A growing number of Catholic schools in Arkansas are turning to a novel Internet fundraising option in an effort to augment increasingly thin budgets. GoodSearch, a national Internet search engine, pays patrons of participating not-for-profits each time they use the site for searches or online shopping.
“The system is effortless,” said Carry Wilson, computer science teacher and librarian for Blessed Sacrament School in Jonesboro. “The best part is people don’t have to go out of their way to support your cause.”
Founded in 2005, GoodSearch functions just like other search engines, such as Google, with the primary difference being the 1 to 2 cents each search pays participating not-for-profit organizations. Exactly how much each search generates is determined by the current level of advertising revenue the site generates from its national partners, which funds the program. There is no charge for individuals using the site or for the 89,000 qualifying organizations that have adopted the system as a fundraising tool.
“This was really too easy not to do,” said Brenda Costello, principal of St. Joseph High School in Pine Bluff.
Thirteen Catholic schools in Arkansas are participating in the program, including St. Joseph and St. Peter, Pine Bluff; St. Michael Church, West Memphis; Blessed Sacrament, Jonesboro; Immaculate Conception and St. Boniface, Fort Smith St. John, Russellville; St. Joseph, Paris, St. John, Hot Springs and Our Lady of the Holy Souls, St. Theresa, St. Edward and Mount St. Mary Academy, Little Rock.
Schools are generally introduced to the concept as parents, faculty and even students stumble onto the Web site or have picked it up through word of mouth. Once investigated, organizational sponsors of the program say GoodSearch is easy to set up and maintain.
“I was in a continuing education class and we had a guest speaker talk to us about using GoodSearch as a fundraising tool,” Wilson said. “Once I looked into it, I also discovered it was a good tool for blocking certain sites on the Internet. The real effort is reminding the kids to use it consistently, because we want them to use it at home as well as while they are at school.”
While fundraising revenues vary widely from one organization to another, the financial potential is theoretically unlimited. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has raised an eyebrow-raising $32,000.
Blessed Sacrament School in Jonesboro has raised about $168 to date, St. Joseph High School in Pine Bluff has raised about $195 and St. Joseph School in Paris has raised about $255. While this may seem comparatively small, consider the totals were raised 1 and 2 cents at a time and, as Costello said, every little bit helps.
“There’s always somewhere to spend money,” Costello said. “Here in the Delta, all schools are facing financial challenges, not just us. We’re blessed to have great parental involvement in what we do and this is one way they can contribute to our school.”
The most successful participant in the program among Catholic schools in the state, Mount St. Mary Academy, is also one of the newest. GoodSearch was adopted by the senior class at their annual retreat last November as the sole means to fund the class service project and in the months since, the school and its supporters have raised nearly $330.
“One of the main challenges we had was to do a fundraiser that didn’t interfere with the other service projects we do here at the Mount,” said Joslyn Hebda, campaign coordinator and a member of the Senior Retreat Planning Committee. “We are on the Internet all the time anyway so it just made sense to earn money at the same time.”
The Mount’s model for success begins with relentless and creative promotion. Members of the senior class sent e-mail to their wider personal and social circles outside of the school — in some cases, around the world — encouraging family and friends to use GoodSearch in their daily Internet use. Campus computers in the library and on faculty and staff desks were equipped with toolbars that made accessing the GoodSearch site easy.
Hebda also wrote and produced commercials for the campus closed circuit television station, alerted alumni through their newsletter, worked one on one with faculty, staff and other audiences on the site’s use and purpose and generally hounded her peers on a daily basis about the campaign’s progress.
“In order for this to be a success you have to have a core leader who is going to run with it, “said Caroline Kirby, student body president. “You can’t let people forget or let the excitement die down. You need someone who is going to give you those constant reminders and generally be on your case about where things stand.”
Two elements of the Mount’s program are particularly effective. First, the campaign identified a specific financial target and timeline funding a prescribed goal. The class goal — $500 in GoodSearch revenue by the end of the school year — is earmarked to buy a cow through Heifer International destined for the African nation of Sierra Leone.
“I think it’s been important to our campaign that we made it about helping people,” Hebda said. “It was important to us as seniors because it represented our class, but to sell it to the other grades, we had to let them know there was a specific goal where the money was going and not just some scam where you did all this work and then couldn’t see the outcome.”
Second, the Mount campaign effectively maximizes a secondary fundraising element of GoodSearch called GoodShop, introduced in 2007. Shoppers choose from more than 1,000 retailers and participating stores return a prescribed percentage of resulting online sales to the shopper’s preferred charity. GoodShop retailers contribute an average of 3 percent of purchases to designated causes, although some companies pay back as much as 20 percent. In the Mount’s campaign, more than 50 percent of the money raised to date has been through GoodShop.
“Girls love to shop,” said Christa Campo, senior class president. “We launched this in time for the Christmas season and with online shopping so accessible, it really fit in with our campaign.”
