NAEIR’s Teacher’s Program
What is NAEIR? NAEIR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that receives donations of inventory from companies across the United States. Our mission is to re-distribute this merchandise to schools, churches, nonprofit organizations and teachers, where it will be used for the care of the ill, the needy or minors. NAEIR was established in 1977.
How do I sign up for the Teacher’s Program? The Teacher’s Program is sponsored by the nonprofit organization NAEIR. You can learn more about NAEIR by visiting the website: http://www.naeir.org/ or if you’re ready to sign up you can go directly to the Teacher’s Program Registration Form: https://catalog.naeir.org/Member/TeacherApplication. You simply complete and submit the Registration Form. Membership in the Teacher’s Program is Free. We understand that many teachers have to spend money out-of-pocket on classroom supplies and we want to do our part to help.
What happens after I submit the Registration Form? As soon as you submit your completed Registration Form you will receive an email stating that your application has been received by NAEIR. From here we will process/approve your application (see below). After your application is approved we will enter your membership in our system at which time you will receive an email invitation to set up your Login ID and Password to use the NAEIR Shopping Site. Mark your calendar when you submit your application. If you do not receive the invitation email within seven business days contact us. We often have teachers that submit their Registration Forms and never hear from NAEIR again and cannot understand what has happened. If you are using your school email address let someone in your IT department know that you will be receiving emails from NAEIR. Otherwise most likely the emails will go to your school’s Spam folder. Emails from NAEIR will have a domain name of naeir.org.
How long does it take to be approved? That depends on how many registrations we have to process. Right now we are receiving over 100 applications per day. We have a hard working group processing the applications; right now except around five to ten business days. If we have an unusually large number to process you will be notified by email that it is taking longer than normal. When we receive an application we verify the school and the teacher. Verifying the school is fairly straightforward. If your school has an online Faculty Directory, we will try to find your information within the directory. If a directory is not available, we will look for your certification as a registered teacher on your state’s certification site. Another option is we will simply call the school and ask if you are a teacher at the school. With the products received through NAEIR having restrictions on their usage, if questioned, we need to have documentation where we can show our auditors why we allowed members in questions to participate in the Teacher’s Program.
How do I find out what products are available? If you want to browse the items available you can click on the “Shop NAEIR” button in the upper right hand corner of NAEIR’s Home Page http://www.naeir.org/. To see what is currently available you can use this link: https://catalog.naeir.org/. Members of the Teacher’s Program have access to merchandise found under all of the icons with the exceptions of Big Book and Express. The Express and Big Book sections of the NAEIR Shopping Site are reserved for members of our Premier and Basic programs. Only schools, churches, and nonprofit organization are eligible to become members of the Premier or Basic programs. I would encourage you to mention these programs to your school principals or board members. Being part of the Premier or Basic program can save your school thousands of dollars.
How do I request products? The NAEIR site works just like any other Internet Shopping Site. After going to the “Shop NAEIR” section of the NAEIR website, you Sign-In using your Login ID and Password (see above). Browse through the merchandise available and put items that you are interested in into your shopping cart. All we ask is that you request items so that your handling charge total exceeds $25. When you are done shopping you complete your order. Once you start a shopping cart the items will not be emptied for 24 hours. This does not mean that each time you enter a new item you have another 24 hours. From the time you put your first item in your shopping cart you have 24 hours to check out or your cart will be emptied.
Why can’t I request products found under the Express and Big Book icon? The memberships that allow access to the Express and Big Book icons require a membership fee are are not available to individuals. Only organizations can join NAEIR’s Basic or Premier Programs. Both Basic and Premier members have access to the items found under the Express icon. Merchandise found though Express is typically made available by the pallet. Members pay freight carrier charges to receive these items. Premier members are the only members that have access to the Big Book. Premier members are large organizations that can use a diverse variety of products. Big Book merchandise is distributed through an allocation process; the items are not available on a first come-first served basis. Merchandise received through Big Book allocations will have valuations of several thousand dollars (up to $25,000) and Premier members pay handling charges plus shipping to receive the products or the members can come to the NAEIR warehouse and pick-up their items.
How long does it take to get my order? Typically it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 business days to receive your order, depending on the volume of merchandise requests we have to process. We don’t have a system in place to track your package as it is processed through the NAEIR warehouse; but you will receive a tracking email when your order leaves the NAEIR warehouse. The tracking email will have information to track your order while it is in route through FedEx.
What charges am I responsible for . . . and why does it say the products are free? You are responsible for the handling charges for the items and a small processing fee per request. Shipping is free. Technically the merchandise is free, but we are allowed to charge handling charges for the items. And the handling charges are just that – NAEIR operates a 10 acre warehouse where we receive, sort, catalog, store, pick, pack and distribute the items to our members. Some items are easier to work with than others. It is not an exact science but we do our best to make sure the handling charges are kept as low as possible to keep NAEIR a financially secure organization and still provide next to nothing expenses to our members.
How can the products received through the Teacher’s Program be used? All merchandise that is distributed through NAEIR has to be used for the care of the ill, the needy or minors (and this is defined up through the age of 18). So as long as you are using the products in your classrooms – this is 100% in compliance with the usage requirements. If there are students that have other needs, such as clothing or personal care items, this would also be a proper usage. Just ask yourself how you plan to use the items when you are requesting and if it involves a child you are in compliance.
Can I ask other teachers go together with me to place orders through the Teacher’s Program? Absolutely, if fact we encourage this. Feel free to share the program with other teachers and pool your resources when requesting items. Again, be sure other teachers that you are collaborating with understand that all items received through NAEIR must be used for children. If you pass merchandise that is received through your membership on to others and is misused, as the membership holder you are the responsible party.
Payment Issues. After you Submit your order you will be prompted to Pay for your order by credit card. Be sure that you complete this information as well, to assure that your order is processed correctly. If you forget to make the payment, within 24 hours your order will cancel.
Also, we will not charge your credit card until the order is shipped. It may takes several days or even weeks from the time your order is placed and your credit card is charged.
What if I’m not sure if I qualify for NAEIR’s Teacher’s Program? If you’re not sure you qualify, please contact us.
If you have specific questions about your account contact:
Patti Woolsey at paw@naeir.org or 800-562-0955 ext. 334
Deb Johnson at dsj@naeir.org or 800-562-0955 ext. 339
Be sure to spread the word about NAEIR’s Teacher Program. The more teachers we have involved the better.
Teacher Supplies-Next to Nothing Group Conduct
The Teacher Supplies-Next to Nothing Facebook Group is a forum for teachers that belong to or are considering becoming a member of NAEIR’s Teacher’ Program.
There are rules of conduct that we expect our group members to adhere to. Violation may result in members being removed from the group.
1) Keep it Positive and Be Respectful of Each Other. We want teachers to share their experience using products received through NAEIR’s Teacher’s Program. Focus on creative uses of the classroom supplies you receive from NAEIR and other sources. KEEP IT POSITIVE. You don’t always have to agree with everything Posted in this group, but avoid getting personal should you choose to respond.
2) Be Respectful of NAEIR. We are not a store. We are not like traditional websites. NAEIR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that acquires donations of excess inventory from companies across the United States. We receive merchandise from manufacturers, wholesalers and retails. There are numerous variables and algorithms that go into setting the values of the products, as well as determining the handling charges that we use when we offer merchandise.
Please don’t compare NAEIR’s handling charge to the cost for your latest find in your Post. Many times items offered by NAEIR are in cartons. There have been numerous Posts where group members have posted regarding how much lower the cost is for an item through an outlet other than NAEIR, only to find that the member is comparing “one” of an item versus a “carton” of the item through NAEIR.
If you find an item that we have at NAEIR for less through another source – buy it.
3) It Takes Time. Again, NAEIR is not a store. Our members are requesting products from NAEIR and we are fulfilling requests. There are thousands of items available and it takes time for us to process your requests. We have to monitor our inventory very carefully. When we run out of something we can’t go back to a distributor and re-order. We plan on having members requests shipped within 10 to 15 business days. But when demand is high it may take longer. If your order is listed in your Account Information – we have it. You will receive an email when it leaves the NAEIR warehouse and you will be able to track your shipment through delivery. Please don’t put repeated Posts on the group site asking when your order will be delivered.
4) Registrations. We receive hundreds of applications per day. Not everyone can be a member of NAEIR. Each Teacher’s Program application we receive has to be checked closely to make sure the school is at the address on the application, the addresses have to be verified with the postal system and, most importantly, we have to verify that you are a teacher. For every registration processed we need paperwork in our files so that if questioned, we can show why we allowed the member to become a member of and participate in NAEIR.
5) The Teacher’s Program is a Part of NAEIR. While the Teacher’s Program is a big part of NAEIR, we also have thousands of other members that are schools, churches and nonprofit organizations. To be fair the merchandise that we offer has to be made available to all NAEIR members. So, for example, when we have a Back to School promotion, there are schools, churches, and nonprofit organization that are Premier and Basic members that are being offered the same merchandise as our Teacher’ Program members. Schools that are interested in the products, churches are looking for items to give to needy children in their congregations and their outreach programs, and nonprofit organizations are acquiring items that can be given to the children and needy clients that they serve. Plus we are providing this merchandise to our Teacher’s Program members in an attempt to ease the out-of-pocket costs that they are paying for classroom supplies.
When we offer promotions and many of our members are trying to gain access to the NAEIR Shopping Site at the same time, the site can run slow . . . very slow at times. Trust us. We are first to know when the site is running slow. Please do not put Post after Post on the group page about the site running slowly and your personal frustration. We know. Over the past few months we have made great strides in keeping the site up and running during times of heavy traffic and are making considerable progress. And yet again, at the risk of being redundant, NAEIR is not a store or a typical website. All of us working here are juggling a lot of different responsibilities.
We appreciate your support of NAEIR and hope that these Rules of Conduct will guide our group members as they use our Teacher Supplies Next to Nothing Facebook forum.
