A Color-A-Thon — the color-run fundraiser run by School-A-Thon — is an in-person event: students collect donations, then run a color course on event day. A Read-A-Thon is a two-week reading fundraiser with no event to stage. If your school wants the color-run spectacle, that is a movement event, and there is a better home for it than this page. If you want reading, keep going.
Color-A-Thon vs. Read-A-Thon at a glance
One is an event you produce; the other is a program that runs itself for two weeks. Color-A-Thon figures below are as published on schoolathon.org (captured August 2026).
| Color-A-Thon (School-A-Thon) | Read-A-Thon | |
|---|---|---|
| The activity | Event-day color run | Two weeks of reading, logged online |
| Profit share | Tiered on the managed package: 50% under $7,500, 60% to $12,499, 70% at $12,500+, plus $5 per T-shirt (a lighter "It's Your Thon" option keeps up to 90%) | Flat 75% (prize store) or 80% (self-run rewards) |
| Event-day work | Course, color stations, volunteers, T-shirts | None — nothing to stage |
| Runs virtually? | No — it is an in-person event | Yes — fully online or hybrid |
Two things stand out. First, the color-run profit share rises with how much you raise — a smaller event keeps a smaller percentage — while a Read-A-Thon's share is flat. Second, one has an event day and one does not.
If you want the color run, here is the honest answer
A color run is a genuinely great event — the photos, the energy, the whole-community morning. If that experience is what your school is after, a reading fundraiser is the wrong tool, and we would rather send you to the right one than argue you out of it.
Our sister company, Get Movin' Fundraising, runs color runs, fun runs, and walk-a-thons with no upfront cost and a high, flat payout — a strong alternative to a tiered color-run package where your percentage depends on your total. If the movement event is the point, start there.
School-A-Thon is the incumbent color-run vendor and does the format well; Get Movin' is the option we can stand behind on payout and support. Either way, that is event-day territory, not reading.
Why a school might choose reading instead
If the event day is not essential, reading has structural advantages over a color run:
- No event to produce. No course, no color stations, no volunteer crew, no weather risk. One coordinator spends about an hour a week.
- A flat, predictable share. You keep 75–80% whether you raise $3,000 or $30,000 — no tier to climb and no per-shirt cost skimming the total.
- Every student included, rain or shine. Reading has no physical or event-day barrier and runs fully online, so participation does not depend on turnout on one morning.
- A literacy outcome. The activity doubles as a reading initiative, which earns teacher and principal support a color run does not.
The trade is real: you give up the event-day spectacle. What you get back is simplicity, a higher flat share, and a literacy story.
How to choose
- Is the in-person event the point? If the color-run morning is what your community wants, go the movement route — and price Get Movin' against School-A-Thon on payout.
- Do you have the volunteers and a rain plan? An event day needs both; a reading fundraiser needs neither.
- Do you want a flat share and a literacy tie-in? That is Read-A-Thon's ground.
If reading fits, it is free to set up in about ten minutes and keeps 75–80% flat. Start for free or read how a Read-A-Thon works.