Everything You Need To Know to Run Your Read-a-thon. a dance-a-thon, these sports fundraisers are fun and engaging events for your entire community. Heres a glimpse of how its interface works intuitively for you: And, heres an example of how conveniently your donors can give via text: Keywords are the words donors text to donate. All nonprofit organizations can benefit from this straightforward and effective fundraising method, but its particularly effective for: The text-to-give process is simple and straightforward: A. When we sent emails asking them to encourage Claudia through Read-A-Thon, I was overwhelmed. This article will walk you through a guide to running a read-a-thon fundraiser. Most text-to-give providers these days dont have a limit on the amount a donor can give via text message. After their books are done, kids can feel frustrated that they cant find more. our commitment to data privacy and security, complete list of what donor data Give Lively collects. No Contracts. Our favorite part was that we could encourage a love of reading while raising money for the school. The activity can be almost anything, from reading to running to bowling. To begin organizing a read-a-thon fundraiser, you should review your options with your organization. Just like with any other fundraising method, you must keep track of the results of your text-to-give campaign. Thank you!! This has, however, been solved by modern-day text-to-give providers. We recommend using a multichannel approach when it comes to promoting a text code. Unlike a fun run or a 5K fundraiser, you don't need to map out a racecourse or organize volunteers to man your event. Here's a sample of what your virtual fundraising process could look like: Set up your fundraiser page with 99Pledges for free. Love how fast you guys are at responding to questions. Running an a-thon online allows you to hold a "pledge-per" fundraiser without the need for paper forms or tracking people down for payments. Dance-a-thons are a highly effective and fun peer-to-peer fundraiser that can help you raise a lot of money and engage your supporters in an exciting way. Ask your supporters to share your text-to-give keyword and designated number via their social media channels and send out a press release to relevant publications. This "war" is so much fun. Ask your volunteers to assist them whenever needed. Reading keeps our kids' brains engaged and active so they can return back to school ready to learn again! Also, try to keep your fundraiser itself as simple and straightforward as possible to avoid confusion. If you want to raise money to build or purchase land (or other big projects), add a read-a-thon to your capital campaign and promote it to the rest of the community. Other, more complicated online fundraising platforms require upfront technical knowledge and extensive configuration. 5.0. Our platform has made this possible for schools, sports leagues/teams, music groups & more in all 50 states in the US. + Company Logo on Jog A Thon banner displayed two weeks before Jog A Thon week in 2 locations: front of school and on back playground/track where the community passes through on a daily basis . RAT is a no brainer when it comes to fundraising. Text-to-give fundraising can bring in a high volume of donors, and it can be integrated with other fundraising methods. 12345) provided by your vendor. And surprisingly, the typical text-to-give user is actually a woman between 49-59 years old who has a college degree. Each student will have their own online pledge page (we set up in minutes) that can easily be shared by email, Facebook, Twitter, and text message. Enter the number of students in your school below to see how much you could raise. Decide on what kind of signature to create. Donors text/SMS a special text code to 44321 (valid with U.S. phone numbers on U.S. carrier networks) and receive a text reply with a link to a secure, mobile-ready fundraising page where they can then donate. Play PRODUCT FEATURES Chabot Elementary raised $79K (close to double the amount from last year) with students reading an average of 1,300 minutes for a 2 week long Read-a-thon. All you need to do is promote your online fundraiser. This way, readers can give as soon as they read your letter or e-newsletter. AtDonorbox, we strive to make your nonprofit experience as productive as possible, whether throughour onlinedonation systemor resources on ournonprofit blog. After donating, they will automatically receive a thank you note and receipt (if you are a 501c3 nonprofit organization, you can include Tax ID in the receipt). Send us a message on Live Chat - click the blue circle at the bottom right, Downloadable Overviews to share with your fundraising team, 99Pledges Pricing: $0 startup cost & 0% platform fee, Customer References: Hear directly from our customers about their experience, Make any school fundraiser completely virtual & social-distancing friendly. Those that donate in-kind or financial gifts to your read-a-thon will receive marketing opportunities. Nonprofits can create as many unique text codes as needed for all their campaigns, events and more. Speaking of educational fundraising, library fundraisers are another great way to support a love of learning while bringing in critical funds for your school. Matching gifts are a type of corporate philanthropy where companies will match the donations that employees make to charitable causes. They encourage participants to do activities at home safely (social distancing) while raising much needed funds for their school. 02. Supporters will be able to donate online by giving a flat donation (e.g. Campaign organizers or individual participants can enter activity results into the PTFundraiser system at any point during or after the fundraiser. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a list of our best resources (blogs, webinars, podcast episodes, product updates, etc.) Fill out the form. It consists of signing up, tracking your progress, sharing your fundraiser, and raising funds! Collect Donations. Families, friends and the community are so willing to donate money to enrich literacy and education in our youth. The Love My Library platform is capable of hosting your entire fundraiser. Thank-a-thon calls should be short, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the donors' responses. Here are some of our fav fundraising ideas to get those creative juices flowing. A person participating in the spell-a-thon for example, would add the number of words they spelled. 1. Set Fundraising Goals If your nonprofits work with cellular companies to run the text-to-give campaigns, the cellular companies will transfer the funds to the nonprofit once donors pay their phone bills, which means the money might take 30 to 60 days to reach them. Public schools around the country have struggled to address this issue due to financial difficulties. Just sign up, create your event, and encourage students to create donation pages to send to family and friends. 3/3/2023 9:00 am. Virtual fundraisers can replace in-person galas, concerts, walk-a-thons, races, and more. Unlike those product fundraisers, Read-a-thon fundraisers won't just raise money for your schoolthey'll get students excited about reading, too. This online campaign raised donations to help 200+ students with textbooks and other school supplies. IN PICTURES: 24-hour ski-a-thon raises over $150K. Additionally, print marketing materials, such as flyers or posters with QR codes, are another must, even for fundraisers that are going to take place entirely online. Join 5,000+ schools around the world using Read-A-Thon. Instead of texting a full phone number, donors text the keyword to a shortcode to donate. Try something New, Easy, Profitable and Educational! Use our five-digit short code, 44321 (only on U.S. phone carriers), at no cost to your nonprofit. They can choose easy per-unit pledge or make a flat donation. 2. START A READ-A-THON Easy to setup Outrageous results Set up a Read-A-Thon in less than 10 minutes and start raising funds for your school Everything You Need to Know About Read-a-thon Sign up for free We provide all the materials that you need for your Read-A-Thon. Read-A-Thon is a literacy based fundraiser that helps schools and groups raise more money than any other fundraiser with minimal effort involved. Held daily challenges for students that included reading, STEM, community outreach, and exercising. You can turn this event into a reading event for all community members by including some games and fun activities for parents and teachers as well. This might include an animated video, a slideshow, or even a guest speaker explaining your campaign. The kids LOVED the Read-A-Thon! Using funds to prepare an unprecedented return-to-school program and shore up support to meet diverse student needs. Take advantage of our outreach and marketing toolkit to spread the word about your Read-a-thon! Everything was very easy to navigate. When choosing the right text-to-give platform for you, make sure your providers software offers all the below-mentioned features. ", so let's settle that now: 99Pledges is Free. Remind your child to break out a book and record their reading time this Spring Break! That way, you can invite the kids parents to create fundraising pages in the kids names. Give Lively does capture and securely store some non-payment data about donors, for instance a donors first and last names, email address and donation date, among other data points. Nonprofits and schools support the students efforts with free books, free reading time in school, classroom contests, and prizes. Share your code Speak aloud, share on the web or social media, print on handouts or project it at events with Live Display. Collect Donations. Also, see below to get specific ideas from a few of the schools we've worked with. Remember to not stretch it too long, or else kids will lose interest. You could even sell popcorn and other snacks in the weeks before your event for participants to snack on during opening night! Super excited and looking forward to our 11th Annual St. Jude Zumbathon. We are extremely grateful to you for the recent gift you have provided to support us. Its essential that you work with a PCI-compliant service provider. The customized shortcode that your donors will use to donate and the numbers they text it to should be short and easy to remember. Use a donor management system to manage your donors and donations. There's no cash to handle or products to sell! Its probably the fastest way for donors to give. Join a 30min Live Demo to see how Donorbox can help you reach your fundraising goals! Each student will be responsible to raise money based on a team average of 100 serves per event. However, most dont differentiate between the two terms and use them interchangeably, regardless of if the donation is made by donors giving on a mobile donation page or via their cell phone bill. Take to popular platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to announce your campaign, share donation pages, and ensure that your fundraiser gets the traction it needs. CREATE AN A-THON Effortless fundraising Take pledges per-lap, per-hour, per-anything. Youll want to keep your expectations and goals reasonable. . As you go along, make note of what works and what doesnt, and then adjust to keep honing your strategies and making more out of your text-to-give campaigns. Some marketing materials have local and short-term appeal, while other approaches are more far reaching and have a life that can touch donors over the long term. Leverage features like online campaigns, crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer fundraising. While Read-a-thons might be one of the most lucrative, educational, and fastest growing online school fundraisers out there, we don't claim to have a monopoly on the market. Another way is to hold a contest and ask students to brainstorm ideas for your theme. Your sponsorship is a tax-deductible donation toward the program that helps pay for fees, travel costs, equipment, uniforms and much more. A receipt and a thank-you email follows directly after that. To learn more about best practices and how to run the most effective Read-a-thon fundraiser, check out our Read-a-thon Basics resource. The pages get an average of 4,550 views within 3 weeks. Nearly half41%of its Haiti mobile donors were 34 years old or younger, far below the age of a typical Red Cross supporter. Edit your hit a thon fundraiser pledge form online Type text, add images, blackout confidential details, add comments, highlights and more. Otherwise, you might be overwhelming your donors. And remember, our customer service will help every step of the way as well. Create a tracker. Furthermore, since the opportunity to give is so immediate and the process so fast, donors are more likely to follow the initial urge and less likely to get distracted. After all, knowing where you stand and the health of your fundraiser is your greatest asset to maximizing the success of your campaign as it unfolds. We make it super easy on you (as the coordinator), your students/parents, and your donors. These donations are coded to you and are tracked and reported within your Fund-A . Take advantage of these readily available corporate gifts by sending out newsletters and alerts about corporate matching gift programs. For best results, treat text-to-give as a completely separate donation channel (which it is). There are a lot of details involved in a read-a-thon. Q: How are the daily book prizes paid for? Of those who encouraged a friend or family member to contribute, 75% did so by talking with others in person, and 38% did so via voice call. Make your donors feel valued by thanking them for their gift and celebrating their contribution. GivingTuesday is November 29. Parents will be busy with their jobs and other stuff and kids have little resources to promote the campaigns online. Join the 50,000+ nonprofits already raising funds online. Funds are being used to support operating budget and help fund teacher salaries, student success services, enrichment classes and more. You may draw inspiration from your reason for holding the event. A call to action should be included in every promotion of the text code, whether it is digital or in person and involves print, animation, podcasts, video or anything else. How to Run a Hit-a-thon Fundraiser (with Free Websites) By Lisa Bennett | Hit-a-thon fundraisers are an excellent way for softball and baseball teams to raise money. Even the best online school fundraising ideas can be derailed by a disorganized or misinformed team. This message is to thank you for your generous contribution to our cause for the people of Afghanistan. Any kind of a-thon fundraiser is possible with PTFundraiser. galas, marathons, walk-a-thons, and more). Had students route out their own map to walk for the school. Instead of gathering together physically, supporters gather online, using technology like live-streaming, video, and peer-to-peer fundraising software. consider organizing one of these massive fundraising ideas. Since its inception in 1998, Penn State Fayette students have raised $1,617,050 for THON. These streaming services do much of the heavy lifting, facilitating mass streaming for however many donors choose to participate in your event. It only takes 10 minutes to set up your account and kick off the easiest online school fundraising program you've ever hosted. First day of school is just around the corner! Create your signature and click Ok. Press Done. Jog-a-thons can take pledges per mile. We understand how important it is to select the right online fundraising idea for your school. Laura Magone, president of the Monongahela Area Historical Society, said $981 was presented to each of the merchants Feb. 24. Reach out to your student body, faculty and staff, members of your PTA, and local community members to create donation pages in your organization's name and share them with family and friends. First, seek out a crowdfunding platform or use your own crowdfunding website. Colonial Elementary raised $36K at the start of the year with their first-ever Read-a-thon. The text code is best kept short, memorable and easy to type, so that it can be spoken aloud, shared on the web or social media, printed on handouts or projected at events. Our simple-to-embed, customizable donation widgets make it easy to collect donations directly on your own website. Read-A-Thon Reading Reminder! Time to set-up your Read-A-Thon! Our intuitive, highly accessible platform takes no time at all to integrate into your school's normal fundraising activities, guiding you every step of the way to host a more successful and rewarding fundraiser than you could have ever imagined. This is great if you can keep your cost-per-acquisition low. You can also hand out physical data forms to track reading progress. Single participant a-thons are common, where only one person is completing an activity and collecting per-unit pledges for their cause. Congratulations!! Your organization can use this fundraiser to build sponsorship relationships with local businesses. From there, usually, one of two things will happen: If their mobile device is equipped to use the Internet and when they are online, the donor is guided to a donation landing page where they give. Generate outsized returns for your team in record time. What kind of statement or impact do you wish to make on your local community? Have the coordinator plug the information that you collected during the text-to-give process (i.e., donors names, phone numbers, email addresses, and billing addresses) into your existing donor database or CRM and use it to better your segmentation and outreach efforts. The costs associated with text-to-give software include costs for the software itself, the payment processing fees, maintenance and set up fees, vendor fees, shortcodes, and additional keywords and messages. Here are the advantages a text-to-give fundraising offers: Text-to-give technology allows donors to give to nonprofits of their choice directly through the text messaging app on their mobile devices. Revamp your website and online donation forms so they will load faster and be more easily navigable on mobile devices. What contests will your read-a-thon include? Via email, text, or other means, keep a tight circle of communication for duties and delegate responsibilities to the appropriate team members. Once you've created your account and shared the instructions for students to sign up and log their reading hours, Read-A-Thon will take care of the organization and management of your campaign. Spell-a-thon: Students receive a spelling test during distance learning class or their parents give them the spelling test. We the Parent . Who doesn't love a movie night? It is advisable to create a crowdfunding page for this kind of fundraiser. -Two week period, out of class time, etc. From that point on, you're free to customize or expand your virtual art class to best suit your specific group of participants. Donors text a custom code and give via a secure fundraising page. An "a-thon" is a peer-to-peer style fundraiser that involves participating in a certain activity and gathering donations for participating in said activity. Donors can use the online donation form to indicate their donation amount and fill in their payment information. Ophelia's Place is is hosting a "Call-A-Thon" fundraiser on Thursday, March 2nd, from 6-8 pm, and we need your help! Launch fundraising campaigns in minutes with beautiful, customizable and responsive donation pages. When a supporter makes a pledge, they can indicate the maximum amount theyre willing to donate. If you're hoping to raise a lot of money (and have a lot of volunteers on hand to help!) To help you pick the best possible online fundraiser for your school, consider the following points: Before you fall back on old habits with a cookie dough sale or pick a random idea out of a hat, be sure to weigh out the pros, cons, and finer details of the fundraising options you have available to you! You have the option to log in as a fundraising admin, a teacher, or a student. Kids and families alone cannot do all the promotion themselves. Teachers . Sign up for free today! Re-imagined their annual Rainbow Run-a-thon into a Rainbow ReCreate-a-thon. A: Your support of our twice annual Book Fairs pays for all of the book prizes. Remember to take a picture of the winners along with parents who helped and donated. Text-to-Give has numerous advantages when utilized in the right setting and fundraising campaign. About the Author Getting Started with Read a thon Watch on On top of that, emailing fundraising announcements to parents and students on your contact lists is another effective way to drum up support. It allows children to participate in a healthy competition with other classrooms while having fun 'sabotaging' their finds and other classrooms. Adapted annual Walk-a-thon to a Virtual Walk-a-thon. And they have free and unlimited use of our five-digit short code, 44321 (only on U.S. phone carriers).. Soon enough, you'll be making a profit while also encouraging school pride across your local community. The professional platform feels easy to customize, and connects you to a wide range of useful features that simplify and super-power your teams a-thon fundraising goals. Find local businesses that cater to kids and families. Read-A-Thon's easy online school fundraising platform comes equipped with email, text, and social media marketing tools to ensure maximum awareness for your campaign. So creating an event team of organizers is vital to the success of your walk-a-thon fundraiser. Donor data can also always be deleted upon request. Who is in charge of monitoring students reading? You can even integrate a matching gift database into your online donation form to make it easier than ever for donors to submit a matching gift request to their employers. Themes can make your read-a-thon more fun and give kids a way to get involved from the beginning. Put together a social media and marketing plan to promote your campaign. Text-to-give requires its own strategy, set up, marketing and promotion, and monitoring. Our unique pledge-per functionality gives you the ability to assign any unit of measure to your a-thon! Or, if you'd like to learn more about Read-a-thon fundraising and the Read-A-Thon platform, schedule a meeting with one of our specialists. Math-a-thon: Students receive a math worksheet at home based on their grade level and count how many math problems were solved correctly. CHESTERTOWN Sho'men Aquatics swim team for youth ages 5 to 18 raised nearly $7,500 in its recent fundraiser at the Casey Swim Center on the Washington College campus. In return for their fundraising efforts, Love My Library will give students the chance to choose virtual books from over 3 million different titles. Create an online fundraising page for this fundraiser and let all kids, teachers (if applicable), and parents know about it. In spite of these limitations, text-to-give is a powerful, yet often untapped, fundraising tool. This will help track and inspire people to make more donations. You can share this picture on social media, in the local press, and in the organizational newsletter that goes out to all supporters. Online fundraisers have rapidly become a cornerstone of school fundraising programs, offering an organized, safer, and more effective way for you to raise money for your institution.