Further to my recent advice below, we received new supplies of top-up vouchers today (7 August). Everyone who has submitted speed test result has now been mailed a complimentary voucher, courtesy of Spark staff participating in the Spark Give programme. Thank you Spark team.
A number of partners have requested further supplies of the complimentary $10 JUMP top-up vouchers to assist families retain their JUMP connections. The availability of these vouchers relied on the generosity of Spark staff who contributed $5 every payday for the scheme; this was matched by an equivalent donation from Spark Foundation, which meant that every staff member contributing to the scheme was effectively providing support for two families every month. This support was highly valued by all our partners and hugely appreciated by the families who received the vouchers. Unfortunately, many of the staff contributing to the scheme have left Spark and the volume of contributions have dropped markedly. We are therefore unable to continue supplying complimentary vouchers to partners.
We are hoping to continue supplying a complimentary voucher to every family who completes the online survey and speed test when they get home, but even there we have encountered some problems. Each quarter, the supply of vouchers has been delayed as result of other pressures on the Spark Foundation team. As a result we have not yet received supplies from the quarter ending 30 June 2019. This has caused a backlog in posting out the vouchers, which in turn means that families are starting to ask about when they can expect them. We have nearly 100 families waiting for their voucher. Please ask them to be patient; we will honour our commitment to send them a voucher.
We take our hat off to one of our partners, Te Mana o Kupe in Porirua, who have identified a source of funds that enables their Trust to pay for complimentary vouchers. We have prepared a custom voucher template for them, whereby they can purchase standard Skinny top-up vouchers for local dairies and then transfer the 12-digit top-up code to the voucher and then distribute to local JUMP families. If any other partner has the resources to do this we are happy to share the voucher template and even add your logo, as we have done for Te Mana o Kupe.
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 
Hi
I am hesitant to promise new families to JUMP that they will get their free voucher if there is a backlog, especially when there is already some hesitancy to overcome to get families to engage with the scheme. Would it be better to remove this offer until the backlog has been cleared and future free vouchers are guaranteed? This would ensure we are not in danger of undermining our community relationships and managing expectations easier. Jo
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We will honour the commitment to send everyone who completes the survey and speed test – it is just a matter of timing. Our objective is to ensure that everyone receives their complimentary voucher within 30 days, before their first top-up is due. At this stage, the only people waiting for vouchers are those who completed their speed tests after 7 July 2019. It would help if partners could set expectations that vouchers will be sent within 30 days. We expect to mail all outstanding vouchers this week. Even if there are ongoing delays in procuring new supplies through the Spark Give programme, we now have a template for producing the vouchers ourselves.
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In lieu of another solution to the backlog we would also be more than happy to fund a handful of vouchers for our JUMP families and just amend our presentation slides accordingly, removing reference to the voucher being sent in the post up on completion of the speed test and survey
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Thanks Jo for this suggestion. The objective of the complimentary voucher is to incentivise families to complete the online survey and ensure that they are successfully connected to the internet when they get home. We also use the speed test results to give further advice to families in situations where the performance of the internet connection is lower than expected (i.e. below 10-15Mbps download speed). Below 15 Mbps, it is difficult to get reliable video streaming, and in these cases we suggest to families that they try relocating their modem near a window, upstairs or facing a Spark cellphone tower (if they know where this is). This can help to improve performance.
But that said, you are most welcome to produce your own vouchers. This can be as easy as purchasing a $10 Skinny voucher from a nearby retailer and giving this to the family. Or an alternative is to do as Te Mana o Kupe is doing and entering the top-up code on the retailer voucher onto a Voucher similar to the ones we send. We will arrange for a generic Voucher template to be added to the JUMP Trainer resources, so that you can download and print these yourself.
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