Drink to their health this spring

No one has to convince me that using coupons is an easy way to save big money. However, Procter & Gamble has a new way of encouraging consumers to use their coupons to help others. This month P&G kicked off their “Give PUR Water” program. They will donate one liter of clean, filtered water to people in Third World countries every time a shopper users a P&G coupon from the monthly Brandsaver circular in March and April.

According to their site www.givepurwater.org, 1 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water. Even worse, more than 2 million children each year, more than 5,000 per day, die from drinking contaminated water. I usually feel powerless to do anything to help change such overwhelming statistics. However, P&G’s marketing efforts are geared to reach enough people so that our combined efforts could help them reach their goal of donating 50 million liters of clean water.

P&G issued one Brandsaver circular earlier this month, and will issue another one on April 6. Coupons redeemed from these circulars will qualify for the promotion. With 50 million coupons issued in each Brandsaver circular (100 million total), it’s theoretically possible to reach that goal if consumers redeemed at least 50 percent of those coupons. Unfortunately, as I’ve reported in previous columns. the average percentage of coupons redeemed is less than 1 percent.

So another way to help reach the goal is simply visit the site www.givepurwater.org. P&G will donate one bottle of clean water for every site visit. On the site is a counter that reports the total number of bottles to be donated to date. As I write this, the counter is up to almost 11 million bottles.

According to the site, water filtration systems (like P&G’s PUR system) mimic the process used in water filtration plants that provide our drinking water.

TOPS IN EDUCATION

Another example of a corporate program that helps others while we shop is the Box Tops for Education program (www.boxtops4education.com). This General Mills program donates money to schools when students collect and turn in box tops from General Mills products. The program has special promotions as well as training for school coordinators. The pennies certainly can add up. A school featured on the Box Tops site earned $37,000 since 2002 that they have used to purchase new books for their library. Any parent volunteer knows how difficult it is to raise $37,000 for a school, so if you aren’t saving your box tops yet, start saving and take them to a local school to benefit their programs.

I am always on the lookout for any kind of consumer program that gives money or other support to charities in response to shoppers’ involvement. If you are aware of similar programs, please send me an e-mail.

Stephanie Nelson shares her savings tips as a regular contributor on ABC News’ “Good Morning America.” You can find more of her savings tips in her book  “The Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom” and on her website at www.couponmom.com. She can be reached at shoppingmom@unitedmedia.com.