How to Raise Money

MAKING MONEY!
One of our biggest money earners are Shop and Raise schemes. We have a number of initiatives in place where you will automatically raise money for the school when you do your regular shopping. These schemes are massive money-generators for the school, raising several thousand pounds a year. If EVERY parent and their wider family signed up the school could benefit even more. 

Amazon Smile

When you shop on your Amazon App, go to smile.amazon.co.uk to check out. Your basket will be there, just choose ‘Little Chalfont Combined School Parents’ Association’. Check out on the web and earn money for the school – it’s simple. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase to the School. 

Easy Fundrasing. If you shop for ANYTHING online this is the easiest way to generate money for LCPS with just a single additional click. 

Instead of going direct to the retailer’s website, you search for them on easyfundraising, and then click through from there to get the commission. Use your mobile or laptop.

Pretty much any retailer you can think of is there, from those you might expect like clothing & homewares to less obvious like holidays & insurance. Web portals such as John Lewis, M&S, Waitrose, Ebay, Booking.com, Clarks, Boden, GAP, ASOS

You can either use the web browser www.easyfundraising.org.uk to search for retailers, or download their app.   

How does it work?

• Register once (using this link will send a bonus £5 donation to LCPS when you raise your first £5. www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/lcpspta/?invite=UC0W69&referral-campaign=s2s)
• Select Little Chalfont Primary School Parent Teacher Association as your chosen cause
• Search for & click to retailer’s website
• Shop as usual on their website
• Commission paid to school a few days later

Gift Card scheme

If you shop at Tesco, Waitrose/John Lewis/M&S or Sainsburys please obtain a gift card from the PTA for the stores you frequent.

These are standard supermarket gift cards (wallet-sized cards with a unique serial number on) but the PTA buy them as part of a bulk buying consortium of 10 local schools and sell on to families at face value. As a result, school receives commission on every £ spent via the cards. 

Commission also starts to really rack up by requesting additional top-ups for one-off large purchases e.g.

• presents (birthdays, Christmas, new baby)
• seasonal/festival shopping (Christmas, Diwali etc)
• sale or Black Friday shopping
• large scale items like appliances and furniture – consider if you could get a John Lewis price match for that new washing machine, mobile or laptop. 

How it works 

• Email lcpsvouchers@gmail.com to place your monthly order (calendar of dates below) or to arrange a regular ongoing amount
• Make payment to the LCPS Vouchers bank account (can be by regular monthly standing order for a set amount, or varying ad-hoc monthly amounts) or by credit card (in the playground via our PTA iZettle reader)

     Bank: Natwest (Amersham)

     Sort code: 60-01-15

     A/c no: 44634781

     (Bank transfer preferred as iZettle    

     charges reduce commission we receive)

• Cards are electronically topped up remotely a few days after order deadline
• Spend the cards as usual - scan at the till or enter codes online (John Lewis/ Waitrose/M&S only online). Like all vouchers and gift cards, they can be used as full or part payment. Clubcard/Nectar/MyWaitrose/John Lewis Membership points are collected as normal

FAQs

Q. What if I lose a gift card?

A. Cards should be treated as cash but if reported straightaway can be cancelled & outstanding balances transferred to a new card

Q. I shop with a credit card to collect reward points/ air miles. Can I do this & use the gift card scheme?

A. Yes, if you buy your gift cards using iZettle then you get your points/miles as usual

Q. Should I dispose of my card when its empty?

A. No, cards are re-useable, hold on to it as it can be topped up any time you want more spend loaded.

Q. How can I check my gift card balance?

A. On your receipt at a store & at checkout when you pay or online e.g.  www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/prices-and-payment/gift-cards

Q. Can I get double commission from shopping online via easyfundraising for John Lewis and then paying on website with a John Lewis PTA gift card?

A. YES! Please do! This generates loads, especially if you’re buying something big like a new TV

Regular Schemes 

 Bag to School 

If you’re planning on having a clear out of shoes, clothes, soft bags, handbags; then please do save them to drop them off at School.  Bags2School will pay us per kilo and you can rest assured your unwanted clothes don’t end up in landfill, it’s a win-win! Check the Diary for upcoming dates. 

School Lottery

Set up a direct Debit to pay weekly and be in with a chance to win! Support your school lottery! There’s  a guaranteed winner every Saturday. https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/little-chalfont-primary-school.

Second Hand Uniform Sale 

Surprised to find the children are getting larger, or even possibly leaving school to go onto higher education? Ease the confusion and donate unneeded logo uniform to the PTA. We have regular sales which can save the pennies, help the PTA and reduce Carbon Footprint. Check the Diary for upcoming dates. 

Match funding

Do you work for a company that has a matched giving scheme? This can either be where a company matches pound for pound money that you have raised or are donating to a charity, or where they will match fund a purchase for a charity? Many City firms, particularly banks and finance sector do this. As a registered charity the PTA is eligible for these schemes, for example we raised £1k from Barclays to match the £1k money raised by the Christmas Fair raffle, doubling our income from this fundraiser for free! Please investigate your employer and let us have the details if this is something you can offer

Your help really counts! Thank you.

If you have any queries about any of these schemes, please get in touch on email at ptalcps@gmail.com

If your query is specifically regarding the gift card scheme then please email lcpsvouchers@gmail.com