Times, they are a’changin’ — no more of those tiny Box Tops for Education getting lost in the nooks and crannies of your car and kitchen drawers! That’s right, these cardboard babies are getting a much-needed digital upgrade.
Box Tops for Education, the decades-old fundraising initiative, is going digital, allowing parents to forgo the traditional (and time-consuming) method of clipping and saving the Box Tops from several of their favorite grocery products in order to raise funds for their children’s schools. Instead, a new mobile app available on both the iTunes App Store and Google Play cuts down the work by using state-of-the-art technology to scan your store receipt within two weeks of purchase, find participating products, and instantly send the earnings to a school of your choosing.
“Box Tops for Education has made a significant impact in school fundraising over the last 23 years, and we’re evolving the ways schools can earn cash,” said Erin Anderson, the manager of Box Tops for Education, in a press release. “Modernizing Box Tops to fit the needs of today’s families brings the next generation of supporters and brands into the program, so we can stay true to our mission: to help schools get what they need.”
App users will be able to track their personal fundraising contributions and note the impact of their participation in real-time — making Box Tops easier for both parents and schools alike. For those into clipping and saving tiny squares of cardboard or who simply enjoy the nostalgia of Box Tops, some participating products will still feature a Box Tops for Education label, many of which will still allow participants to “double dip” by submitting both the digital and physical versions of the Box Top, giving schools double the support.
Thus far, the Box Tops app has garnered mixed reviews from parents, some of whom have already run into issues with the app and others who feel they will miss the collection aspect.
Are you for or against the Box Tops for Education high-tech upgrade? Have you used the app? Sound off in the comments!
The new app is awful. Keeps booting me from logging in. Won’t let me change my password. Contacting their development support (per their responses to reviews) has done nothing. And since you only have 14 days to log in any box tops, if you run into problems with your account? You’re going to lose everything. I already have with the box tops that “don’t require clipping.”
I’ve also let them know how concerned I am at the tone deafness of requiring this app in impoverished school districts. They don’t comprehend that many parents in these districts don’t have app-capable cell phones.
Really disheartening.
Really frustrated with the new system. I won’t remember to scan my receipt and upload it, much less privacy concerns with scanning my receipt (people voice the same concern with Ibotta). PLUS, my biggest helpers for our box top fund are my parents and elderly friends and neighbors, and they are not tech savvy and wouldn’t be scanning their receipts either.
Way to go, BTFE.
The app is horrible. I scanned two receipts, and the app didn’t see my purchases on either one. I clicked (touched) the option in the app to say my receipt wasn’t recognized. I have emailed customer support four times, and all I have gotten is promises that my account/school/student will be credited. Now it’s been almost a month, and I have not been credited for anything. General Mills would have been better to just say the program is over. That’s better than people trying to get credit, not getting it, getting mad, and possibly boycotting General Mills products.
Signed up for this app a couple weeks ago but haven’t been able to scan any receipts. Most of my receipts are expiring or have expired. The BTFE app installed on my iphone doesn’t give me the ability to allow it to access to my camera. If the app can’t access my camera, I don’t have the ability to scan. I contacted BTFE technical support. Their response had nothing to do with my issue. I agree that General Mills should just say the program is over rather than misleading their customers. I have used other receipt scanning apps without issues (Kelloggs). Btw, the app just had an update, but nothing changed.