Scratch Cards
There’s something fairly new that has entered into the arena of Christian fund raising for missions. It’s called the scratch card. There are a variety of companies producing this type of fund raiser. It has widespread appeal, and is usually an excellent match for the Christian non-profit organization.
So what is a scratch card? Well, it’s not a lottery ticket, if that’s what you’re thinking. It is actually a small card or tri-fold brochure with merchant coupons on it. It usually will have the name of your Church or non-profit organization custom printed on the card, along with the names of many popular restaurants and shops in town.
The company that produces the card has contacted a number of national and regional restaurants, shops, and service providers and invited them to participate in the program. The goods and service providers win, because the program will bring added traffic and business to their establishment. Plus, they will be supporting a fund raiser (not always for Christian missions, but usually always for some sort of non-profit) for their community. In exchange for the traffic and added business, they provide free or discounted goods and services to the coupon holders.
Getting started in this type of fundraiser is easy. You simply contact the company providing the scratch coupon card, and set up an account with them. You will need to have some up-front cash to pay for the cards you purchase. Next, you get your mission fundraising volunteers together, and assign them neighborhoods or locations to sell the scratch cards. There are usually several offerings on each card. For example, one card might have 4 scratch boxes for Pizza Hut, 4 for Subway, 4 for Sonic, … you get the picture. The user of the coupon gets to scratch off one of the four for the specific location where they are using that particular coupon. Later, they can use the remaining coupons for the other vendors.
Coupon cards like these can sell for anywhere from $2 to $5 and up, depending on how many vendors and offers are listed on the card. There are even some programs that offer a seasonal affinity card, such as to a pizza place. The user then gets a particular special listed on the card or a percentage discount on all purchases until the card expires. Since the value of this card is much higher to the end user, they usually sell for $10 and up. Profit, of course, depends on how much you paid for the cards to begin with. As with any retail sales fund raising program, you are better off buying in larger quantities, as that is where you will get your price break.