As with all Give Lively nonprofit fundraising products, Text-to-Donate is free. Ultimately, your school's students and parents are going to be the ones doing most of the actual donating or fundraising. Adapted annual Walk-a-thon to a Virtual Walk-a-thon. Just sign up, create your event, and encourage students to create donation pages to send to family and friends. Youll also have a list of potential corporate funders for your next capital campaign. Also, pledge pages are mobile-friendly, so they can make a quick donation while waiting in line at their local grocery store. For instance, if youre hoping to build a new gymnasium on your school premises, your read-a-thon theme could be Read for Your Health.. The challenging task is choosing an online fundraiser that will best suit your school's needs. Once in, go to templates at the top left and click on it. Heres an example of a reading event held by a book club, for which theyre selling tickets to the community with a simple event-ticketing form. Everything was very easy to navigate. This way of fundraising allows organizations to raise money anytime, anywhere. Then create your crowdfunding page. 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. A receipt and a thank-you email follows directly after that. zoom_out_map open_in_new . Wilson High School students took a page out of Penn State's playbook and danced to help fight childhood cancer. You're not only thanking them for their money but also their involvement. We understand how important it is to select the right online fundraising idea for your school. Nearly half41%of its Haiti mobile donors were 34 years old or younger, far below the age of a typical Red Cross supporter. $30, $60, $100, etc.). 1. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to design your walk a then forms: Select the document you want to sign and click Upload. sponsor sheet to place on envelopes for collecting jog-a-thon pledges. Could a pledge supporter be charged an unlimited amount. This Penny War Fundraiser Packet is a perfect way to end the school year. 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. He and his family will enjoy their all-expense paid trip later this year. BASIS Chandler Primary held a Math-a-thon to raise funds for their Annual Teacher Fund. Whether you are in the room or #OutsideTheRoom, at an event, or over a text-to-donate campaign, all donations go straight to your organization's bank account. Our favorite part was that we could encourage a love of reading while raising money for the school. 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. Your read-a-thon is finished and kids and parents helped you fundraise. Like the first, the season stars Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, William Stanford Davis and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Text-to-give fundraising can bring in a high volume of donors, and it can be integrated with other fundraising methods. Make your donors feel valued by thanking them for their gift and celebrating their contribution. Most text-to-give providers will accept payment methods including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. You'll gain access to Fund-A-Thon fundraising campaigns, which will include your very own replication donation pages. Simply go into the platform to monitor the progress of your online fundraiser. Then, the system automatically charges each donors credit card with the amount. Start collecting pledges. With Read-A-Thon's effortless online platform, you can raise thousands of dollars just by encouraging students to read. In this day and age, social media is your best friend. Here is how you can sign-up and get started! We can set you up with a Virtual Pledge Drive. We make it super easy on you (as the coordinator), your students/parents, and your donors. A hit-a-thon fundraiser comes with a high profit vs investment in materials. 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! We help you make it hassle-free for them with an easy & secure online donation while they sit in the comfort of their home (Oh, and by the way.. our records show supporters donate 25% more through an online donation as opposed to cash/check). 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. 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. 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. A small thumbnail of your template will appear. It consists of signing up, tracking your progress, sharing your fundraiser, and raising funds! Our simple-to-embed, customizable donation widgets make it easy to collect donations directly on your own website. Can I create an a-thon with one participant? 99Pledges runs thousands of successful fundraisers every year. Tokenization is a security process in which sensitive personal data like credit card information is replaced by a token between a text platform and a payment processor. It's as simple as that. 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. Join 5,000+ schools around the world using Read-A-Thon. Johnny sent text messages to 10 friends and family members to promote East Dover's Read-A-Thon and that earned him a spot in the Disney drawing. The website was so easy to use. While your specific metrics will vary depending on the type of fundraiser you've selected, these fundamental data points will help you to figure out how your campaign is going and where you need to improve. During your virtual event, have families email pictures & videos that you'll post on your organization's website or have them post on your community page (e.g. You could even assemble students in your auditorium to create a kind of pre-fundraising pep rally. All you have to do is partner with a dedicated library fundraising platform, such as Love My Library. No matter how far you are into your online fundraiser, you should always have an idea of how your campaign is performing. From tracking key fundraising metrics to providing robust online marketing tools, Read-A-Thon has everything you need to dive into your most successful online fundraising program while still remaining extremely easy to use. Take your donor experience to the next level! In a matter of days, watch as hundreds of reading hours and thousands of dollars roll into your Read-A-Thon account, all for an activity that your students are already doing! The event itself can last anywhere from a few hours to an entire day, with participants taking turns dancing or dancing as a team. Turn this timeless event into a fresh and inventive online fundraising idea by using platforms like Facebook Watch Party or Teleparty to host a virtual watch party. 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. 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. 6 Simple Ideas to Make Your Read-a-Thon a Success, 12 Donation Form Best Practices to Inspire Your Online Fundraising, How to Set Up a Nonprofit Donation Page (5-Step Guide), 100+ Best Fundraising Ideas for Everyone (Quick, Unique & Easy) in 2023, How to Choose the Best Nonprofit Donor Management Software, How to Start a Nonprofit Organization [10 Step Guide] | Donorbox. Auctions are a popular and highly lucrative type of fundraiser, and now modern auction software has made it possible to not only make your next auction completely virtual, but also mobile-friendly!Online auctions work in much the same way as a regular auctionexcluding the cost of a venue and catering. One of the participants completes a run during the 24H Blue MTN charity event, which has teams of skiers and snowboarders on the hill for . What kind of statement or impact do you wish to make on your local community? To begin selling your own custom merchandise, create an online store on your school website. Previously, each of the businesses received $1,000, some of which came from a fundraiser held in the city on Feb. 2. Just follow these simple steps and youll be well on your way to fundraising success. Competition is fun, exciting, and an excellent way to entice more involvement in your read-a-thon. Purchasing any sort of fundraising software can be a significant investment for your nonprofit. 25% of donors complete their donations on mobile devices. With Read-A-Thon's effortless online platform, you can raise thousands of dollars just by encouraging students to read. 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.. Remind your child to break out a book and record their reading time this Spring Break! 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. Sign up for free today! Best of all, it encourages a love for reading amongst young people of all ages. Want to keep it super simple? Who is in charge of monitoring students reading? 03. It takes 90 seconds to respond to a text, versus 90 minutes by e-mail. 4. Another way is to hold a contest and ask students to brainstorm ideas for your theme. Choosing the right donation platform is the first step to successful fundraising in this method. Collect the forms weekly and determine whos in the lead. OCEAN25 instead of just DONATE) and ensure your code is relevant to your mission. I plan to have the charity event in NC is TBD. The learning curve is low, so donors can give without much hassle. When choosing the right text-to-give platform for you, make sure your providers software offers all the below-mentioned features. We want to help you run the best Reading Fundraiser possible. These fundraisers are incredibly easy to host and participate in. You'll gain access to Fund-A-Thon fundraising campaigns, which will include your very own replication donation pages. Take the stress, surprise, and hefty investment costs out of your school's online fundraising program! Will all students follow the same measurements? Get a monthly curated round-up of our best posts and feature updates. The only requirements for your child to win books and awards is (1) READ and (2) submit those minutes through the app. Each program is assigned an Hour-A-Thon Fundraising Specialist to directly run the program with coaches. We recommend using a multichannel approach when it comes to promoting a text code. Can-a-thon. Even the youngest students can easily join your Read-A-Thon campaign with just a few simple clicks, all while furthering their own education. 9 Creative Swim-A-Thon Ideas for Your Next Fundraiser (With Tips) By Nonprofit Point January 16, 2023 A swim-a-thon is a great way to raise money for your organization. Finally, encourage students, parents, and your supporters to share this page across the internet. About the Author Q: How are the daily book prizes paid for? Hour-a-thon, which exhibited at the 2021 . Decide on what kind of signature to create. I would like to join the indigenous people of the country to say 'shuker' to you as a word of thanks for your gift. Usually, with most text-to-give platforms that lead donors to a mobile donation page, yes. Decide on a pricing strategy and sell tickets to the event to raise some extra funds with your read-a-thon. Due to the pandemic & financial hardships, VC Academy notified supporters that it was completely understandable if they wanted to withdraw their pledge. 2. It is the simplicity of this fundraising method that makes it a successful fundraising method and popular among nonprofits and donors. We power Text-to-Donate, not Text-to-Give. Donor data can also always be deleted upon request. Set up a fundraising page with text, images and videos for your Text-to-Donate campaign. Results dont need to be recorded at the same time, which means that your participants can enter them when theyre done. 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. 03/15/2022 This article is sponsored by our friends at 99Pledges. You no longer need to spend days or even weeks coordinating faculty, staff, and volunteers and allocating precious school funds to host your next fundraiser. Consider using other Give Lively products and solutions alongside Text-to-Donate to achieve best results. Send out a vote for the best family-friendly movie to watch, charge a virtual "admission fee" before sending out the link to your stream, and press play as donors enjoy a fun movie night from the comfort of their own homes. Its essential that you work with a PCI-compliant service provider. A-thon-style events have the potential to bring in significant fundraising dollars for any organization that takes them on. How will students collect pledges and donations? They decide how much theyll read and the amount they hope to raise. Donors typically send a text message (unique keyword) to a shortened number (e.g. We are so excited for Johnny Grabowski from East Dover Elementary. Upon request, we can work with the payment processor to delete all data.. Set a specific timeline and add a goal thermometer to your crowdfunding page. Like a fun run, golf tournaments can be simple to coordinate with an experienced golf course manager, or as complicated as a PGA event. In the past year, mobile giving donations have increased by 205%. Traditionally, you have your supporters pull out their checkbook, envelope, and stamp to mail a donation. They are the people who will help you promote this page and raise more money. A custom text code is unique to the nonprofit that creates it and to the campaign it supports. They dont have to write and mail a check. The Ultimate Online School Fundraising Program, How Read-A-Thon's Online Fundraiser Works, many companies that match gifts for schools. . Donorboxs text-to-give was built keeping in mind the ease of use for nonprofits and more importantly, the donors. Thank all kids and parents, not just the winners. Text-to-give requires its own strategy, set up, marketing and promotion, and monitoring. You can also hand out physical data forms to track reading progress. Any creative a-thon you can dream up can be created with PTFundraiser. Introducing Our Latest Disney Trip Winner. While all of the fundraisers on this list have the potential for major fundraising success, read-a-thons are one of the only campaigns that enrich your students' educational experiences as they raise money. We have secured a total of $7,500 so far, and we hope to reach $50,000. Thank you so much! These donations are coded to you and are tracked and reported within your Fund-A . Take a multi-channel marketing approach to ensure that students, parents, and the community are aware of your upcoming text-to-give campaign. Time to set-up your Read-A-Thon! Families, friends and the community are so willing to donate money to enrich literacy and education in our youth. Here's how it works: donors visit your fundraiser and make their donation to a participant on your experience. You can invite fundraisers from the tool itself and they can easily create their own fundraising pages to help you raise money. Every kid doesnt have access to the same amount of books. 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. CREATE AN A-THON Effortless fundraising Take pledges per-lap, per-hour, per-anything. What kind of aid (ex: volunteers, investment funds) do you need and have available to you? Encourage your child to get creative with his or her letters! At Donorbox, we have launched Text-to-Give to let nonprofits raise funds quickly, not to mention it was in high demand from our users. And they have free and unlimited use of our five-digit short code, 44321 (only on U.S. phone carriers).. One of the most widely publicized text-to-give campaigns was The Red Crosss relief efforts after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. These powerful features make your a-thon one-of-a-kind, Create a branded page for your a-thon fundraiser, Add teams, leaderboards and individual page functionality, Run any a-thon imaginable with unlimited participants, These built-in tools make it easy to maximize donations, Increase pledges with social sharing and dedicated links, Automate everything from pledge collections to emails, Inspire action with prizes attached to pledge goals. And they have free and unlimited use of our five-digit short code. Take advantage of these readily available corporate gifts by sending out newsletters and alerts about corporate matching gift programs. Create an online fundraising page for this fundraiser and let all kids, teachers (if applicable), and parents know about it. Read-a-thons can last anywhere from one month to an entire semester. Announce the fundraiser to students/parents (without pressuring to participate). Claudia went on to be the top reader and got the most donations during her schools Read-A-Thon. You must also check how each fundraising campaign is doing. Otherwise, you might be overwhelming your donors. Sign up for free to kick off a virtual fundraiser that students, sponsors, and community members will be inspired by! Inspire donors to give by tracking and presenting contributions in real time. Your next read-a-thon event can help you raise more money and acquire new donors when powered by expert coaching and premium tools. Celebrate everyone's success. 5. Shes passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. Jog-a-thons can take pledges per mile. You can connect with her on Linkedin. Effort: Medium . Donorbox Events lets you create simple online event pages. However, this may depend on what text-to-give software you choose. The goal remains to give each business at least $2,000. Read-a-thons are an excellent way to encourage kids to read and raise funds for your organization. Display a thermometer showing donors how close you are to meeting your fundraising goals to encourage even more giving! It allows children to participate in a healthy competition with other classrooms while having fun 'sabotaging' their finds and other classrooms. For more tips, see our ultimate guide to Text-to-Donate in the Resource Hub (for members, but open to all). Soon enough, you'll be making a profit while also encouraging school pride across your local community. Lastly, promote your campaign page online to reach more people online and increase participation. When to hold a read-a-thon and for how long, how would the be days divided, for example-. Maintaining the support of this new generation of philanthropistsand immediate access to them via their phonesrequires restraint. In fact, some fundraisers may even have dedicated platforms to help you manage and organize as much as of the fundraising process as possible, such as Read-A-Thon. 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. If shes not working, shes obsessing over coffee or cooking. Recipient of Society of Women Engineers Certificate of Merit, RIT Computing Medal, AP Scholar with Distinction, top 30 individually at Maine State Math Meet for class of 2021 in both 2017 and 2018 . Had students route out their own map to walk for the school. Also, try to keep your fundraiser itself as simple and straightforward as possible to avoid confusion. 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. We can help you prepare. Use Zoom to hold meetings with parents, check in for progress, and host online contests. Request a file on the File Exchange forum in the Message Boards. With the help of a trusted text-to-give service, your donors will be able to give in a matter of seconds. The pages get an average of 4,550 views within 3 weeks. Edit your hit a thon fundraiser pledge form online Type text, add images, blackout confidential details, add comments, highlights and more. Your online fundraising tool can be the best means to boost your outreach and raise more donations. A Read-a-thon is a great way to raise money because 100% of the money raised goes back to our school! Let your supporters take charge of your online fundraising campaign with a peer-to-peer fundraiser! IN PICTURES: 24-hour ski-a-thon raises over $150K. Check out this example here. Percent Participation: 75% Average Donors Per Student: 5 Introducing Our Latest Disney Trip Winner Crowdfunding is a proven way to raise more money with time-bound projects like a read-a-thon.