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Fresh Ideas for Your School Read-Athon! 5 Ways to Bring in Big donations with the perfect indoor event

A Read-Athon is a great way to bring in BIG donations during the winter months! Kids can participate indoors, at home, with family, or even online with these fresh ideas to shake up your school event!

The great thing about a Read-Athon is all of the versatility it allows your school. Students can participate in class during some quiet reading time, at home with family reading activities, in the library with a special reading guest or local author, or even online with live readings from their teacher. All reading minutes (or chapters or books) can easily be logged and tracked online using our Activity Counter!

The #1 Tool for Your School Read-Athon:

Want to shake up your Read-Athon this year? Check out these fresh ideas from real schools!

#1 Set Reading and Donation Goals for Students with Exciting Incentives

It's important to incentivize both reading and raising donations.

Make goals for both and easily keep track of student participation using our Online Activity Counter (for tracking individual reading minutes) and custom reporting system (real-time donation numbers for each student!).

Your incentives should speak to the theme of reading and include some fun experiences that students can only win through participating in your event (opposed to items that they can just ask their parents to buy).

Here are some favorite Read-Athon Incentive Ideas:

  • Principal dresses up as a well-known book character (Harry Potter, Chicken Little, Dr. Seuss, etc.) and reads a funny book over snacks for students who raise a certain amount.
  • Book fair coupons or special coupons to be used on library items.
  • Bookmarks and collect-them-all emoji clips.
  • Customized journals with the student name and school logo.
#2 Encourage Family Time with Take-Home Reading Kits

Create fun reading baskets that include a couple of books, hot chocolate, cookies, and a reminder on how to log into FundHub and record your reading minutes.

You can make these an incentive (every family who raises $100 gets a basket) or offer to all families for a price – the $$ goes toward the classroom goal! March is National Reading Month and this is a great way for families to take part in both your event and in the education of their children. Take it a step further and create three BIG baskets and host an auction/raffle during the final week of your event. This is a great way to get you over the finish line and meet your donation goal.

#3 Create a Virtual or In-Person Book Club

A great way to bring families together, get the community involved, and keep up momentum during your donation period! Pick a few nights over the course of your event timeline to host either in-person or virtual book clubs.

Pick a family-friendly book that will take a few weeks to get through. Make it a goal for students to read a certain amount before each book club meeting.

Also make it a goal to raise a certain amount of donations! Families, teachers, and even community supporters can take part and make donations during your book club meeting. You could also sell snacks and drinks to put more money back into your fundraiser!

#4 Host Live, Online Video Reads or Bring in a Guest Author

A great way to promote your event is to invite your principal, teachers, or the librarian to do live reads online. This brings your fundraiser into the home as families tune-in for these bedtime stories and reminds parents about participating.

You could also bring in a guest author or other local celebrity to read stories during a special assembly or for classrooms that meet their donation goals!

#5 Choosing a Fun Read-Athon Theme!

A great way to shake up your Read-Athon is to pick a unique theme for your event. This can range from Read Around the World (every minute read = 1 mile traveled!) to Baseball + Books (each "base" is a donation and reading goal!).

Here are some of our favorite Read-Athon themes:

  • Choo-Choo Read-Athon: Make two train tracks on your school bulletin board - one to mark school progress toward your overall reading goal and one for your school donation goal. Try to keep both trains moving along the track! Reach the end of the line? The school wins a huge prize!
  • Amazing Race Read-Athon: Track the progress of each grade with some healthy competition! Grades compete to win the race of raising the most donations AND getting the most reading minutes.
  • Dr. Seuss Read-Athon: Dr. Seuss's birthday is March 2nd and it's a great way to incorporate a fun theme into your event during National Reading Month. You can include a Dr. Seuss Spirit Week, a Dr. Seuss Reading Challenge with fun activities in a Bingo Style card, and even Dr. Seuss incentives (green eggs and ham with the principal, anyone??).
Bonus Idea: The Masked Reader!

Get Started With Your School Read-Athon!

We have personal fundraising coaches available to answer your questions and provide guidance for the season ahead. Don't hesitate to reach out so we can help plan your next fundraising event!

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Created with images by Africa Studio - "Cute little children reading books while sitting near color wall" • Pixel-Shot - "Cute little children reading books on color background" • .shock - "Reading time in elementary school or kindergarten, teacher reading a book to kids in elementary school or kindergaden. Selective focus " • Monkey Business - "Female infant school teacher sitting on a chair reading a book to a group of children sitting on bean bags in a comfortable corner of the classroom, elevated view, close up" • Drobot Dean - "Image of cute girl 5-6 years with long auburn hair reading interesting book being involved in education isolated over pink background"