Toronto Swim Club Announces Partnership

Toronto, Sept. 1 – Imagine every time your families and supporters fill up for gas, go grocery shopping, dine out, shop for clothes or buy gifts they could be raising funds for your swim club. For some clubs this has become a reality – to the tune of thousands of dollars a year. As a result, Swim Ontario and PREFERRED ONE, operators of the Shop and Support Program TM , are pleased to announce a unique partnership that will help swim clubs across Ontario raise much-needed funds. As part of the partnership PREFERRED ONE also becomes a premier sponsor of SWIM ONTARIO.

Swim clubs can now quickly and effortlessly raise important funds without requiring their supporters to spend any extra money on things they do not need or want. Supporters simply purchase gift cards and certificates for their favourite retailers and use them just like cash towards their purchases or give them as gifts. The Program features over 100 participating retailers, including the major grocery stores, Petro-Canada, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Blockbuster, Shoppers Drug Mart, The Bay, Zellers and Starbucks.

Swim Ontario Executive Director, John Vadeika, announced that,”Swim Ontario is extremely excited to have PREFERRED ONE as one of our sponsors and swimming partners. Their approach to helping our clubs develop their fundraising strategies is critical to all of their success. We already have 7 clubs using the program and we look forward to many more!”

In fact, many parents appreciate the opportunity to use the program as a form of budgeting for common expenses or providing their children with a secure and efficient currency for weekly expenses such as gas, dining out and entertainment. “ We have found this to be an excellent way to help raise funds for the club without the parents or swimmers incurring any expenses. The program is simple and provides a method to raise money without sales or a large time commitment. By just using the certificates instead of cash, our families are earning about 4% of their spending and it does not cost them a cent. ” says Robert Brown of the Trent Swim Club which has been using the Shop & Support Program™ to raise funds for their club since last year. In addition, many clubs are using the cards and certificates to pay for expenses as well as using them for rewards.

The potential is unlimited and the program provides everyone with an opportunity to raise funds for their club. “ This program is an effortless form of fund-raising for our club with the potential of significant cash subsidies to the ever increasing cost of running the ‘not for profit' swim program.” says a committee member from the Ajax Aquatic Swim Club. “Cards are purchased at face value with no additional cost to a family. Consider a weekly family outlay for groceries and gas of $200, a typical return to the Swim Club is $4. Multiply this by 60 member families; the total becomes $240 per week. Yearly this yields over $12,000 to the club or approximately 5% of the operating cost. Active participation by the Swim Club families has the potential to double or triple the amount.”

Many clubs also use the program to help families offset fundraising fees or travel expenses. Evelyn Lee from the Scarborough Swim Club states “The funds raised are shared between the club and the families, 50/50, to encourage participation. The funds raised by the families can be used to reduce the annual fees for the following year or travel expenses.”

” The potential for swim clubs to raise funds with this concept is enormous!” according to Jerry Rotondaro, President of PREFERRED ONE. " In a club with 100 families where each family purchases $300 worth of gift cards/certificates per week to use towards their everyday shopping and gift giving, the club will raise $60,000 in just one year . It's a very powerful tool that requires very little work," he adds.

In addition, the Shop and Support Program is also available online. For clubs that prefer to manage their program through the Internet, supporters can order their cards online and have them delivered within one or two business days either to their home or to the organization.

There are no costs or fees to the swim clubs whatsoever. All swim clubs are eligible to participate in the program - as are private schools, public schools, daycares, pre-schools, churches sports teams and any other non-profit or charitable groups.