Parkview Elementary School is launching its yearly fundraiser with all money raised going towards supporting a variety of activities for its students and the school’s Helping Hands Program. In past years, the fundraiser involved the sale of coupon booklets, but things will run differently this time around. Through Educado, a fundraising platform for schools, sports teams, or any youth organizations, Parkview is selling what are called “universal tickets” that will allow parents, friends, and family to support Parkview students while also contributing to their local businesses and putting money back in their pockets.
“The whole point was to try to find a way that parents could support their kids and other children without having to buy some kind of merchandise or product and a way they can support the children without having to spend any money at all,” explained Joel Gillis, creator of Educado and representative for Granby. “We wanted to find a way to support the children while putting money back into the parent’s and supporter’s pockets and that is basically what Educado will do.”
The universal coupons are purchased online and there are fewer limitations. “For 10 coupons it’s 20$ and that’s how they get sold. Instead of using a booklet where you have a limited number of coupons per page at a particular business, if you liked the two-for-one deal at X store then you can use all 10 coupons in the same type of transaction,” explained Daniel Zigby, vice-chair of the governing board.
Each business involved in the fundraiser, so far located in Granby, Bromont, the West Island and Ville St-Laurent in Montreal, will be offering up to three special deals. “The deals are all posted online and the parents buy 10 universal coupons. Once they buy these coupons, they have 10 chances to save anywhere between $5 and $400 depending on where they choose to redeem it.”
Even if a parent takes one of the smallest deals being offered, parents will still be putting money in their pockets. “You get back two and half times your money,” Gillis emphasized. “You’re going to realize wow it’s really worth it and save even more money and support students at the same time.”
The Educado platform helps make fundraising initiatives simpler. “Now the kids don’t have to distribute a product or collect money that they could lose,” said Gillis. “It is sharing a QR code or sharing a link -that’s it. When we sold the booklets, it took six weeks to get all the money in.”
All money raised through Educado will support student activities and outings. “In this particular case, we are raising money for the ski trip for all the students and for the end of year the year celebration that we have been doing at Parkview every year for the last 10 years” said Zigby. “There will be different student activities that they will be participating in.”
It will also support Parkview’s Helping Hands Program. “Being done at the school level, it is a fund that is available to help out families of Parkview that are in need. We use it to buy snowsuits for kids that don’t have the money for it, if someone shows up and doesn’t have a lunch we use it to pay for a lunch, or for a family that runs into a personal tragedy,” added Zigby.
Zigby said the school has set out a large goal to raise $50,000. If each student finds five people to buy and each one of those people come back three times, it’s a total of $60,000. “It it does give a huge hand to the Helping Hands fund. It will allow Helping Hands do a lot more than its already currently doing and it was one of the goals of the governing board.”
Gilles is looking to expand Educado and to involve other businesses and representatives. “The old booklet, the deals were only good in Granby so why would anyone outside of Granby want to support. We are able to get rid of the borders and call up friends that live 50 miles away and there will be deals in their backyard. They can support your kid in Granby and save in their own backyard, that is our goal.”
To donate to the fundraiser, visit https://educado.ca/parkview-elementary-granby/. If you are interested in being a participating business, email info@educado.ca.
Student participants and supporters are eligible for prizes.
