Reading is an important part of any student's education. Through reading, students learn more about the world around them, develop empathy, and build communication skills that will help them thrive in life. If your school is looking to raise funds while nurturing a love of reading among your students, a Read-A-Thon is the perfect addition to your fundraising strategy.
In this complete guide to Read-A-Thons, we'll walk you through the basics of these popular reading fundraisers—including how to host one. Here's what we'll cover:
By signing up for a free Read-A-Thon account, you can start an engaging school fundraiser in just minutes. Before long, you'll be inspiring students to read more while raising the funds you need to continue providing them with enriching experiences at school.
A Read-A-Thon is a school fundraising idea that encourages lifelong reading habits among students. During the fundraiser, students try to read as much as they can, logging their time spent reading while friends and family members make donations to support their efforts.
Read-A-Thons are especially effective for schools because they:
For a closer look at the Read-A-Thon platform and how it works, check out our brief video overview:
As you can see from the video, getting started with Read-A-Thon is easy and straightforward. With no contracts or hidden fees and hands-on support throughout your fundraising process, you can rest assured that your next school fundraiser will be a success.
When it comes to fundraising for your school, you want to make sure that you get the most out of the resources and effort you put in. Read-A-Thons come with many benefits that make them especially appealing to schools, including:
Your school can tap into all of these benefits with minimum volunteers and upfront expenses. In fact, over 5,000 schools host a Read-A-Thon every year, raising a total of $22 million while promoting reading across grade levels.
If your school or PTA is ready to incorporate Read-A-Thons into your fundraising strategy, the good news is that the process is simple. To maximize student engagement and secure the most donations for your school, follow these steps for success:
To make sure that everyone on your fundraising team is on the same page before you begin your Read-A-Thon, ask yourselves the following questions:
While you can organize a Read-A-Thon at any point during the school year, it can be an excellent way to celebrate Read Across America Day in March. Generally, Read-A-Thons should last around two weeks to maintain excitement throughout the event while ensuring that students have enough time to participate.
After you've nailed down the details for your Read-A-Thon, sign up for a free Read-A-Thon account to get the ball rolling. By signing up, you can immediately access tools and features for:
Each student will have their own Read-A-Thon page, where friends and family can donate to support their personal fundraising goal and leave encouraging messages.
Every student's donation page includes several suggested donation amounts, real-time progress displays, and information about your school's fundraiser to help donors connect with your cause.
By planning rewards and incentives, your school can get more students excited about participating in your Read-A-Thon. While you can motivate top performers with pre-determined prizes such as school supplies, books, and gift cards, Read-A-Thon has a dedicated prize store that gives students the freedom to choose what rewards interest them the most.
If your school opts into Read-A-Thon's prize store model, here's what you can expect:
If your school chooses to handle its own prizes and rewards, Read-A-Thon has over 100 coupon templates that you can receive, printed at no extra charge.
Before and during your Read-A-Thon, spread the word through online and offline channels to engage as many community members in your fundraising efforts as possible. For example, in the weeks leading up to your Read-A-Thon event, you might send out an email that says something like:
[School's Name] has decided to hold a Read-A-Thon this year!
Read-A-Thons actually get your reader excited about reading and it gives friends and family the opportunity to encourage your child to read even more.
Our Read-A-Thon starts [date].
About one week before our Read-A-Thon starts we will send home instructions on how to activate your reader's personal page. This is where you will be able to view and record their progress.
We've chosen Read-A-Thon because it will not take much of your time, gives your child a reason to read and helps in the development of stronger reading skills.
We hope EVERYONE participates.
Thanks so much,
[School's Name]
Maximize awareness by putting up flyers, sending pre-written messages to your contact list, and posting on social media, too. Read-A-Thon saves you the hassle of creating this promotional content by providing you with messaging templates upfront. Through the platform, you can even access kick-off videos to show in classrooms to stir up excitement among students.
While Read-A-Thons are low-effort and require less than one hour per week to manage successfully, it's still important to keep an eye on your fundraising progress throughout the event. This allows you to make adjustments and send out reminders to keep engagement high from start to finish.
For example, during your Read-A-Thon, you can:
Through the Read-A-Thon dashboard, you can download specific reports on readers who've activated an account, the number of minutes read in a class, emails sent out, and more to unlock more insights into your school's overall fundraising performance.
At the end of your Read-A-Thon, take the time to celebrate your fundraising success with students and their families. With thoughtful planning and follow-up, you can host a Read-A-Thon every year to raise funds and get your students reading more.
You can even explore other schools' Read-A-Thon results for more inspiration. For example, Howard Perrin Elementary and Sonoran Sky PTO are just two examples of schools and PTOs that love using Read-A-Thon for fundraising:
Remember to share your fundraising results with everyone who participated in your Read-A-Thon and highlight how you'll put these funds to good use. By expressing your school's appreciation, you can keep donors invested in your success and motivated to support your next fundraiser.
Now that you have the Read-A-Thon basics down, explore these compelling ways to spark students' interest and boost participation:
You can also vary your fundraising efforts with similar educational fundraisers, like Love My Library book fairs. By partnering with Love My Library, you can host online or hybrid book fairs where you choose from over 900 titles and encourage students to create individual donation pages to collect funds from friends and family.
Read-A-Thons are ideal for any school or PTA since students of all ages can participate in reading at their grade level. Fundraising for your school is a necessity, but it doesn't have to be stressful or time-consuming. With Read-A-Thon's platform, you can start raising funds and encouraging student reading in minutes.
For more inspiring school fundraising ideas and tips, check out our additional resources: