Thanks for your interest in the Gift Card purchase program offered through Great Lakes Scrip Center

Scrip is a term that means "substitute money".

When our Church families purchase scrip, they're purchasing negotiable gift certificates that are used just like cash. The scrip is issued by the national and local retailers where many of us already shop. These merchants want to support non-profit organizations, and in return ask you to support them by shopping with scrip at their stores. We can use scrip to purchase everyday expenses like food, clothing, and other essentials, and with every purchase, they earn revenue for our Church.

How scrip generates revenue for you.

The Great Lakes Scrip center acts on behalf of churches, schools and other non-profit organizations to purchase large amounts of scrip from grocery stores, department stores, and other retailers. Because the scrip is purchased with cash up front, the participating retailers offer a substantial discount. Your organization buys the scrip from Great Lakes Scrip Center at a discount, and re-sells the certificates to your organization members for full face value. The bulk of the discount - from two to fifteen percent or more - is retained by your organization as revenue.

Scrip is "shopping cart fundraising”.

The reason for the effectiveness of scrip is simple: families generate revenue through purchases they would make anyway. Groceries, clothing, toys, gifts, even gasoline can be purchased with scrip. An organization of 150 families easily spends between one and two million dollars per year on food, clothing and other essentials. If these families use scrip for these purchases, they can raise as much as $40,000 to $80,000 per year for their organization --without spending an additional penny.