By Ashley-Victoria Smith
Getting kids ready back to school can be a very frustrating task especially knowing the financial burden that it has on many families. Not only do parents have to shop for school supplies, they also have to take in consideration buying new clothes and keeping the pantry well stocked.
Within a few days after sending kids to school, they are bringing home even more paperwork in regards to upcoming field trips, extracurricular activities, sports teams, and school clubs that all require a signature and maybe even registration fees.
While many schools still rely on traditional fundraising such as car washes, popcorn and cookie sales, and school swag all to help raise funds for the clubs, sport teams and not to mention the PTO also trying to raise funds for the school, can become really overbearing.
One platform that was developed specifically to solve these problems and is used by the largest PTA organizations in the US, Girl Scouts of America, and the American Heart Association is Cheddar Up.
Cheddar Up was designed specifically to help schools & group organizers collect payments and forms online, for free. Its purpose-built platform has the features group organizers need, including robust tracking and reporting, fundraising and ecommerce add-ons, messaging, forms, waivers, sign ups, point of sale, year-over-year hand off and more.
“Like so many schools, we have a lot of different types of family situations to accommodate. We have parents who both work, parents who are busy entrepreneurs, parents who stay home with multiple children across a wide age range. Everyone has a different lifestyle.” says Andrea Fraser, PTA Board Member & After-School Enrichment Coordinator. “So the goal was to make paying easy…allowing them to pay on-the-go from their mobile phones. Cheddar Up’s ability for parents to just “click and pay” without having to create an account or download an app while providing a great mobile interface fit that bill!” Fraser explains.
Organizers can create a page for anything in minutes offering communities seamless online payments they can make from anywhere; no instructions, app or account necessary.
The beauty of Cheddar Up is that it extends beyond educational purposes and can be used for church & youth groups, HOAs, events & festivals, and even small businesses.
“I liked that the platform allowed me to create my own payment pages with tons of flexibility” Kelly Hartman, Founder at Boss Ladies Referral Crew says.
“The ability to collect information along with payment has also been a gamechanger, like collect members name, preferences, etc.” Hartman continues.
So whether you’re prepping for back to school with the kids or looking to establish a more user-friendly platform for your business, Cheddar Up promises to deliver.
