"I Didn't Pay a Dime": 7+ Years In, This Superuser Isn't Slowing Down

Katie M. didn't pay a dime for her daughter's choir trip last year. Her secret? She earned over $2,000 on RaiseRight—enough to cover 100% of the cost.

Katie, a mom of four in Southern California, began her RaiseRight journey seven years ago after hearing another choir mom mention her success with the program. "She said she never paid a single fee!" Katie recalls. "I wanted to do the same, too."

Hooked from the start

The impact was immediate and lasting. A $200 Old Navy shopping trip returned roughly $40 in earnings. Then, she booked a Royal Caribbean cruise for the family, which netted around $1,000 back. 

RaiseRight was working so well that continuing to use it was a no-brainer when her second daughter also joined choir. Katie stepped up her strategy, buying brands on bonus ahead of time, knowing that she'd use them eventually. She would also print eGift cards and turn them into physical gifts for friends.

Her day-to-day habits are also a big part of why it works so well. She keeps the RaiseRight app on her home screen so she can check it often. She sticks exclusively to eGift cards since they arrive instantly on her phone. And she seeks opportunities to route bigger purchases through RaiseRight, like ordering Chipotle or Olive Garden to cater office lunches and birthday parties.

The full payoff

Over the years, Katie's consistent use of RaiseRight covered her daughters' choir fees, travel, and more. What might have been a financial stretch for a family managing four kids' activities was instead fully funded through purchases they were already making, without selling a single thing or paying anything out of pocket.

"The choir still does See's Candies sales and restaurant nights," Katie says. "But RaiseRight doesn't require you to sell anything. It's all about what you're already doing."

Becoming a coordinator

After years as a participant, Katie made the leap to run her own RaiseRight program. She's now the coordinator for the journalism booster club at her kids' school, ready to impart her years of wisdom. 

It's a smaller group—about 30 students, all enrolled in a journalism class, that doesn't receive any school funding. The booster club supports additional needs for the classroom, like publishing software, quarterly paper printing, and travel to a national journalism convention in Orlando, Florida, which costs about $1,200 per student. 

Adopting a fresh philosophy

Katie is candid about what separates an effective coordinator from the rest: "In order to get more people to use it, you have to use it yourself, so you can share your personal journey with them." The coordinators who are genuinely passionate, she's found, are the ones who get more families participating.

That philosophy is shaping her plan for the year. 

First, she'll have every family download the RaiseRight app and purchase their first eGift card during a live enrollment meeting, so RaiseRight is already on their phone before they need it. "I hear it all the time—parents are scrambling at checkout because they can't find the enrollment code or don't have the app on their phone."

She's also planning to leverage a pro RaiseRight earning hack: pairing restaurant nights at spots like Chipotle or California Pizza Kitchen with gift card earnings. The club can earn from the restaurant while families also use eGift cards to pay for their meals.

Katie resides in an upper-middle-class area, where many parents don't mind defaulting to writing a check. But that only fuels her passion for the program. Economic backgrounds aside, she makes the case to every family that RaiseRight is effortless: "It's already on your phone and in your hand, and you're already at the store or restaurant. It's really no extra work."

Seven years in (and counting), Katie has watched RaiseRight's steady platform improvements make it easier than ever to fold it into her routine. "It's gotten so much better over time. I keep falling more and more in love with RaiseRight!" she laughs. Now, as a coordinator, she's making sure the journalism boosters get to experience that same payoff for themselves.