CIBA Scrip Now Available
Local businesses have historically been among the most frequent contributors to local school programs through donated merchandise and gift certificates. It has become more difficult for us to make the cash donations that schools also need. Now CIBA has developed a plan in conjunction with private schools and the Corvallis Public Schools Foundation to make available coupons or scrip that can be used at participating CIBA-member stores.
The school buys the scrip at a 10 percent discount from CIBA and sells it to parents at full value. Parents can then use the scrip at participating stores � and the school gains the 10 percent difference.
Laurie Zink at Day Dreamers bead store has worked hard to make this as easy to use as possible, and we are pleased to offer it as another example of the support local businesses continue to provide to our community. Scrip can be ordered from Laurie at 752-2323 or purchased through your local school scrip program.
lars, 7:48 AM [link]
Commentary by Jack Wolcott
I mentioned the reciprocal nature of donations and support of local businesses in a column last fall. Last week, in the bimonthly membership meeting of the Corvallis Independent Business Alliance, we took the next step to facilitate a practical dialogue between nonprofit organizations and locally owned, independently operated businesses. We established a program to coordinate the needs of local nonprofit organizations with the practical details of business solicitations.
Frequently, someone enters a small business, asks for the owner, and requests a small donation for a worthy cause. And all too often, when that person is asked for some relevant details about the purpose of the organization or the timing of the details, they are unprepared to answer with the appropriate information. Whether it is bad timing for the request, insufficient information or lack of funds, there are many requests for help that could be filled if the business owner were approached in a more practical manner.
The program we are starting will have two main aspects: helping businesses understand the broader significance of charitable donations and facilitating nonprofit organizations in the publishing of a yearly calendar of events and opportunities to donate. We also hope to print a small handbook on how to approach businesses, the many different ways to donate, promotional aspects of contributions, and how businesses can keep track of the different kinds of help they offer throughout the year.
I need to be very clear on one practical aspect of this program: It has little chance of succeeding without the avid participation of a broad spectrum from the nonprofit community. We want to form a task force to gather information from as many organizations as possible. We need a volunteer from each major "category" (arts, education, sports, health, special interest, etc.) to contact similar organizations and compile the information necessary for businesses to make their yearly budgets for donations.
We had a great sign-up of businesses that want to help our members organize their charitable giving for maximum mutual benefit. Our locally owned businesses want to support our community; we just need the requests to be more organized. If you want to help gather the information, please contact CIBA at corvallisIBA@peak.org">corvallisIBA@peak.org, or you can leave a message for me at Grass Roots Books & Music.
CIBA scrip for schools
Local businesses have historically been among the most frequent contributors to local school programs through donated merchandise and gift certificates. It has become more difficult for us to make the cash donations that schools also need. Now CIBA has developed a plan in conjunction with private schools and the Corvallis Public Schools Foundation to make available coupons or scrip that can be used at participating CIBA-member stores.
The school buys the scrip at a 10 percent discount from CIBA and sells it to parents at full value. Parents can then use the scrip at participating stores � and the school gains the 10 percent difference.
Laurie Zink at Day Dreamers bead store has worked hard to make this as easy to use as possible, and we are pleased to offer it as another example of the support local businesses continue to provide to our community. Scrip can be ordered from Laurie at 752-2323 or purchased through your local school scrip program.
lars, 7:45 AM [link]
