Many of you are devoted users of the RaiseRight scrip program, which donates a percentage of your gift card purchases to our school. We thank you for supporting us in this way!

 

A few months ago, we announced that the parish office would no longer be involved in administering the program. The office no longer processes manual (paper) orders nor accepts delivery of physical gift cards for pickup.

 

Because we are still receiving some shipments of physical gift cards on behalf of purchasers, we wanted to clarify and reiterate the new policy and the reasons behind it.

 

When you buy physical gift cards online and select "ship to your coordinator," your cards are shipped to our office via UPS at a minimum charge of $10.50 per shipment, which is paid by St. Stephen. Sometimes a shipment is only a card or two.

 

Things were different a few years ago. School families were required to purchase a minimum amount of gift cards each month to subsidize their tuition, which meant a lot of purchases. Only physical cards were available until the recent introduction of e-cards. Also, because of the volume of purchases, we kept a fairly large inventory on hand. Under those conditions, the volume and value of the cards was more than enough to offset our shipment charges.

 

You already know that the percentage donated back to our school varies by vendor. Some vendors donate as much as 17% of your purchase to our school. Most are in the 5%-10% range. Some are as low as 1.5%. Nowadays, more often than not, when cards are shipped to us, we are paying more for the shipment than our school is collecting in donations. The purchase, while made with good intentions, is actually costing the school money. We know you don't want that!

 

We wish the buying process were simpler, but unfortunately each vendor offers different card and shipment options, which can make your purchases a bit complicated and in some cases limited.

 

Depending on the vendor, when you order physical gift cards, you might have the option to ship to home or ship to your coordinator. Please do not select the "ship to your coordinator" option. (RaiseRight is working on removing that option altogether, hopefully before the new year.)

 

When you choose to ship to your home, you will be offered a few shipping options with varying costs.

Some cards may not offer the option to ship to your home and can only ship to the coordinator. In that case -- or in any case, really! -- we encourage you to purchase e-cards, if available from the vendor. They are available immediately from your Wallet in the RaiseRight app. To use an e-card, simply click on the card in your wallet and there will be a bar code that can be scanned by the cashier or a string of numbers and a PIN that can be applied to an online account, just like a "real" card.

 

We hope this makes sense to those of you who use the app regularly and are somewhat familiar with the ins and outs.

 

If you have any questions or are unsure about something, please call office manager Gina Beach at 314-481-1133, x340.

 

Thanks again for your support of our school. Every little bit helps!