You can reach any audience anywhere: It is important for your name and cause to be known.  If you have a social networking site in existence, you reach a larger audience to gain donations.

You can fundraise at any time without being invasive: Time is precious for both the sellers and the supporters of each fundraiser.  With a social media site or even a simple website, this will allow supporters to donate at their convenience.  Links to these sites will ease the process of raising money for everyone!

It can go viral: As would any post on facebook or twitter, there is a chance your own cause will spread at a much quicker rate than that of a standard word of mouth method.  This will allow you to raise funds faster!

Thank you to the PTO Website for the helpful information on fundraising trends!

Based in Brentwood, TN, City Saver is the local leader in charitable coupon fundraising with hundreds of schools and charities using its products each year to raise funds for their cause. City Saver fund-raising efforts are supported by superior, well-established products, which feature 50%-off and two-for-one savings at local favorite restaurants, attractions and shopping.  City Saver books have been a top fund-raising option for organizations since the year 2003 and have raised over $7 million for groups.

Not only do City Saver coupon books bring you tons of savings when going out, try these tips for money saving strategies at the grocery store:

1. Some stores DOUBLE coupons up to a certain amount. .50 cents face value is worth $1.

2. Some stores have their own coupons that can be STACKED with a Manufacturers coupon to MAXIMIZE your savings. For example, Target has Simply Orange Juice for $2.99. Target has a Store Coupon for $1 off and there is a Manufactures Coupon for .50c off. You will only pay $1.49 for the juice after STACKING!

3. You can get TONS of items for FREE or even make MONEY from using coupons.

4. Some stores have INCENTIVES to get you to shop with them. Walgreens has REGISTER REWARDS, CVS has Extra Care Bucks or ECBs, and Rite Aid has UP REWARDS. The incentives are money you can use only at their stores instead of using your cash money.

5. You can often use a coupon on items you are getting for FREE. For example, Purex laundry detergent is $6.99. The store will run a special on the detergent at Buy 1 Get 1 FREE. You have a $3 off 1 coupon. You can use a coupon on the one you are paying for and the one you are getting for FREE to purchase BOTH items at .99 cents or .49c a piece.

6. When a coupon reads “ONE PER PURCHASE” that means one per ITEM purchased not one per transaction. If you have 5 coupons for an item, you can get 5 of those items in one trip.

7. You can get coupons from many sources besides the Sunday paper. Facebook, Magazines, Product packaging, Peelie (found on the product), Product displays, and you can purchase from clipping services.

8. When the value of the coupon is greater than the cost of the product, it is called OVERAGE. Overages can be used to purchase items that usually don’t have coupons like: MEAT! For example: Cat food is on sale for .10c a can, you have a .50 off 1 can. Your overage is .40c a can. You can purchase 10 cans of cat food and have $4.00 in overage to use on purchasing some MEAT.

9. Walmart is a great store because it guarantees the lowest prices and you can PRICE MATCH to any local store’s ad. So it is exciting to know I can always get the best price in PRODUCE, by price matching to an ad like ALDI.

10. The best time to purchase Christmas gifts are the day after the holiday. Gift sets are usually 1/2 price. You can use coupons on Gift Sets even if there is only one item in the set that requires a coupon. For example: Gift set has a Venus razor, body wash and lotion in it. I have a coupon for $5 off the Venus razor only. The gift set was $10 before Christmas and now it is $5. I will get the gift set for FREE!!! However, if the coupon says “excluding gift sets”, then you wouldn’t be able to use it.

Special thanks to Dana Newsom, Couponing 101 Instructor, for these tips!

Based in Brentwood, TN, City Saver is the local leader in charitable coupon fundraising with hundreds of schools and charities using its products each year to raise funds for their cause. City Saver fund-raising efforts are supported by superior, well-established products, which feature 50%-off and two-for-one savings at local favorite restaurants, attractions and shopping. City Saver books have been a top fund-raising option for organizations in Nashville, Memphis, Clarksville (TN) and Louisville, KY, since the year 2003 and have raised over $7 million for groups. Franchise opportunities are available.

Based in Brentwood, TN, City Saver is the local leader in charitable coupon fundraising with hundreds of schools and charities using its products each year to raise funds for their cause. City Saver fund-raising efforts are supported by superior, well-established products, which feature 50%-off and two-for-one savings at local favorite restaurants, attractions and shopping.  City Saver books have been a top fund-raising option for organizations since the year 2003 and have raised over $7 million for groups. Franchise opportunities are available.

Schools and youth groups raise nearly $1.7 billion each year by selling popular consumer items (e.g., food products, gifts, candles, gift wrap, magazine subscriptions, novelties, ornaments, etc), according to statistics from the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS). While there are a number of fundraising options available (such as bake sales, car washes, auctions, straight donations), product sales far outrank* most other fundraising activities as the most effective and efficient means to raise money.

Here are some interesting facts about product fundraising:

• 8 out of 10 Americans – and 9 out of 10 parents – supported at least one school product fundraiser during the last school year
• 7 out of 10 parents actively sold products to support the school fundraiser during that same time period
• 8 out of 10 Americans were satisfied with the items they purchased
• Schools and school-related groups like parent-teacher organizations comprise about 83% of fundraising sales
• 50% of school fundraising sales are made by elementary school parents, students and volunteers
• Popular items sold include ornaments, novelties, cookie dough, gift wrap, candy and magazines

Parent volunteers, organized as a 501 (c)3 PTA, PTO, HSA or PTL, are typically the decision makers for which product their school will sell to meet their fundraising goals. Industry experts suggest that three main areas be considered when evaluating and selecting a fundraising company with which to do business:

1) The company has quality products;

2) The company delivers on promises and

3) The company has history of helping groups reach their goals.

To review the AFRDS evaluation checklist, and be sure you are selecting the right company, click here.

What kind of experience have you had with product fundraisers?

Based in Brentwood, TN, City Saver is the local leader in charitable coupon fundraising with hundreds of schools and charities using its products each year to raise funds for their cause. City Saver fund-raising efforts are supported by superior, well-established products, which feature 50%-off and two-for-one savings at local favorite restaurants, attractions and shopping.  City Saver books have been a top fund-raising option for organizations since the year 2003 and have raised over $7 million for groups.

We really don’t have a choice about whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it. It isn’t a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. If you are operating a restaurant that has not yet jumped on the social media bandwagon, we want to let you in on the secret and help you get started. If you are already rolling with it, how can you make it better?

• Food is a social activity and your marketing efforts should be social as well.
• 25% of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user generated content.
• 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.

• 78% of people trust peer recommendations.
• Only 14% trust advertisements.

The ROI of social media is: Will your business be here in 5 years?

Do what Dale Carnegie taught: Listen first, sell second
With Online Marketing and Social Media, your actions need to be human, trusting, transparent, authentic, and engaged. If so, your goals will be reachable, and worthy of your effort. Go ahead and start by listening to what people are already saying about you and your brand. Sign up for Google Alerts which are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries. The first query should be your brand name.

Have you checked your restaurant’s reputation on Yelp or Urbanspoon? Yelp is the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses. What are people saying about your brand? Urbanspoon is the world’s leading provider of time-critical dining data, a major division of a very important multi-national corporation, and an all-around BIG PLAYER in the multi-billion dollar restaurant information industry. Brand Ed has a great blog explaining each social media outlet and how you can use it.

Use food photos to make mouths water!
You can use social media to distribute great food photos by simply using your smart phone. This is important to your restaurant marketing because you can use it to promote daily specials and avoid the costly hassle of getting professional photographs produced.   Plus you can do it last minute when you have an abundance of perishable food you need to sell TODAY.  Taking nice photos is pretty easy and will have a great impact on your effectiveness through social media. No fancy software, equipment, or time consuming process.

Use Allergies as Talking Points!
Food allergies have become a huge trend in food service. People with allergies, like gluten, are used to feeling like a major pain to restaurant staff that are unprepared for their gluten-free menu request. If you do a great job catering to people with allergies, this can be marketing gold. If not, why not set aside a small part of your menu to cater to this? To make it social, link the menu to your main site and post it on your blog to get the word out (then post it to your Facebook & Twitter pages with pictures every couple of weeks).

Let people know up front and they will seek you out, (while bringing along their dining companions). This is a way to stand out from other restaurants and energize your social media.  More on Restaurant Marketing here.

How do you market your restaurant through social media?  Post a comment to our  (Nashville, Memphis or Louisville) Facebook or (Nashville, Memphis, Louisville) Twitter page and we will send you an article on “50 ways to cut costs without reducing the quality of your guests’ experience” by Jim Laube and Joe Erickson.

City Saver provides FREE marketing for businesses through social media while also helping local schools and charities raise money.  Learn more here.

I just read a book by Kelly Hancock, popular money saving expert from FaithfulProvisions.com, titled “Saving Savvy.” It’s smart and easy ways to cut your spending in half and raise your standard of living…and giving! I saved $21 on my first trip to the store using her strategies!

This week, go to one of our Facebook pages (Nashville, Memphis, Clarksville, Louisville) and give us one tip on how you use coupons to save money every day. We are giving away 4 of Kelly’s books on Friday. Winner is selected based on our teams’ opinion of who has the best money saving tip. Here are 5 of Kelly’s tips to using grocery coupons:

5 Tips to Using Coupons
You can save 75% or more on your grocery trips by using coupons!

1. Be Organized – Only use coupons if you are going to keep them organized, preferably in some kind of filing system.

2. Only use coupons with sale items – Using coupons alone is not a good deal. Only use coupons in conjunction with sales or clearance items for the best price.

3. Get multiple coupon inserts from the Sunday paper – Recommended: 1 insert per family member – In order to save the most, you want to get multiples of items when they are on sale so you can stockpile. You can only use one manufacturer coupon per item, so the more coupons you have, the more of an item on sale you can purchase!

4. Keep ALL coupons – Don’t throw away a coupon unless you would NOT want it for free, or give the free item away to someone else. It is a great way to be able to give to others like local food pantries.

5. Don’t be brand loyal – When using coupons you need to be flexible with your brands in order to save the most. To save the most, you use the items that are on sale with a coupon.

What kind of tips do you have for saving money? Post a tip at our Facebook page for a chance to win, “Saving Savvy” by Kelly Hancock.

Visit www.FaithfulProvisions.com to learn more money saving tips and find links to coupons.

City Saver coupon books contain thousands of dollars in savings to local favorite restaurants and attractions and are published in Nashville, Memphis, Clarksville (TN) and Louisville Kentucky to help raise money for schools and charities.

1) Arrive early to the meeting out of respect for the job this teacher is doing in the life of your child.
2) Ask open-ended questions that are not covered by the teachers presentation:
a) How can I help you in teaching my child?
b) What would you say are my child’s strengths?
c) What areas would be learning opportunities for my child?
d) Do you have any suggestions for things we can do at home to support the child’s learning (educational games, suggested reading)?
e) Does my child complete assignments on time and at the appropriate level?
f) How would you rate my child’s behavior and what does it tell you about his/her learning style?
g) How is my child getting along socially with other children?
3) Take notes to help you track your child’s progress
4) Celebrate with your child all of the successes you learned in the meeting as well as the positive attributes of the teacher.
5) Take a moment to look around the classroom and take note of your favorite areas, even taking a picture of favorite aspects.
If you’d like to know more about how City Saver coupon book fundraising can help your school in Nashville, Memphis, Louisville or Clarksville, contact info@citysaver.com or 877-450-SAVE (7283).

Hi, I am Kristin Beach, co-founder of City Saver. Since 2003, we have been producing coupon books that are sold by local schools and non-profit charities as a partnership to help them raise money.

When we started the business, we were at a real crossroads in our lives. We had been working many hours for corporate America, and had very successful careers in sales, marketing, advertising & public relations.

But with the birth of our first child, we wanted to take more control of our lives and our schedules. We also wanted to find a way to truly give back to the community. You know, do something we could feel good about at the end of the day.

We felt that owning our own business, owning and building City Saver, was the thing to do. It played well to our strengths and we knew that we could help everyone came into contact with.

It is truly a WIN-WIN-WIN scenario. Nothing feels better than driving by a school and seeing kids playing on playground equipment for which we helped to pay the bill. Or to know that kids are using new technology which our program helped to provide. It feels great to go into a restaurant and have the owner say, “Thank you for the City Saver program, it has really made a difference in our business.”

Besides that, just helping people save money at places they already like to go. It’s just cherry on the cake that it also happens to be helping local schools raise money. There’s just no better story out there than helping kids.

So, it’s a low overhead business that we could work from home. And it gave us the flexibility to pick up our kids at games or events and be there for them when they need us.

The rest is history! We now put together several coupon books and have raised over $6 million for groups so far.

With City Saver, we’ve been able to take our dream of owning our own business and helping the greater good of the community, become a reality.

Now we are giving you a chance to join us. Come on, be part of the City Saver family. 877-450-SAVE (7283) or info@citysaver.com

City Saver Education Funding provides a recurring funding source that school districts need without competing with parent driven fundraisers! Last year Clarksville City Saver coupons helped raise over $200,000 for the Clarksville Montgomery County School System. The 2012 school fundraiser is currently underway and will end on February 10th. Students will be selling the Clarksville City Saver coupon book and turn orders in once per week on their designated collection day.

For questions, call 877-450-SAVE (7283) or e-mail info@citysaver.com. Buy the book at www.ClarksvilleCitySaver.com/buy-the-book.

While supplies last, purchase one City Saver coupon book at regular price (plus shipping), get one book for free! Go to www.CitySaver.com and select your city:  Nashville, Memphis, Clarksville or Louisville!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!