Funds are being used to support operating budget and help fund teacher salaries, student success services, enrichment classes and more. You can connect with her on Linkedin. Friends and family knew she struggled. The idea behind this fundraising type is to cast as wide a net as possible and gain a lot of support in a short amount of time. A book swap can be a great solution. If shes not working, shes obsessing over coffee or cooking. This has been used to help provide funding for fun events such as the end of . Text-to-give lets donors make donations right from their cell phones, using their phones native texting application and/or web browser. Your organization can use this fundraiser to build sponsorship relationships with local businesses. The kids can then promote their pages and collect donations. Let's chat. $30, $60, $100, etc.). BASIS Chandler Primary held a Math-a-thon to raise funds for their Annual Teacher Fund. With text-to-give, simplicity is everything. Since its inception in 1998, Penn State Fayette students have raised $1,617,050 for THON. You can share this picture on social media, in the local press, and in the organizational newsletter that goes out to all supporters. Otherwise, you might be overwhelming your donors. Wilson High School students are taking a page out of Penn State's playbook and are dancing to help fight childhood cancer. Other, more complicated online fundraising platforms require upfront technical knowledge and extensive configuration. Step by step procedure: Deciding a schedule for your read-a-thon is quite a crucial choice. All you need to do is promote your online fundraiser. PowerPoint Presentation. The donor will have a defined amount added to their mobile cell phone bill. GivingTuesday is November 29. You must also check how each fundraising campaign is doing. Join 5,000+ schools around the world using Read-A-Thon. Find local businesses that cater to kids and families. Furthermore, the keyword will typically indicate which campaign the donor wishes to allocate their contribution to. Work with a vendor who offers plenty of options, so you can provide your donors with the most flexible and convenient donation experience. What kind of statement or impact do you wish to make on your local community? This happens because donors are required to either just text a code to a number (where theres no immersion with your brand whatsoever) or are led to a simplistic donation page where they enter minimum information. As a fundraiser, you should not be running any event on your own and walk-a-thons can take more work than one person can handle. Read-a-thons are a great way for schools, other educational organizations, libraries, PTAs, book clubs, churches, and many other nonprofits to kill two birds with one stone. While it might be tempting to use text-to-give for every campaign and throughout the year, it might be wise to reserve this fundraising method for specific fundraising campaigns. Thanking donors is always important; so it is with text-to-give fundraising. Each program is assigned an Hour-A-Thon Fundraising Specialist to directly run the program with coaches. A virtual fundraiser is an online fundraising event. Your callers must listen and show them you want to hear their ideas. Have your kids read instead of selling fundraising products! The average donation size for text-to-donate fundraisers is $107. Make your donors feel valued by thanking them for their gift and celebrating their contribution. This comes in handy if your a-thon runs for extended periods of time. If your text-to-give provider is PCI-compliant, the software should be secure. They dont even have to turn on their computers. The event itself can last anywhere from a few hours to an entire day, with participants taking turns dancing or dancing as a team. Sometimes a donor may suggest changes to the organization, your fundraising campaigns, or events. Due to the pandemic & financial hardships, VC Academy notified supporters that it was completely understandable if they wanted to withdraw their pledge. As with all Give Lively nonprofit fundraising products, Text-to-Donate is free. Text-to-Donate is our easy, mobile-first method for capturing contributions when donors are on the go. 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. Since youll have a lot of kids collecting pledges and donations from people, it is advisable to turn your crowdfunding campaign into a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. The school district is hosting a "Mini-Thon" Friday night. Families, friends and the community are so willing to donate money to enrich literacy and education in our youth. It started . Shortcodes are ideal for text-to-give campaigns because of the nature of high-volume messaging. Even the best online school fundraising ideas can be derailed by a disorganized or misinformed team. Set up a fundraising page with text, images and videos for your Text-to-Donate campaign. There is also a text-to-donate option. Share your code Speak aloud, share on the web or social media, print on handouts or project it at events with Live Display. We have secured a total of $7,500 so far, and we hope to reach $50,000. No matter how far you are into your online fundraiser, you should always have an idea of how your campaign is performing. $0 Startup costs. By contrast, Read-A-Thon is easily accessible to everyonefrom technologically-challenged teachers to elementary school students. Jog-a-thons can take pledges per mile. Lastly, promote your campaign page online to reach more people online and increase participation. No matter what activity you choose, the premise is the same. Edit Hit a thon fundraiser template. A-thon-style events have the potential to bring in significant fundraising dollars for any organization that takes them on. In order to ensure a successful event, we recommend that you start planning at least six months in advance. It allows children to participate in a healthy competition with other classrooms while having fun 'sabotaging' their finds and other classrooms. They can choose easy per-unit pledge or make a flat donation. Even the youngest students can easily join your Read-A-Thon campaign with just a few simple clicks, all while furthering their own education. St. Francis - St. Stephen School raised $5,352 with 99 students that went directly to their financial aid fund to support returning & newly enrolled students. They are the people who will help you promote this page and raise more money. Letting donors set up recurring weekly, monthly, or annual donations, in addition to increasing revenue, bring in the much-needed stability to a nonprofits finances. 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. How will students collect pledges and donations? Online donations, for example, tend to involve more deliberation. You may draw inspiration from your reason for holding the event. Results dont need to be recorded at the same time, which means that your participants can enter them when theyre done. Instead of texting a full phone number, donors text the keyword to a shortcode to donate. For best results, treat text-to-give as a completely separate donation channel (which it is). Simply select a teacher or guest host to guide your art night, list materials that your supporters will need in advance, and send out a virtual meeting link to interested participants in return for a small entrance fee. 5.0. Remember to take a picture of the winners along with parents who helped and donated. This fundraiser is based on your participants successfully serving as many serves as they can in a specific timeframe. Traditionally, you have your supporters pull out their checkbook, envelope, and stamp to mail a donation. sponsor sheet to place on envelopes for collecting jog-a-thon pledges. How much money do you hope to raise, and how quickly do you need it? galas, marathons, walk-a-thons, and more). 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. 2. All you have to do is continue to encourage your students and watch as your Read-A-Thon fundraising account collects revenue. More specifically, Give Lively and its member nonprofits can never view a donors full payment details as they are handled exclusively by a secure third-party payment processor -- they are captured and stored securely by them without passing through our servers -- although some credit/debit card metadata and general payment information is accessible by Give Lively. Notably, Text-to-Donate is part of our Digital Fundraising and Event Fundraising solutions, and designed to work in tandem with all of our products.. Thank-a-thon calls should be short, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the donors' responses. Our simple-to-embed, customizable donation widgets make it easy to collect donations directly on your own website. This is another a-thon fundraiser that fosters a giving spirit and sense of duty within the larger community. That way, you can invite the kids parents to create fundraising pages in the kids names. Best of all, it encourages a love for reading amongst young people of all ages. You'll gain access to Fund-A-Thon fundraising campaigns, which will include your very own replication donation pages. Think fun stuff like dancing, hula-hooping, and bowling! Use our five-digit short code, 44321 (only on U.S. phone carriers), at no cost to your nonprofit. Kick-off events are critical in the larger fundraising sales process, as the initial excitement for your campaign will often determine its overall trajectory. If raising enough funds is your concern, start an online crowdfunding campaign to meet your fundraising goal within a short period of time. Challenges: Run/Walk/Bike, Jump Rope, Dance Tutorials, Kids Workout, & more. A person participating in the spell-a-thon for example, would add the number of words they spelled. Like a fun run, golf tournaments can be simple to coordinate with an experienced golf course manager, or as complicated as a PGA event. At the end of the contest, reward the winners and let all kids have a pizza party to honor the hard work of every student involved. zoom_out_map open_in_new . Our dynamic fundraising platform was designed to help you simplify the a-thon fundraising experience for your organization, and your donors. It is an active, fun event that can be organized easily and quickly. This message is to thank you for your generous contribution to our cause for the people of Afghanistan. It also meets donors where theyre at, which is often on their phones. Via email, text, or other means, keep a tight circle of communication for duties and delegate responsibilities to the appropriate team members. 0% Platform fee. The Jog-A-Thon Fundraiser supports the Students and Staff at Raleigh Park Elementary School. Let your supporters take charge of your online fundraising campaign with a peer-to-peer fundraiser! When organizing the faculty, staff, or volunteers that will make up your fundraising team, be sure to keep everyone informed about what is expected of them and how they can complete their tasks. Donorboxs text to give feature went live in January 2021. Your read-a-thon is finished and kids and parents helped you fundraise. Your funds, lightning fast Read-A-Thon Fundraising Company Inc. All rights reserved.All Content and materials on Read-A-Thon.com are the property of Read-A-Thon Fundraising Company Inc. Readathon and Read-A-Thon are trademarks of Read-A-Thon Fundraising Company Inc. These campaigns provide critical funding for your institution and you can't afford to invest time and money into campaigns that might not work. BarrieToday Staff Feb 27, 2023 6:30 PM. You're not only thanking them for their money but also their involvement. Note: PCI-compliance speaks to a set of security standards set out by the Payment Card Industry. 4. But if you're looking for a youth sports fundraising idea that everyone will enjoy, a hit-a-thon fundraiser is a fantastic way to raise funds for your sports team that is pretty easy to plan and execute. Post-Katrina, the Red Cross has reserved text campaigns for extreme circumstances, according to McAndrew. Now more than ever, we're seeing schools adapt their annual "a-thon" fundraisers to be 100% virtual. Then, they followed up with a Quarantine Read-a-thon to support their city's local economy. Join a 30min Live Demo to see how Donorbox can help you reach your fundraising goals! The longer or more complex the code, the more likely your donors will forget it or abandon the process. Crowdfunding leverages social media and online marketing tools to gather many small donations from a large audience of potential donors on the internet. Another way is to hold a contest and ask students to brainstorm ideas for your theme. Get the Hit a thon fundraiser template completed. Finally, encourage students, parents, and your supporters to share this page across the internet. For example, Read-A-Thon not only encourages students to read, but also incentivizes them to participate in return for redeemable prizes from our online store! In fact, a recent study of 4,000 students across the United States showed that . Through this crowdfunding campaign, the Grace Community Church helps a kid called Maris raise funds to support literacy in Brazil. Other than a couple of hiccups with the system we were extremely happy!! Its essential that you work with a PCI-compliant service provider. We hope our ideas and insights will help you decide if text-to-give fundraising is the right method for you, and if so, that youll be able to get the most out of it. Click Home and then Create a Write-athon from your home page. Youll also have a list of potential corporate funders for your next capital campaign. These partnerships can lead to more event sponsorships and grants for your nonprofit. With Donorbox Peer-to-Peer, its as easy as toggling a switch on your crowdfunding or other online campaigns. The first group you should address is your board. This excites them about the event. Encouraged families to post pictures and videos on their Facebook School Group page. The website was so easy to use. 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. Inspire donors to give by tracking and presenting contributions in real time. Virtual fundraisers can replace in-person galas, concerts, walk-a-thons, races, and more. A Read-a-thon is a great way to raise money because 100% of the money raised goes back to our school! Campbell Elementary Loved the Read-A-Thon! 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. Mobile giving is a simple and effective way to appeal to donors on the go and take advantage of the widespread use of mobile devices. Easily add and highlight text, insert pictures, checkmarks, and icons, drop new fillable areas, and rearrange or remove pages from your paperwork. And remember, our customer service will help every step of the way as well. All you have to do is partner with a dedicated library fundraising platform, such as Love My Library. It's as simple as that. Previously, each of the businesses received $1,000, some of which came from a fundraiser held in the city on Feb. 2. Maintaining the support of this new generation of philanthropistsand immediate access to them via their phonesrequires restraint. A-Thons - PTFundraiser A-THON FUNDRAISER Launch a charity pledge fundraiser to inspire donations for your cause Run remarkable walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, or anything-a-thons when you use the PTFundraiser platform. 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. Donorboxs text-to-give was built keeping in mind the ease of use for nonprofits and more importantly, the donors. One of the biggest advantages of text-to-give campaigns is that they can bring in a lot of new donors. The customized shortcode that your donors will use to donate and the numbers they text it to should be short and easy to remember. We are extremely grateful to you for the recent gift you have provided to support us.