various credit cards to nonprofit groups and charities. This will directly help the organization by providing points to buy computers, printers, pay for airfare to meetings and more. Check out some that help.

American Express Point Transfers

Related Pages:

School Box Top and Coupon Programs