Here are 7 steps to help you plan a bowl-a-thon: 1. Just be sure to pick out high-value goods and experiences that participants would be willing to bid on, partner with a reliable auction software provider, and promote to parents and community members. With the right text-to-give software, a transaction can be completed in just a few clicks. 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. It allows children to participate in a healthy competition with other classrooms while having fun 'sabotaging' their finds and other classrooms. The best part is, it is extremely simple to start and utilizes the ease of donating on mobile phones. Can I create an a-thon with one participant? From sip-and-paints for adults to arts and crafts nights for your young students, virtual art classes are a simple way for you to engage your different volunteers at little to no cost. Thank all kids and parents, not just the winners. Not only is this a simple process for your donors, for nonprofits it will take only a few minutes to get started. Learn more about our best features including Recurring Donations, customizable Fundraising Pages, Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer, Events, Memberships, QuickDonate, Donor Management, and more! Want to learn more about Read-A-Thon? 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. Keep an eye on important metrics such as how many gifts you have secured, total donations raised, return on investment, and conversion and engagement rates for your online communications. There are three variants; a typed, drawn or uploaded signature. Furthermore, if youre not an emergency relief organization, a text-to-give solicitation may not be as compelling to the donor as an impulse donation in the wake of a tragedy is. Text-to-give donors are likely to encourage their family and friends to give online and usually do so in person. Edit your hit a thon fundraiser pledge form online Type text, add images, blackout confidential details, add comments, highlights and more. Then, the system automatically charges each donors credit card with the amount. Super excited and looking forward to our 11th Annual St. Jude Zumbathon. Before starting the read-a-thon, youll need to educate kids and parents on how to track reading progress, create their individual campaigns on your chosen fundraising tool, and collect funds online. This was our first time doing a Read-a-thon and we LOVED it! Use the sliders below to adjust your participation and donor levels. Competition is fun, exciting, and an excellent way to entice more involvement in your read-a-thon. What kind of organizations use text-to-give fundraising? 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! 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. A hit-a-thon fundraiser comes with a high profit vs investment in materials. Once a catchy text code has been created and linked to a campaign, it can be shared on social media, blogs and your website; in promotional videos, livestreams, print materials and Live Display; at press appearances, live and virtual events and much more, all with the goal of increasing a campaigns visibility and the likelihood of receiving donations.. Thank you!! Your organization can use this fundraiser to build sponsorship relationships with local businesses. Results dont need to be recorded at the same time, which means that your participants can enter them when theyre done. Text-to-Donate can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Text-to-Give Fundraising Statistics According to Nonprofits Source, these are essential text-to-give statistics: - 1 in 4 donors use mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of. When we sent emails asking them to encourage Claudia through Read-A-Thon, I was overwhelmed. Donorboxs Text-to-Give lets you start fundraising within a few simple steps. No Contracts. OCEAN25 instead of just DONATE) and ensure your code is relevant to your mission. 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. Revolutionizing fundraiser for teams and groups. 1. See how much money your school can raise with our Read-a-thon calculator: Click Here, Get the answers to your basic questions in our Read-a-thon FAQ section: Click Here, Get a brief explanation of how our Read-a-thon system works: Click Here, Check out a sample prize store: Click Here. Text-to-give requires its own strategy, set up, marketing and promotion, and monitoring. 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. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development. -Ten half hour sessions during class, over two weeks. Say goodbye to manually collecting funds when you run an a-thon fundraiser. Upon request, we can work with the payment processor to delete all data.. Choose My Signature. Decide on what kind of signature to create. 3. It started . If you work in education, you probably know how important it is to encourage your students to read. Your sponsorship is a tax-deductible donation toward the program that helps pay for fees, travel costs, equipment, uniforms and much more. For more tips, see our ultimate guide to Text-to-Donate in the Resource Hub (for members, but open to all). All you need to do is promote your online fundraiser. This online campaign raised donations to help 200+ students with textbooks and other school supplies. Blue Mountain fundraiser features relay-style event and 24 hours of skiing and snowboarding down the Smart Alec run. Create a code Create your own text codes that are catchy and easy to remember, like "EQUALITY", "GIVENOW" etc. Optimized for on-the-spot giving by many simultaneous users, Custom text codes run as short as three characters and never expire, Donors receive link to contribute via a secure web page, Unlimited use of our five-digit short code, 44321, Multiple payment options including digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, Text-to-Donate page design inherits the look and feel of associated campaign, Progress meters can track and exhibit donations in seconds on Campaign Page and Live Display. Campaign organizers or individual participants can enter activity results into the PTFundraiser system at any point during or after the fundraiser. You'll no longer need to waste precious time and resources trying to set up an effective online fundraiser that might not earn its cost of investment. Additionally, create a guide of some kind for team members to reference with questions. This worry is understandable, with the United States literacy ranking 125th worldwide. We wrote a list of everything your text-to-give platform needs to have. Introducing Our Latest Disney Trip Winner. 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. Take your donor experience to the next level! Read-a-thon: Students choose their books and track their minutes read at home for a 2-week period. A: Your support of our twice annual Book Fairs pays for all of the book prizes. What kind of aid (ex: volunteers, investment funds) do you need and have available to you? Text-to-give lets donors make donations right from their cell phones, using their phones native texting application and/or web browser. Not to mention, these types of tools allow you to run everything online without having to deal with paper forms or track down people for payments. Shes passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. You can connect with her on Linkedin. Online school fundraising has never been easier. First, seek out a crowdfunding platform or use your own crowdfunding website. He and his family will enjoy their all-expense paid trip later this year. Create user-friendly pages for fundraising-event ticket and sponsorship sales. Share your form with others Send hit a thon template via email, link, or fax. 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. To set a strong precedent for your fundraiser, organize an engaging presentation. 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. 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. With Read-A-Thon, your return on investment is guaranteed, and you should be ready to launch your own virtual Read-a-thon in a matter of minutes. As part of organizing a dance-a-thon, individuals or groups of people set a fundraising goal and ask friends, family, and community members to pledge on their behalf as a way of raising funds for an organization. Try something New, Easy, Profitable and Educational! Your organization can use individual peer-to-peer campaigns as signup for each kid. The pages get an average of 4,550 views within 3 weeks. Collect Donations. To ensure the success of your school's future fundraising, you need to have a strong grasp of the steps and best practices for organizing your own online school fundraising program. Youll want to keep your expectations and goals reasonable. The following is a list of characters, including . Keywords like YEMEN 19 or MARINE help differentiate campaigns for both donors and nonprofits. Could a pledge supporter be charged an unlimited amount. Jog-a-thons can take pledges per mile. Hour-A-Thon is a LIVE fundraising experience that does not use e-mail; it only involves a direct text from players followed up by a "personal touch" phone call which in turn becomes a donation. Set Fundraising Goals Online donations, for example, tend to involve more deliberation. Youll also want to find ways to excite students with the prizes and class competitions. Crowdfunding is a proven way to raise more money with time-bound projects like a read-a-thon. Make your donors feel valued by thanking them for their gift and celebrating their contribution. Kids and families alone cannot do all the promotion themselves. Your callers must listen and show them you want to hear their ideas. Grade level: Elementary school, middle school, high school. The days of collecting cash donations from your school's bake sale table are now a thing of the past. Create momentum and get the word out. 8 Steps to Organizing a Read-a-Thon Fundraiser 1. Please note that Text-to-Donate is not the same as "Text to Give. The latter is when someone sends a text message with a donation amount, rather than a text code, to a special short code. Wonderful experience! 2. If youre able to, designate a text-to-give coordinator or a coordinating team (depending on the size of your nonprofit and the program). Adapted annual Walk-a-thon to a Virtual Walk-a-thon. 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). B. Youll also have a list of potential corporate funders for your next capital campaign. Supporters will be able to donate online by giving a flat donation (e.g. 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 . Donorboxs text-to-give was built keeping in mind the ease of use for nonprofits and more importantly, the donors. PPTX. 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. BASIS Chandler Primary held a Math-a-thon to raise funds for their Annual Teacher Fund. After theyve given, donors should automatically receive a confirmation email in their inbox that includes a, Nonprofits receive donations either directly from online. Also, share your text-to-give information in your direct mail outreach or your e-newsletters. The customized shortcode that your donors will use to donate and the numbers they text it to should be short and easy to remember. Display a thermometer showing donors how close you are to meeting your fundraising goals to encourage even more giving! Be sure to clearly explain your fundraiser's purpose, impact, and mode of operation, as well as how your students will benefit from participating. Instead of gathering together physically, supporters gather online, using technology like live-streaming, video, and peer-to-peer fundraising software. This is another a-thon fundraiser that fosters a giving spirit and sense of duty within the larger community. Nonprofit organizations will generally collect donors names, phone numbers, email addresses, and billing addresses. Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. Everything was very easy to navigate. Work with a vendor who offers plenty of options, so you can provide your donors with the most flexible and convenient donation experience. Wilson High School students took a page out of Penn State's playbook and danced to help fight childhood cancer. Click Home and then Create a Write-athon from your home page. Reading keeps our kids' brains engaged and active so they can return back to school ready to learn again! After their books are done, kids can feel frustrated that they cant find more. You will also have a rough idea about how many kids will be willing to participate and how much funds you may raise. 1. Using social media, email, texting, and all of the resources of the world wide web, peer-to-peer fundraisers give your donors the chance to raise money on your behalf. Your first (and most important) step is to head to the Read-A-Thon platform and create your free account. So spreading the word about your online fundraiser to the student body should be one of your greatest concerns. Even the youngest students can easily join your Read-A-Thon campaign with just a few simple clicks, all while furthering their own education. Then create your crowdfunding page. Edit Hit a thon fundraiser template. While this sounds like matching gifts are exclusive to nonprofits, there are actually many companies that match gifts for schools! Almost everyone owns and uses a smartphone. Text donors are most likely to be between 49 and 59 years old, female, married, and college graduates. Create as many unique text codes as needed for all your campaigns, events and more. Encourage your child to get creative with his or her letters! Your read-a-thon is finished and kids and parents helped you fundraise. You must also check how each fundraising campaign is doing. Yes. The goal remains to give each business at least $2,000. Thank You Messages for Fundraisers. Soon enough, you'll be making a profit while also encouraging school pride across your local community. Fill out the form. Time to set-up your Read-A-Thon! If you decide to plan this event yourself, here are some tips . This has been used to help provide funding for fun events such as the end of . All donations from all pages will go to your original campaign account. A virtual gala gives your supporters an excuse to dress up (at least from the waist up), give big, and shop for a good cause with an online auction. One of the biggest advantages of text-to-give campaigns is that they can bring in a lot of new donors.