We are excited to announce the return of Ted Lederer to our Preferred One Management team. Ted returns in the capacity of Director of Fundraising Sales for our Shop and Support Fundraising Program!

Ted originally began with Preferred One in August of 2005 as a Fundraising Manager in the field, helping to onboard groups and equip them to reach their fundraising targets with the Shop and Support program. He was so successful that in February of 2006, Ted was invited to join the Head Office of Preferred One as National Sales Manager for Preferred One's Fundraising Division. He took the division from a handful of groups participating, to so many groups that Shop and Support could now boast being Canada's largest gift card fundraiser. With his proven ability to build traction that resulted in increased sales through strong relationships with groups and their supporters, in July of 2008, Ted was invited to join another growing division of Preferred One, their Corporate JUMP Rewards program. Here, Ted worked with Fortune 500 companies to help them develop successful rewards programs through the implementation of the Corporate JUMP Rewards offering. In June, 2009 Ted took some well-deserved time off to spend with his family. When Preferred One entered into the restructuring of the company's management team in September, 2009, they realized that they needed a proven leader to head up the Fundraising division so they once again called on Ted to return and lead the Shop and Support team and the program that he was so passionate about from the beginning.

In just a few short weeks, Ted and his great team have already implemented several fantastic improvements that are helping both supporters and groups to maximize funds raised:

• RAISE FUNDS NOW... Lose The Wait! - Groups no longer have to wait for funds raised as all orders are now placed directly with the group, allowing the group to receive their funds raised immediately.

• WOW! - Working with their retail partners, Ted's team has been able to significantly boost funds raised for supporters and their groups through the weekly WOW promotions, where gift cards from specific retailer brands raise even higher funds during a one week campaign, with a new promotional campaign launched each week.

• FASTER TURN-AROUND - The Shop and Support team has been working with their retailer partners and the Preferred One technology department to facilitate a way to turn orders around faster for groups... and we did it!  Starting November 2nd, we will be reducing the turn-around time by an amazing 5 days by initiating a new 5-day order cycle. Order by Monday at 9:30am Eastern and your order will ship Thursday of that same week.

• EMAIL ME THE MONEY - We have added another very convenient method for groups to pay for their orders.  In fact, the payment transaction is completed in less than 2 hours!  Group coordinators simply place their orders as usual.  When they get to their payment options, they select 'Email Money Transfer' from the options list.  All they have to do now is log into the online banking account for their group and initiate an email money transfer payment for the amount of the order to 'payments@shopandsupport.ca'.  We get the email, deposit the payment instantly and mark the order paid!  Now that was fast!

• GIVE give™ - The give™ Card, a fundraising gift card developed by Preferred One specifically for Shop and Support, is redeemable for a select, premium list of gift-type retailer gift cards that are not part of the normal "everyday spend" gift cards so common to the typical Shop and Support purchasing line-up. The give™ Card raises 5% and gives groups yet another way to raise funds by tapping into their supporters' gift giving requirements. The give™ Card is the perfect gift for those you just don't know what to buy for or when you want to give the recipient the gift of choice. You can see the wonderful 'Choice List' at www.thegivecard.com.  The give™ Card is like a gift registry built right into one gift card, and the good news is that it never, ever expires!

• MORE TO COME - Stay tuned for many more improvements that will make fundraising so much easier, you will find yourself saying... "Wow!  These guys are good!"

"We have many more great ideas that we want to introduce over the next 12 months that will add so much value to the Shop and Support program, but we have to take things one step at a time", says Ted. "I have learned that you can't boil the ocean, but if you pay attention, you will know just when to execute the right strategy at the right time to maximize the benefits (funds raised) to the groups and their supporters. 'Shop and Support' is about making fundraising easier. It's that simple! People already shop, both for everyday items as well as incidentals and gifts. It makes obvious sense to be able to tap into that spend to raise funds for what means the most to you! You really don't need any other fundraising programs anymore."

Feel free to contact Ted anytime.  He still has the same extension - 2241.