When you join something like the Cubs, you know that there will inevitably be money involved. Paying membership fees is bad enough but then there can be raffle tickets, jumble sales and sponsored events on top. It all gets a bit much and sometimes it feels as if you are always putting your hand in your pocket for more money.

At Parbrook we try to do things differently - hence our painless fundraising. The idea is that raising money for us does not end up costing you more. As you can see from the graph below, money raised this way generally brings £700-£800 into our funds. So, how does it work?

How does it work?
Painless fundraising has four components:

• donations received when we pack bags in Budgens at Christmas
• online shopping throughout the year via spend and raise
• online shopping throughout the year via easy fundraising
• ½p per internet search throughout the year when you use easy search.

Online shopping with Spend and Raise
By clicking through to your shopping site from www.spendandraise.com/parbrook we get commission on your purchases. Our total raised through online shopping has now reached over £900, with more than £280 raised in 2010. Not bad when it is money for nothing. It doesn't cost you more so please try and remember to click through.
Previously called buy.at, our shop has recently changed to Spend and Raise bringing over 1000 shops into our scheme. They include Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Camping World, Halfords, Thompson & Morgan, Carphone Warehouse and many more. You can also earn money when you book your holiday with sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotelpronto.com and lowcostholidays.com but you must remember to click through from www.spendandraise.com/parbrook before you pay.

Online shopping with Easy Fundraising
Similar to Spend and Raise, when you click through to your shopping site from http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/parbrookcubs we get commisison on your purchases. We've noticed that where merchants are on both spend and raise and easy fundraising, they generally give more commission to spend and raise. However, there are lots that are only on easy fundraising and the interface is easier to use which means that some people prefer the easy fundraising site (which is also the one used by the school and 1st Billingshurst - save our hut).

Online searching with Easy Search
By using easy search instead of Google or any other search engine, you can make a real difference. Easy search is completely free and by making just 10 searches a day, you could raise around £20 a year for our funds. Just go to http://parbrookcubs.easysearch.org.uk/ when you want to do an internet search and we get ½p per search. Doesn't sound like much but it raised us £8 in 2011 and that was just with Akela doing it. If more people start searching, the money should come flooding in.

Reducing costs to our members
We use the money that has been raised this way to keep our costs that you have to pay to a minimum. For example, each section in 1st Billingshurst has to pay Subs each term. The group has set them at £30. Of this we have to pay £13 to the group to cover Scout headquarters membership subscriptions and other costs. This leaves £18 which goes into section funds. Over the last few years we've chipped away at that and our subs are now the lowest in the group at £20 per term in 2012. For our members this saves £30 per Cub each year (but of course costs us over £500 in lost income). We also subsidise our trips and camps proving that you really can do more for less.

Making it clearer
We try to make it clear where we have subsidised the amounts that you are being asked to pay. Your reductions will be shown as "Parbrook Cashback" to remind you that the savings are only available because the money has been raised elsewhere - if you keep shopping, we'll keep earning.