Checks: Get the Message!

It will not replace protests in the streets, but a six-month-old Seattle company has come up with a new way for people to make a social or political statement. Called Message!Check, the firm works with printers around the U.S. to produce personal bank checks that bear slogans like THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK AND DRIVE. Message!Check has recruited several nonprofit organizations, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving, to supply slogans. The organizations, in turn, encourage their supporters to buy the checks and use them for paying bills. A new check commissioned by the National Organization for Women debuted this week. Its message: EQUALITY FOR WOMEN. Message!Check is the creation of Priscilla Fenton, 38, a former Seattle Symphony fund raiser, and Amy Larkin, 31, who once produced financial reports on Wall Street. They have received orders for 3,000 batches, containing 200 checks each, for which they charge $14, or about twice what standard checks cost. For each batch of checks sold, Message!Check sends $1 to the group that supplied the slogan. Says Fenton: "Our goal is not just to make a dollar but to make a difference."