July 13, 2021

Promote Student Literacy with a Read-a-Thon Fundraiser

Here are some tips for hosting a successful read-a-thon fundraiser.

read a thon fundraiser

There are great benefits of promoting student literacy for all ages. Reading helps students build vocabulary, increase creativity, and form background knowledge. It is important to begin reading at an early age and is something that most parents would agree on wanting their kids to enjoy as an activity. Since student literacy and reading are so imperative, why not combine those efforts with fundraising to double the benefits. If this is something that interests you and your organization, consider hosting a read-a-thon fundraiser for your school, group, or library.

What is a read-a-thon fundraiser? This is an event where you can raise money while getting students excited about reading. Schools will make money by having kids get pledges from friends, family, and peers for completing a certain amount of reading.

How to Host a Read-a-Thon Fundraiser

To begin organizing a read-a-thon fundraiser, you should review your options with your organization. You can either use a read-a-thon company to help set up and execute your fundraiser, like this one, or choose to organize this event yourself.

If you decide to plan this event yourself, here are some tips for hosting a successful read-a-thon fundraiser.

  1. Create pledge forms: To begin, each participating student should have a pledge form to collect the names of their sponsors, sponsor contact information, and amount pledged from sponsor per book or hour completed.
  2. Provide reading trackers: Create and provide reading trackers for students to log their minutes and books completed. Make sure parents or teachers are involved to sign off on all hours completed.
  3. Plan time period: Since students will be tasked to read as much as they can during a certain amount of time, work with teachers and administration to decide on a time period that won’t interrupt their schoolwork. Instead of teachers requiring class reading during this time, encourage them to let students use that time towards their read-a-thon efforts.
  4. Communicate: When you’ve selected the time period that your read-a-thon fundraiser will take place, send out flyers or other forms of communications to families. Be sure to give them enough time to gather together books and reading material and send out reminders to help them remember the event!
  5. Create incentives: While the idea of a challenge is fun for students to participate in, including incentives for reading a certain amount will create even more excitement. Examples of this can include purchasing books for readers who hit a specific reading milestone or rewarding the student with the most hours logged with a fun prize.
  6. Make it a friendly competition: By tracking the progress of each reader, they will be able to visually see their efforts and how they are contributing to the overall fundraiser goal. Create a friendly competition by showing how each student is stacking up against each other.

Read-a-thon fundraisers are a great way to kick off the school year or can be hosted during any part of the year to encourage students to continue enjoying reading. Many teachers also like to use read-a-thons during seasonal breaks to keep students engaged in reading. For even more tips on running a school read-a-thon, take a look at this article. 

To learn how to create a reading culture for independent literacy, click here. To host a Chipotle fundraiser in conjunction with your Read-a-thon, apply here.

For more tips on fundraising for schools, check out the following blog posts: