Do you collect Box Tops? Do you know what they are? In short, Box Tops For Education is a program that allows companies to give money to schools.
I recently had the privilege of attending Box Tops University. This was a gathering of several hundred Box Tops leaders from different schools in Illinois as well as many from neighboring states. Now, I have collected Box Tops for years, but this was an entirely different perspective. These people are charged with not only collecting the Box Tops, but organizing fundraisers, filing the submissions and encouraging everyone that they can reach to cut out those little squares. It’s a thankless job, but these people know the benefit for their school, so they keep at it. I have a lot of respect for them.
I learned a lot during the four hour session (some of which I’ll share with you later this week), but here are a few of the tidbits that I found fascinating:
- Box Tops are recycled. After they are counted, they are burned and turned into energy that powers a group of homes in Minnesota.
- Each school makes an average of $732 per year (some making significantly more and some significantly less) and approximately 100,000 schools participate in the program.
- You do not need to cut out your Box Top in a neat little square. You can rip off the entire area and submit it.
- Someone physically counts each and every Box Top and they take great pride in their work. Talk about a job!
My favorite part of the day was hearing leaders talk about their suggestions for increasing the amount of Box Tops collected by their school. There were TONS, but they all fell into one of these four categories:
- Have a contest! Whether it’s a contest for the right to turn your principal into a human sundae or putting Box Tops into two or three different bins to determine which teacher has to dress up like a movie character for the day, get the kids involved. They will find the Box Tops just to be able to participate.
- Use Box Tops as a form of payment! Have the teachers offer rewards for Box Tops. Maybe 50 Box Tops buys them the right to sit in the teacher’s “special” comfortable chair for two days or 30 Box Tips buys them the first spot in the lunch line. Be creative!
- Open a Box Tops Store! One school asked parents and teachers to look around their house for gently used McDonald’s toys, books, games and whatever else they could find. Twice a year they opened their “store” and sold everything for Box Tops!
- Get your community involved! Does your school have a marquee? Add a line about Box Tops donation! If you have a lot of copies to make about Box Tops events, ask a local business if they would be willing to give you 50 free copies per month. If you can get a few stores to agree, all of your copies would be made at no expense to you.
The Box Tops for education program is not just for parents. I promise you that you have products in your kitchen right now that have Box Tops on them. Please cut them out and put them in a baggie. If you don’t know where to send them, call your local elementary school. If you’re really at a loss, let me know and I am sure I can find you a place to mail them to. Box Tops convert into free money for the teachers and kids and it costs you nothing to help out. They would really appreciate it!
To get everyone a little more jazzed about Box Tops, Box Tops For Education is giving away a huge Product Prize Pack to one lucky winner! The pack includes products like Ziploc, Hefty, Solo, Chex, Cascadian Farm and more!
There are several ways to enter this giveaway:
Easy Entry: Tell me what your favorite Box Tops For Education product is (check their website if you need ideas)
YOU MUST COMPLETE THE EASY ENTRY TO CONTINUE WITH THE REST.
The following will get you extra entries once the above entry is submitted:
2. Subscribe to my email or feed and leave a comment.
3. Follow me on Facebook and leave a comment.
4. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment.
5. Blog, Tweet, or otherwise announce this giveaway with the giveaway link and leave a comment.
**Please leave a comment for each individual entry. There are a total of 6 possible entries allowed per person.**
Giveaway is open to US Residents only. Please remember to leave a valid email address so that I have a way to contact you!
This giveaway will end on Sunday, 4/17 around 10PM CST. If you can still comment, you can still enter! The winner will be chosen randomly and notified by email shorty after the end of the giveaway. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before I will have to choose a new winner.
Good luck!
**Fine Print – I was not financially compensated for this post. I was invited to attend BTFE University and given a prize pack for myself. I was giving a second prize pack to give away to a reader. All of the opinions and statements above are my own.