|
|
| 
|
| | 
| |
| | 
| |
| |
| Get started! Learn how to sign up with our Flash demo. |
|
 |
| | |
| | 
| |
| |
| Earn money for your favorite school. Learn how to use our secure, easy checkout tool with this Flash demo. |
|
|
| | |
| | 
| | |
|
|
|
|
"Although few students have come to harm from making door-to-door solicitations,
there is no reason to take any chances... A 10-year-old should not be encouraged
to wander the neighborhood to knock on doors where he does not know who might answer.
Schools, of all institutions, should be not be promoting this kind of activity."
- New York Times Editorial (12.15.97)
How did your company come about? Who came up with the idea?
|
The idea for Click4Kids.com, LLC was born in the fall of 1997. Bruce Gittleman, a New Jersey software developer and businessman, was reading the front page of his local newspaper. What he read shocked and saddened his entire community.
In September of that year, a 10-year-old boy was selling wrapping paper door to door in nearby Jackson, New Jersey. His elementary school was raising funds for a field trip, and he wanted to sell more paper than anyone else. The incentive for his hard work? A set of walkie talkies.
Early in the evening, he happened upon the home of another young boy, and rang the doorbell, and was invited inside. The young door-to-door salesman never made it out alive.
While the case of this young boy is thankfully rare, the fact remains that door to door sales have become a dangerous proposition. It's this realization that's driven us since that day to create a new, safe, and effective way to conduct fundraising over the Internet: Click4Kids.com, LLC.
Click4Kids.com is an online community of Web-savvy educators, parents, and kids, working together to benefit their school; all in a manner that is completely safe, thanks to the power of ecommerce.
Although the direct sales industry formally adopted an ethical code in 1996 that forbids door to door sales, the basic school fund-raising model involves handing a child a catalog and a sales sheet. Children are asked to solicit friends and family to buy products so that the school can benefit from its share of the profit.
Often the child is motivated by incentives such as CD players, walkie talkies, bicycles, and athletic equipment. Such motivations sometimes result in children ignoring the rule that only friends and family should be approached.
Increasingly, parents are being asked to shoulder their child's fundraising responsibilities. Parents are expected to sell to their colleagues, relatives, neighbors, and friends. Sometimes their sales efforts annoy fellow workers. Often their fellow workers show up the following week with their own fund drive materials, and expect a reciprocal sale. Some firms have even forbidden these activities in the workplace.
Finally, much of the merchandise offered in these programs is of very low value. The candy, cookies, and greeting cards are greatly overpriced, and often of little interest to the potential customer. While the direct sales industry portrays an image of warm-hearted neighbors happily buying attractive products from the boy or girl next door, the experience of many customers is one of annoyance or feeling pressured to buy.
Not surprisingly, schools boards and local governments are beginning to ban door to door sales by children. Some state legislatures have considered bills to ban such activities statewide.
Even with the push to ban door to door sales, thousands of schools across the country continue to engage in direct sales fundraising. Schools need money to make sure that every child can go on a school trip. They need money to buy computers. They sometimes need it for books, for sports equipment, for band instruments, for a new floor in the gymnasium. The list goes on and on. All are worthy causes.
In an ideal world, every school in America would have all the resources it needs to be an effective force in every child's social and educational growth. Every child would be able to participate in extra-curricular activities without himself or his parents being asked to undertake a fundraising activity. Every school would have enough up-to-date computers to satisfy the curiosity and learning needs of every student. Every school would be able to send every child to see a live professional dramatic performance. And every school would have proper and safe sports equipment.
The fact remains, schools need extra income. Fundraising fills this need. What schools need is a new model for raising funds day in and day out that is safe, effective, and fun.
|
Why should we use Click4Kids to raise funds?
|
Click4Kids.com enables schools to build a community of fundraiser supporters who can easily purchase quality products that provide a high, direct commission to their favorite school(s) and their special causes. And unlike many other fundraising options, we believe that once money is raised, it should get to schools quickly.
The Click4Kids.com website is simple, well-designed, secure, and geared specifically to helping schools use the power of ecommerce to raise much-needed funds for educational projects. It's truly all we do.
Other online fundraising sites offer much lower returns on the dollar, and make it very difficult to track and verify that funds raised online actually make it into the hands of schools. We offer real-time online stats so you can track your fundraising totals, and guarantee quick turnaround to get the money to your school and the individuals involved in your fundraising projects.
Plus, Click4Kids.com was created, and is run by, a small dedicated team of professionals, each drawing upon their personal expertise in K-12 education, business, Web site development, and accounting. We started Click4Kids.com as a small company to help keep kids safe, yet allow schools to earn serious money to fund their needs. We keep a very small percentage of each sale to pay for our website and the products themselves, along with a modest amount to keep the company strong and functional. We're here to keep our costs down and your
percentages high!
|
Can we track fundraising totals? How fast do schools get their funds?
|
No matter how much money your target school earns each month via Click4Kids.com - $10, $100, $1,000, or more - we'll cut a check every month and mail it out. The check detail contains information about the source of the funds, along with information about Click4Kids.com, plus a list of the school staff members who are to receive the funds from each sale, along with the fundraising purpose. It's that simple!
Initially, we're waiving our $3.50 check processing fee to all schools who earn $100 or less each month. Once a school earns $100 or more, the $3.50 fee applies. It's our goal to help schools of all sizes participate in Click4Kids.com, and we think this policy will help smaller schools get and stay involved in our program.
You can track your target school(s) and obtain current fundraising statistics by clicking the Stats + My Account tab at the top of any page.
|
What is the mission of Click4Kids?
|
To help students, parents, and teachers safely purchase and sell high-quality products online, and in turn return up to 50% directly to schools in the form of a fundraising check, with funds earmarked for individual fundraising efforts.
You may not be aware of this, but fundraising is a $4 billion a year business. Currently, school fundraising is laborious, time consuming, inconvenient, sometimes dangerous, and not cost effective. Most schools are forced to use catalog-based sales tools, or host special auctions or sales that are labor-intensive, to ensure a quick turnaround on funds. Until now.
The Click4Kids.com Internet fundraising model is designed to operate more efficiently and safely than the traditional real-world models, and it delivers greater value to the schools and students than all other Internet fundraising operator contributions.
With Click4Kids.com's built-in personalized email invitation system, students, parents, and staff can easily and instantly invite friends and family-near and far-to visit click4kids.com and support their school with a purchase.
|
Why do you give 50% of each sale? Why not more?
|
With a little digging, you can quickly find school fundraisers that promise a return of 60% per sale. While these high numbers are very alluring, there are several factors to consider beyond a simple commission percentage.
First, ask how much of the fundraiser work will be done by the company in question. In most cases, getting a 60% or higher commission requires schools to turn students and staff into unpaid employees of the fundraising firm. Your kids may be asked to go door to door, or entice parents to work on student's behalf at work to solicit sales.
Students and parents take orders, handle money, and are responsible for accounting and final delivery of the product(s). Many times, the products come in a few large boxes that are unlabeled; you and your kids will be asked to spend hours sorting, bagging, tagging, and then delivering the goods.
Second, fundraisers with high percentages usually involve the sale of high calorie, nutritionally unsound products (sugar-laden candy, candy bars, cookie dough, even lollipops); low value products (wrapping paper, candles); or, increasingly, scratch off tickets that simply ask a potential giver to reveal the amount they'll donate, then ask them to write a check or give cash. In all of these cases, the products are of low value (or no product is involved), leaving supporters with unhealthy, low-value, or no-value products at the end of a sale. You may get some parents or community members to donate once, but the bad taste in their mouth and/or low value goods they receive in return are destined to hurt your efforts over the long term.
Third, ask the company how quickly you and your school will get paid, and how much money you'll need to give up-front. Again, to get a high percentage, you'll likely need to give hundreds or even thousands of dollars up front, and then wait three, six, or even 12 full months to get paid.
Our Click4Kids.com Internet fundraising model requires none of these things!
We sell healthy, quality, Click4Kids-labeled products, offer secure ordering, handle shipping and handling, collect the money, deliver the goods, then cut a check for your sales every month. Our fundraising model allows teachers and students to focus on teaching and learning, rather than becoming unpaid fundraising teams.
We designed Click4Kids to harness the power of the Internet to operate fundraisers more efficiently and safely than the traditional real-world models, and we're proud to deliver greater value to your school and students than all other Internet fundraising operators.
|
Any tips for how schools can get started with Click4Kids?
|
Getting started is a snap. Connect to www.click4kids.com, then select the Spread the Word tab.
First, may we suggest that you print a set of our black and white handout posters? We offer two versions -- one for elementary locations, and a second for middle/high schools -- which clearly explain the program, how to get started, and provide spaces to fill in the name of your school, fundraising purposes to make it easy to assign raised funds to individual efforts, and more.
These posters can be filled out and handed to parents, posted on bulletin boards, mailed to community members, posted in local businesses, and much more. The sky is the limit!
The Spread the Word page also offers the ability to send email invitations. Anyone can fill in the information, and email a selection of parents, grandparents, relatives, businesses, etc. with information about your fundraisers and how click4kids.com can help. Your school name will be provided to make it easy for the recipients to turn around, make a purchase, and speed the funds to your school.
|
Why are healthy school fundraisers like Click4Kids.com important?
|
Students learn more from what we do than from what we say. In the case of healthy school fundraising, it's important to put our health before fundraising dollars. New companies like Click4Kids.com are here to help schools break an unhealthy habit, while offering a superior fundraising method to kick the junk food and junk products out of our schools and their fundraising campaigns.
But don't take our word for it! The state of Connecticut has approved Click4Kids.com as an officially healthy fundraising alternative for their schools. Read more from their school administrators:
Benefits of Healthy Fundraising
Promoting a Healthy School Environment
Source: State of Connecticut
Candy, baked goods, soda and other foods with little nutritional value are commonly used for
fundraising at school. Schools may make easy money selling these foods, but students pay the
price. An environment that constantly provides children with sweets promotes unhealthy habits
that can have lifelong impact. As we face a national epidemic of overweight children, many
schools are turning to healthy fundraising alternatives.
Healthy Kids Learn Better
Research clearly demonstrates
that good nutrition is linked to better behavior
and academic performance. To provide the
best possible learning environment for
children, schools must also provide
an environment that supports healthy
behaviors.
Provides Consistent Messages
Fundraising with healthy
foods and non-food items demonstrates a school
commitment to promoting healthy behaviors. It supports
the classroom lessons students are learning about health,
instead of contradicting them.
Promotes a Healthy School Environment
Students need
to receive consistent, reliable health information and ample
opportunity to use it. Finding healthy alternatives to fundraising
is an important part of providing a healthy school
environment.
Consequences of Unhealthy Fundraising
Compromises Classroom Learning
Selling unhealthy food
items contradicts nutrition messages taught in the classroom.
Schools are designed to teach and model appropriate skills
and behaviors. Nutrition principles taught in the classroom
are meaningless if they are contradicted by other activities
that promote unhealthy choices, like selling candy and other
sweets. It’s like saying, “You need to eat healthy foods to
feel and do your best, but it is more important for us to
make money than for you to be healthy and do well.” Classroom
learning about nutrition remains strictly theoretical if the
school environment regularly promotes unhealthy behaviors.
Promotes the Wrong Message
Selling unhealthy foods provides
a message that schools care more about making money
than student health. We would never think of raising money
with anything else that increases student health risks, but
food fundraisers are often overlooked. As schools promote
healthy lifestyle choices to reduce student health
risks and improve learning, school fundraisers
must be included.
Contributes to Poor Health
Foods commonly
used as fundraisers (like chocolate, candy, soda and baked
goods) provide unneeded calories and displace healthier
food choices. Skyrocketing obesity rates among children are
resulting in serious health consequences, such as increased
incidence of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
More than 15 percent of children are overweight, a threefold
increase from the 1970’s. (1) At 400,000 deaths per
year, poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle are fast
becoming the leading cause of death in the U.S.,
just behind smoking at 435,000 deaths per year. (2)
References
(1) Ogden CL., Flegal, KM Carroll MD and Johnson CL. Prevalence
and Trends in Overweight Among US Children and Adolescents,
1999-2000. JAMA 2002;288: 1728-1732
(2) Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF, Gerberding JL. Actual causes of
death in the United States, 2000. JAMA. 2004;291(10):1238-1246
What Schools Can Do: Ideas for Healthy Fundraising Alternatives
Schools can help promote a healthy learning environment by using healthy fundraising alternatives -- (like Click4Kids.com!)
For more information on a healthy school environment, contact Susan Fiore, MS, RD,
Nutrition Education Coordinator at susan.fiore (at) po.state.ct.us.
|
How do I create a Click4Kids.com account, or change my user information?
|
Just click here to sign up - or you can sign up during your first purchase.
You will need to give us a valid email address, a password of your choice, and a unique fundraiser name that we can use to track the cash you've raised for your choice of school(s). You'll also be asked to select one favorite school to add to your account.
When you sign up, you may choose to show your fundraising statistics to other users of our site by selecting a public option. By selecting public, we'll show your fundraising name and your fundraising statistics on our Stats + My Account page.
Should you change your mind and not wish to have your statistics displayed here, click the Stats + My Account tab at the top of any page, be sure you're logged in (enter your email address and password in the upper right-hand corner), then click the My Account button. You may then select Private, and your stats will be removed from public view during our next update cycle, which occurs daily.
Once you've signed up, you can purchase products and start earning cash for the schools of your choice.
To change your fundraiser name, your stats being shown/not shown, and more, click the Stats + My Account tab at the top of any page, be sure you're logged in (enter your email address and password in the upper right-hand corner), then click the My Account button. Make your changes, then be sure to save your new choices.
|
What payment options do I have?
|
You may pay using VISA and MasterCard. Other forms of payment will be made available over time.
Click4Kids.com does not store credit card or other financial information at its website. When you place an order, your transaction is completed via our secure server. Credit card information is simply used once to finalize payment for the products, and is transmitted via a 256-bit encrypted connection to our processing company -- the largest and most secure in the world.
In a word, your payment is... secure. Period.
|
What are my shipping options, and what's flat-rate shipping?
|
We charge a single low, flat-rate shipping fee. This makes things easy -- add one, two, three, even four or more products to your order, and we'll only charge you our single flat-rate fee. The more you buy, the more money you save on shipping!
We deliver within all 50 U.S. states via U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail. At this time we cannot ship to APO or FPO addresses.
We process and ship orders Monday through Friday at our fulfillment center located in Northern California. Your order will arrive within 5 to 14 days. Most orders arrive in 4-5 days, excluding weekends and most holidays.
|
You only seem to sell a few items. Can I buy anything else?
|
We focus our efforts on offering our visitors a small set of high-quality items that guarantee a high fundraising potential for schools. Thus, you'll only find a small set of products to buy at any one time.
Be sure to stop by every month to reorder our current product(s) and discover our newest offerings.
|
Most of your products have Click4Kids labels; who makes these items? Are they good?
|
We've worked hard over the years to find high-quality products that make it possible for schools to earn a high commission for each sale, while at the same time providing highly nutritional, safe, and effective products for families of all kinds.
Our vitamins and supplements were formulated by doctors and scientists working for the Allergy Research Group. Established in 1979, ARG is an innovative leader in research and the formulation of nutritional supplements. The firm is recognized worldwide for the quality, purity and efficacy of its targeted nutritional supplement line consisting of more than 200 products. More than 4,000 physicians and health care practitioners worldwide currently purchase Allergy Research Group's products and recommend these supplements to their patients.
Allergy Research Group's research and development is led by Stephen Levine, Ph.D., who is recognized internationally for his mission of creating state-of-the-art supplements, especially designed for allergic individuals. Dr. Levine is also known worldwide as an author of the book, "Antioxidant Adaptation: Its Role in Free Radical Pathology," which is considered a leading resource on this subject. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Levine has collaborated with the medical community and states, "It has been my greatest pleasure working with progressive physicians to develop nutraceutical products which reduce suffering and improve the health of their patients."
We're continuing to keep an eye out for companies offering superior products that we can sell on a private-label basis. Send an email to info@click4kids.com to find out more or get in touch with our buyers.
|
Can my school buy your products in bulk to generate larger funds all at once?
|
Yes. We've had requests from schools to sell bulk quantities of 25, 100, even 150 individual items to spur larger, one-time fund generations through our system. The more you buy all at once in this manner, the larger the discount we can offer, while reducing shipping fees and increasing your percentage earned per item. Many schools then sell these items at special events, auctions, etc.
Prices for bulk orders are set on a case by case basis. In addition, larger purchases will enable schools to pay using a check or Purchase Order.
To find out more, please email us via orders@click4kids.com and we'll get back to you within two business days. In most cases, we turn around emails the same day we receive them.
|
When do new items become available for sale?
|
It's our goal to offer new products for sale every 90 days or less. Past products may also be available for reorder going forward. Check the right-hand side of any product page for a list of our current offerings.
|
I really need to talk to someone at Click4Kids.com. May I call you?
|
Our apologies. We're a small company, busy looking for new products, shipping your order(s), and writing lesson plans and other materials to help schools get the most out of our fundraising model. As demand for Click4Kids.com grows, we're planning to offer phone staff support. For now, however, we're focused on keeping costs down and percentages high.
You may send an email to help@click4kids.com and we'll get back to you within two business days. In most cases, we turn around emails the same day we receive them.
|
I have feedback or a suggestion. Can I fill out your survey?
|
We love to hear from our users! Fill out our survey today. We read every single one!
You may also send an email to help@click4kids.com and we'll get back to you within two business days. In most cases, we turn around emails the same day we receive them.
|
How do I return an item I've ordered?
|
We regret that we cannot accept returns for food/perishables or vitamin products. Shipping and handling charges are not refundable unless we make an error in shipping your order, or an item is found to be defective. You cannot claim the items that you do not like in package shape or taste (i.e. dented container or you don't like how it tastes).
All return claim requests must be made via orders@click4kids.com within three days of delivery. If you receive permission to file a return, the address for returns will be provided in our reply email.
For all qualifying products, please keep all original packing materials and documentation. We may choose to send a replacement, or refund the original purchase price of the item to the account used to place the order. Know that, if requested by Click4Kids.com, LLC, return freight for your items will be at your expense. A note stating the nature of defect must accompany items returned for defects. Your order must be in original packaging, intact, and unopened.
|
I'd like to link from my site to yours. Do you have any Click4Kids banners or graphics?
|
We sure do! To reuse these images, right-click on them and select "Save Image/Picture As..." from the menu. Save the image to your desktop. You may then upload it to your page(s) and link it to www.click4kids.com.
  
|
|
|
|