Boost Read-Athon Donations Through Classroom Participation

Planning a School Read-Athon? Don’t Forget About Your Teachers!

When planning a school fundraiser, we often focus on the students, parents, and donors—but there’s another group that can make a big difference for your event: your teachers! Teachers have a unique influence on students, and their involvement can significantly drive donations and participation in your Read-Athon fundraiser. Let’s explore why teachers love Read-Athons and how you can involve them to maximize your fundraising success!

Why Teachers Love Read-Athons

Teachers naturally gravitate toward activities that enhance student learning, and Read-Athons are a perfect match. These fundraisers combine literacy promotion with effective fundraising, making them a favorite among educators. Here’s why teachers love Read-Athons—and why administrators should, too.

(Tip: These points are great to have in hand when getting admin approval for your event!)

1. An Educational Activity They Can Get Behind

Teachers care deeply about their students’ academic growth. Unlike fundraisers that involve selling candy or gift wrap, a Read-Athon is centered on improving literacy—a foundational skill that impacts every subject.

• The Need: Reading scores have been on a decline since COVID, with educators nationwide seeking ways to boost literacy.
• The Impact: Read-Athons promote a school-wide focus on reading, giving teachers a reason to talk about its importance every day.

Read-Athons create excitement around books, encouraging students to read more while helping schools raise much-needed funds. It’s a win-win.

2. Easy Integration Into the Classroom

Teachers are busy, and they appreciate fundraisers that fit naturally into their lesson plans without adding extra work. Read-Athons do just that:

• Storytime: Reading aloud to the class? Those reading minutes count!
• Independent Reading: Silent reading time can be logged toward classroom totals.
• Group Activities: Reading circles and book discussions contribute to the overall reading goals.

3. Motivating Students With Fun Rewards

Teachers love watching their students set and achieve goals. Read-Athons make it easy to incentivize both reading and donations!

Here are a few ways teachers can encourage participation:

• Daily Shout-Outs: Teachers can highlight students who hit their reading or donation goals.
• Classroom Rivalries: A little competition between classrooms can ignite a fun, goal-driven environment. The Classroom Leaderboard on FundHub makes this easy to track in real-time!
• Reward Variety: From extra recess to a pizza party or certificates, teachers can help celebrate milestones big and small.

How to Boost Donations Through Classroom Participation

Teaming up with Get Movin’ Fundraising makes it simple for teachers to actively participate in a Read-Athon. Our platform includes teacher dashboards designed to make their participation easy and impactful. With FundHub, teachers can:

• Track reading minutes for their entire classroom or individual students.
• Monitor progress toward classroom donation goals.
• Celebrate successes with students in real-time, creating excitement and motivation as they work together to become top of the Classroom Leaderboard!

These tools empower teachers to stay engaged and drive student participation. Below are specific ways that the PTO/A can help teachers stay up-to-date and involved in your school Read-Athon!

1. Host a Read-Athon Guest Speaker Series

Invite teachers to bring their favorite children’s books to life. Not only does this build excitement, but it also promotes a love of reading across the school. Here’s how:

• Morning Announcements: Kick off the day with a teacher reading a chapter or excerpt from a beloved book.
• Assembly Readings: Incorporate live reading sessions into a kickoff assembly or event day.
• Virtual Storytime: Host online readings via Facebook Live to engage families and creating a special experience after school hours.

Pro Tip: Pair readings with fundraiser updates. For example, after a chapter reading, announce the top classroom for reading minutes or donations.

2. Recognize and Promote Achievements

Teachers love celebrating their students, and the PTO can make it even better by supporting them with fun tools and competitions. One great idea? Track social shares and turn them into a class-wide challenge!

• Run Reports: Use tools like FundHub to see how many parents are sharing student webpages for each class.
• Create a Class Competition: Share the results with teachers and challenge classrooms to see who can get the most shares.
• Reward the Winners: Celebrate the top class with a fun prize like a pizza party, extra recess, or a raffle reward.

This simple addition keeps parents involved, teachers excited, and students motivated. Plus, it’s an easy way to boost donations!

3. Create Teacher Incentives

Teachers love a little recognition, too! Adding fun incentives for teachers can keep them motivated and excited to rally their classrooms. The PTO/A can set up simple rewards to show appreciation for their hard work.

• Top Classroom Teacher Prize: Offer a gift card, lunch delivery, or even a special coffee run for the teacher whose class logs the most reading minutes or raises the most donations.
• Team Effort Reward: Celebrate all participating teachers with a group reward, like a casual lunch or treat day, if the school hits its overall goal.
• Fun Challenges: Encourage teachers to take on challenges for their classes, like dressing up as a character from a book or hosting a wacky theme day if their class reaches a milestone.

These small gestures go a long way in making teachers feel valued and creating a sense of fun and camaraderie during the fundraiser!

Raise More with Teacher Engagement

Teachers are the secret ingredient to a successful Read-Athon. By offering tools like classroom webpages, social share tracking, and fun incentives, you can keep teachers and students motivated throughout your fundraiser.

Want to see all the ways FundHub makes it easy for teachers to get involved? Book a FundHub Demo today and discover how our platform can help your school raise more!

The post Teachers Love Read-Athons appeared first on Get Movin' Fundraising.

Here are some creative ways to blend learning with fundraising!

We constantly see teachers maximizing their school fundraisers by using them as learning opportunities for their students for all fields of study. By gathering together some of our favorite lesson plan ideas, we hope you will also be encouraged to turn your fundraiser into a learning opportunity at your school!

1. 50 State Geography Challenge

Using our online fundraising system,FundHub, you can access a donation map for your school to see where donations are coming from in real-time!

As donations come in from different states, you can see them in real time as the states turn blue on your map. Use this fun feature to do a 50 state challenge and encourage students to get donations from every state in the USA. As each state is marked off, have a special announcement with a fun fact for that state. At the end of the fundraising period, have a quiz for the students to try and remember all of the 50 facts. The students with the most points win an extra incentive!

Check out the principal from Homestead Elementary who shaved his head as a reward for students having gathered donations from all 50 states! 

2. % Math Lesson With Donations

Teachers have their own login for FundHub and can do even more with their classroom fundraising webpages. We often see teachers using all of the numbers and percentages available on their page as an opportunity to teach about math equations.

Using these real-life numbers, you can teach students:

• The basic principle of percentages – they are always out of 100%!
• How to divide whole numbers to get a decimal, then convert it to a percentage
• How to convert percentages to equivalent decimals and fractions
• The dollar amount of donations they need to bring in to reach a percentage goal (how much until we hit 25%??)

3. Classifying Colors With Your Color Run

Hosting a Color Run this year? Use this colorful fundraiser as an opportunity to teach complimentary, contrasting, and classification of colors! Team up with your school art teacher(s) and have fun lesson plans all about color – this can be made super simple for your preschoolers and more advanced as you progress through the grades.

• Assign each grade a color and create an interactive lesson on color with the kids wearing their grade’s color to class or a special art workshop
• “Mix” colors by having kids from different grades team up – they have to name what their mixed color would be. Go even further by having them form a group with their complementary or contrasting color shade(s).
• Teach about warm and cool colors plus why warm/cool colors or analogous colors work so well together.

4. Cardio Fitness Lesson Plan

Perfect for your Jog-Athon, Walk-Athon, Fun Run, or Fit-Athon! Connect with your health teacher and gym teacher/coach to create some lessons surrounding the ideas of health and wellness.

• Show students how to design a cardiovascular fitness program and encourage them to implement it in their daily lives.
• Teach students how meeting step goals can equate to healthy hearts – perfect if you are using pedometers as part of your incentive program.
• Have students create a “training schedule” to help them prepare for running or walking on event day.
• Cultivate interest in cardio by showing a video of an athletic contest, such as Usain Bolt bolting his way to victory in the 2016 Olympics. Then, encourage students to make their own athletic videos and display them on their Student Fundraising Webpages!

5. History of Dance for Your Dance-Athon

Everyone loves a Dance-Athon! Use this fundraiser to teach students about the history of different types of dance and incorporate these fun lessons into your kick-off assembly by having your parent group perform some dance, bringing in a professional teacher, or leading your school in some groovy moves.

You could also team up with your history/social studies teachers to create a lesson plan that connects culture and dance. Kids can get into groups to research and make presentations on folk dances from different cultures and time periods.

6. Thermometer Subtraction/Addition

There’s nothing more simple and to the point than the classic thermometer to track your fundraising progress. It’s a clear illustration for all ages and quickly communicates where you are on your fundraising journey. Which is why we still see many schools creating a large thermometer to display on their PTO/PTA bulletin board to display their fundraising progress. And, with FundHub, there’s a visual meter right on every student, class, and school webpage!

Use this fun illustration of your progress to help teach students the basics of subtraction and addition. Students can get their own printed out thermometers and see how much they need to bring in for donations to reach a quarter, half, and all of their fundraising goal!

7. “Shark Tank” Style Pitch Competition

Teach persuasive skills by organizing a “Shark Tank” style pitch competition. In this engaging activity, students form teams to develop and present creative pitches for the fundraiser itself or specific items that the funds will go towards, such as new sports equipment, art supplies, or technology upgrades for the classroom.

Each team selects a project or item that the fundraiser aims to support and creates a compelling pitch, outlining the benefits, the impact on the school community, and why potential donors should contribute to this cause. This is a great idea for schools that have a debate club!

Your Next Fundraiser can be Fun, Profitable, AND Educational!

Learn more about how you can use the features in FundHub to support the educational opportunities at your school.

The post 7 Engaging Educational Fundraisers appeared first on Get Movin' Fundraising.

Promote Your Event with These Top 5 School Celebrities

Typically, we associate influencers with online celebrities, but did you know that your school has a treasure trove of influencers, too? Principals, teachers, school staff, sports coaches, and even the beloved mascot all hold the attention of students, parents, and the school community!

Harnessing their influence can be a game-changer for your school fundraiser! In this blog post, we’ll explore five types of school celebrities and how you can leverage their influence to boost your fundraising donations!

1. Principal: The School’s Leading Star

Get the top dog on board and everyone else, from staff to teachers to parents, are going to want to jump on that bandwagon! One Get Movin’ school sets a great example in which every single fundraiser the principal does something crazy if the school reaches goal – turning into a human cesar salad, an ice cream sundae, a human taco (very messy , but effective!). Everyone loves food and everyone loves to see the principal be goofy. The numbers prove how effective this is for schoolwide engagement. A close second to this, if your principal isn’t willing or able to be involved, is to loop in your mascot! More on that below.

Success Spotlight: Partin Elementary’s Amazing Race fundraiser, powered by Get Movin’s FundHub, was a hit, raising over $30,000! The highlight? The Principal and Assistant Principal became live sundaes, much to the delight of the top fundraisers!

2. Mascot: The Heart of School Spirit

Your mascot might not speak, but their presence can speak volumes. Pairing the mascot with other school influencers for promotional efforts can add a fun, memorable twist to your fundraising campaign, engaging students in a unique way.

3. Teachers: The Classroom Champions

Teachers wield incredible influence in their classrooms. By getting them involved, you can see a noticeable uptick in participation. Tools like FundHub’s Classroom Webpages empower teachers to track and boost their class’s fundraising efforts, often leading to heightened engagement and donations.

Tip: Engage teachers by integrating fundraising into classroom activities or offering a portion of the proceeds to the top-performing classes. When teachers are involved, parents are more likely to participate too!

4. School Staff: The Unsung Heroes

Your school’s staff — from the cafeteria crew to the librarians — are daily fixtures in students’ lives. Enlist these staff members in your fundraising efforts, perhaps by featuring them in fun promotional videos or having them make special announcements.

5. Gym Teachers + Coaches

Using your PE teacher or sports coach as an influencer for your fundraiser can make a big impact! Imagine them leading a warm-up before the Fun Run, getting everyone excited and energized. They can also make announcements throughout the donation period, teaching a different exercise each day for a Fit-Athon. This not only promotes physical fitness but also keeps the momentum going and engages students in a fun way!

By tapping into the roles and tools available for everyone in your school, from the principal to the mascot, your PTO/PTA can drive a united fundraising effort that goes beyond your goals. Success comes not just from the event itself, but from the whole school community coming together to support it!

Discover how every role in your school, from principal to mascot, can boost your fundraising donations and overall engagement. Learn more with a FundHub tour.

The post 5 School Influencers for Your Fundraiser! appeared first on Get Movin' Fundraising.