Signing up for eScrip is a way to donate to a charity of your choice (we hope Funeral Consumers Alliance!) with no money out of your pocket.

It is simple. Provide eScrip with your name, address, Safeway or other grocery store card, Visa/MasterCard/Discover or other credit card numbers and expiration dates. Then shop as you normally do using those cards. Not every store is signed up with eScrip, but many are. Some of them in our area are Safeway, Mollie Stone, Draegers, Pak N Save, JJ&F, Andronico's, Foodville, Gene's, Key Markets, Whole Foods Markets Eddie Bauer, Selix, Payless Shoes Office Max Orchard Supply Round Table Pizza, Carl's Jr., Carrow, Coco's, Baja Fresh Kepler's Books Wegman's Nursery Budget Rent a Car, Pep Boys, AAMCo, MAACo LeBoulanger Chevron Nevada Bob's, Big 5 And others.

Stores have agreed to donate a proportion of the money you spend, to the charity of your choice. Some donate 1%, some 3%, and some, 8%. It doesn't sound like much--maybe your spending only nets us $5 or $10 a month--but when there are scores or hundreds of people doing the same, it really mounts up for the charity. Currently, FCA is benefiting by over $1,000 a year--and growing as more sign on. This is a significant part of our budget.

You can sign up on-line at www.escrip.com or phone/write/fax the FCA office (650-321-2109) with the information that will start the process. The eScrip site is secure for your personal information. At any time you want, you can go to the site and see how much your spending has helped us, or to change your address, credit card numbers, etc. Several times a year they mail you a statement showing how much your spending has helped your charity. The accounting lags by two months because they give the stores 60 days to submit the information. It is amazing that they can keep track of everything, but the computer and internet age makes it all possible.

The group ID number for Funeral Consumers Alliance is 140973356. Use this when you sign up. Thank you very much!