Are you a Catalog Freak like my wife?

My wife is just crazy about catalogs. They stack up like crazy, especially around the holidays, but she still keeps them and flips through every page. One day, when her stack was overflowing in her mail drawer, I threw some out. She made it very clear, I should not do that in the future. Okay, even if you buy from catalogs just once and a while ... here is a great way to SAVE MONEY and MAKE MONEY for your organization.

First, we have some catalogs in our network, so instead of calling in, go online to 2clickfundraising.com. Click on the Organization you want to make money, and then on the link for that catalog (Colorful Images, EToys, Highlights Catalog, and more). Your purchase will be the same price, but your Organization will make a portion of the purchase price.

But ... here is a way to actually SAVE money. Recently, my wife was about to buy a Christmas present out of a catalog. It was this cool mug, that looked like an upside down Beer Bottle, inside the mug for my beer drinking brother (hope he's not reading this). It was $24.99 plus shipping. Anyways, instead of calling up the catalog, I did a quick search on Amazon. I found it for $20, and since I had another small thing to buy, shipping was free (over $25). Interestingly enough, it's also $19.99 on their website. I don't know if they reduced the price or if it's lower on the site, but we saved over $10.

So, I started to look around at some more. Some of the items I found were not on Amazon and some were there, offered through the same catalog I found it in, so it was the same price. But, every time I found it, it was the same or cheaper. Here are some examples of what I found ...

Catalog	Item	Catalog	Amazon	Savings!
Potpourri	Personalized Man Cave Sign	$49.95	$39.95	$10.00
Solutions	Songwriter CD Recorder	$399.00	$311.43	$87.57
Solutions	35mm Film Converter	$99.95	$89.90	$10.05
What on Earth	Elvis Presley Guitar Shirt	$49.95	$39.99	$9.96

Well, I could go on and on. So, if you are thinking of ordering from a catalog, look around a bit. You can probably save money and make money for your organization!

If you know someone who likes catalogs, share this with them.
If you know a good 2click success story, share it with me! (jeff@2clickfundraising.com)

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff.

Price comparison on Musical Instruments

Dear 2Click -

As a person who uses 2Click (2ClickFundraising.com) whenever it is possible - as long as an online store that I am looking at price shopping with has a link thru 2ClickFundraising.com. I want to say thanks for a cool site that has helped me shop for good deals and service, and be able to give money back. Yes, I am a musician and I always seem to be buying gear...seriously, it seems like always. Yes, I have done the ebay thing...a lot. (Editors Note! Ebay is in the 2clickfundraising.com network, too!!) Until recently I thought ebay was the only way to buy gear online, but I AM WRONG. After a rash of marginal or weak ebay experiences I decided to start looking at buying new stuff online instead of the ebay stuff. I figured having new gear could be a sound investment (pardon the pun), but really I just wanted to start getting what I wanted, and I wanted it in good, functioning shape. So, granted I am not buying gear for an orchestra or a huge band, but I figure I can do something - I give back to the Fisher House charity.

My most recent purchases this summer were both thru Musician's Friend and I think were great deals. 1st, I bought an Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb pedal for my electric guitar, cost me $118.50 including shipping and IT IS GUARANTEED/WARANTEED to work. Price was the same as buying it new everywhere I searched on the internet (ebay, zzounds,&nbs p;samash.com) and shipping was free. Ebay was $20 cheaper, but most of those guys didn't have free shipping and clearly no guarantee/warantee. Pedal came in 3 days and sounds great/works great. A month later I decided to buy a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner thru 2Click. Same deal, I searched all the sites and found that the best deal was thru 2Click and Musician's Friend for only $99.00 with free shipping.. Ebay couldn't promise me the quality and the other sites don't offer free shipping. So purchase number two of the summer was the tuner.. Both products have been successes. So, I know my 2Click choice was Fisher House, but I don't know how much ended up going to Fisher House. If you could tell me that would be awesome. I know people buy all kinds of things thru 2Click. Music is my passion and 2Click makes feel about spending money on my tools and toys. Thanks.

jack higgins

Your answer, Jack ... For just 2 clicks before you made those purchases, Fisher House made $9.97. So, Fisher House and 2clickfundraising thank you for your 2 clicks. AND, your note. And, please note, Ebay is also in the 2clickfundraising.com network!

Keep clicking!
Jeff

Being successful with 2clickfundraising.com

There is one major problem when your group decides to raise funds with 2clickfundraising.com. It's too EASY!! People here the idea, say that's great, maybe forward one email and think they're done. Unfortunately ... it's not THAT easy.

You have to treat it more like a traditional fundraiser. When you sell wrapping paper, you pick up the phone and call friends & family, ask neighbors to buy some, collect money, distribute the rolls, etc. Put half of that effort into this fundraiser, and you will certainly reap larger rewards.

1. Assign Tasks to People - Make people feel needed and accountable. "Who wears Contact Lenses?" Assign that person the task of researching 1-800 Contacts. If you can feel good about pushing all of the Contact users in your group to buy them through 2click, that'd be nice. "Who is a Wine drinker?" Have them sign up for Merchant Alerts at 2clickfundraising.com and wine.com, then when they see great deals come through, they'll be ready to spread the word to the group and other wine fans. "Does anyone Travel a lot?" "Anyone big into Shoes?" They will feel involved and you can find opportunities your missing.

2. Bring it up at EVERY meeting. People like 2click, they just don't remember it. When you mention 2click at every meeting, the reaction will not be, "Oh, geez, this again." It will be more like, "Oh, that's right! and, I have to buy Timmy's birthday present soon, too." Maybe have a suggestion or request ready for each meeting. Email me for suggestions, but here are some ... Make 2clickfundraising.com your Home page, Add simple tag line to the bottom of all your emails, Email the last three people you drank wine with to tell them about 1 cent shipping deal, Remind them about music downloads at 2click (iTunes and Amazon MP3), etc.

3. Get creative! You know your community better than I do. And, somewhere in your community, people are spending a lot of money online. If you can do just a little legwork, and find those people some savings, they will GLADLY help you out with 2 extra clicks. Ask a small business for their latest supplies bill from Staples and compare that with OfficeDepot.com (and the $30 coupon) or little leaguers all buy new shoes around the same time, put together a flyer (or ask us!).

4. If you are in the Chicagoland area, have me come speak. I would love to help get people excited about this program. I'm a BIG believer and will help turn your people into believers, too. If not, check out Youtube in the coming weeks, I will be recording and uploading my next presentation.

Best of luck. If you have ANY questions or requests at all, email me, jeff@2clickfundraising.com

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff.

Do NOT click ads on this site!!

Please do NOT click an Ads on this site, YOUR organization will not get credit.

Apparently, somone saw my Post about Office Depot, and its trying to sneak some clicks from our Blog here. To make sure YOUR organziation gets credit ...

1. Go to www.2clickfundraising.com
2. Click on your organization on the left.
3. Find Office Depot (or any of the over 100 merchants) and click on that.

Thanks and happy clicking!
Jeff.

I needed nice sandals, the winner ... Amazon.com! (again)

My summer casual sandals are pretty gross, so I decided to buy new ones. My brother, who has better taste and a better budget, had some nice ones he raved about, so I decided to jump in and get the same ones (justifying it, because I'll where them for the next 10 years!)

They're those half sandals/half gym shoe types, called Keen Newports. He told me they'd probably be just under $100. Yep. For in store visits, I went to DSW (didn't have them), JC Penny (nope, just knock offs), Sears (nothing close), and Nordstrom's. Nordstrom's had them (figures) and they were $89.95. Plus tax, would make them about $100 where I live.

Through 2clickfundraising.com, shoes.com has a $10 off $50 orders coupon this month (SPRING10), so I started there. The shoes were $97. The Bad news was, that Keen wasn't part of the coupon, so I couldn't use that. But, with NO Shipping & NO Tax, I still would have saved $3 over Nordstroms. AND (this made the decision tough), Shoes.com purchases create 10% going back to the Fisher House, so that was $9.70. Not bad.

But, on Amazon.com, they were on sale for $78.50 plus $6.50 shipping and NO Tax. So, it was only $85 total. And, Amazon.com is about 4.5% to the groups, so about $3.50 will go to Fisher House (Hey, I have to look out for number 1!).

If you know someone looking for shoes, share this with them.
If you know a good 2click success story, share it with me! (jeff@2clickfundraising.com)

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff.

Tell small businesses about OfficeDepot.com

Pick up the phone and call everyone you know involved in a small business! Well, read this first, but then call them, they will thank you for saving the company money. AND, your organization will start making money on their regular purchases. Everybody wins.

The KEY: When you go through 2clickfundraising.com, find Office Depot and click on the DEAL link. There is a coupon for $30 off any order over $150. That's 20%! (although, it comes down if you order way over that, of course) But, you can use it as often as you'd like and for the rest of the year, until 12/31/09. Using this coupon makes this a very easy decision.

The DETAILS: I run a small business. So, I needed supplies, including ink, windowed envelopes, bubble mailers and more. I went to both Office Depot and Staples, both online and in store. Office Depot had the same or lower prices on ALL of my items, especially ink, where Staples (in-store) was over double what I paid. I also called a friend of mine who runs a small business and asked for the printout of a recent order from Staples.com to compare. The big ticket item, The Toner cartridges, were exactly the same price, so now she's saving $30 every time they need one (remember to get the $30 coupon, you need to click through 2clickfundraising.com!).

Both online stores are free Next Day shipping on orders over $50.

The WRAP-UP: My supplies arrived at my front door the very next day. The order was exactly as I'd placed it, and I didn't leave my house.

If you know someone involved in a small business, share this with them.
If you know a good 2click success story, share it with me! (Jeff@2clickfundraising.com)

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff

Diapers.com makes good cents!

I have the three cutest little kids in the world. I know, I know, everyone says that. But, with my kids it's actually true. Everyone says it, my wife, my mom ... everyone.

Anyways, before 2clickfundraising.com, we bought our diapers at Target. It's the cheapest place around.

Enter Diapers.com. It's great, you think about needing diapers at 3 am, and walk downstairs to the computer to shop (clicking through 2click first, of course!!). A couple days later, the box is waiting for you at your front door. No lugging huge boxes of diapers, just drag it inside and open the box. But, that convenience (and the commission for the organization of your choice) isn't worth too much money. It was time for a price comparison. My youngest son is 18 months and in size 5s, so we'll start there (quick side story: My wife wrote a note for my Mom when she was taking care of the kids, saying "Put him in 5 diapies", meaning size 5. So, my Mom being very confused, put him in 5 diapers!!! Too funny.)

Drum roll, please ... Diapers.com wins! And, similar to Amazon, the No Tax and No Shipping is the key (they always have no shipping over $50). After breaking it down to the "per Diaper" price, and taking into account tax and shipping (but not gas money to Target), the Target price is .25 cents per diaper, and the Diapers.com price is .23 cents per. Doesn't seem like a lot, but when you go through as many diapers as this little poop machines go through ... it adds up.

Also, for first timers ... $10 off your first order of Diapers with code AFF10! ($49 minimum total order.)

Your purchase also makes a commission for your organziation of choice. Starting to look like a no-brainer, right?

If you know someone with Diaper-Age kids, share this with them.
If you know a good 2click success story, share it with me! (Jeff@2clickfundraising.com)

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff.

Need Electronics. Think Amazon.com!

Last month, the TV in my bedroom finally died. It lived a long, good life. The armoir could fit a 32 inch TV, so that's what I was looking for.

I went to Best Buy, and wrote down the prices for three or four brands, with various bells and whistles. Then I logged on to 2clickfundraising.com and clicked on Fisher House (the cause I support on 2click). I decided to check out the prices on three different websites.

ABT Electronics and TigerDirect.com both had the TVs I had just priced out and 3 out of the 4 were the exact same price (the other was more expensive then Best Buy). ABT has 1,000s of products with Free Shipping and that was one and TigerDirect.com was running a special with $2.99 shipping on most items. So, that was close enough for a wash.

Then, I went to Amazon.com (clicking through 2click first, of course!) and typed in the same model numbers. Amazon had the exact same prices as Best Buy on all four models. The kicker is, I got NO SHIPPING and NO TAX! The tax alone saved me $60 (I live in Cook County, ouch).

On top of that, Amazon gives 6%. So, minus the 2click fee, Fisher House got 4.2% of my $600 purchase, or over $24. Just for making 2 extra clicks!!

The TV came to my front door, two days later and is now installed upstairs in the bedroom. Where I end my day watching Important Things with Demetri Martin (have you seen that? he's hysterical! It's on Comedy Central.).

If you know someone in the market for electronics, share this with them.
If you know a good 2click success story, share it with me! (Jeff@2clickfundraising.com)

Smart saving and happy clicking,
Jeff.