We have used them and they were great to work with, they bring the DJ, fog machine, bubble machine.
What I didn't like about them - it takes 6 months before you get all your money and they take 25% of the gross profits (for mailings, stamps and a stamper for the bank).
You can do it youself and then all the money is yours!
I don't understand??? We have walk-a-thons all over the place here but no one uses a paid service to do them, I don't even think there is a service that does that here. What can this service do that you can't do yourselves? (and save some of the overhead in the process?) I suppose if you don't have the volunteers that it would save some people a lot of work but if you have the volunteers, save the money.
How much money can a parent group make on a walk-a-thon?? If anybody has info on this please e-mail me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I have never heard of any school around my area doing a walk-a-thon as a fundraiser, maybe it would be a good break from catalog sales!!! I am on the S. E. corner of New Mexico in case that matters for the fundraising group. Thanks!!! [img]smile.gif[/img] JoAnna
We used Walkathon Services for our walkathon last year. It was our first and only one so far. They do a good job from the assembly to the day of. They provide the copies of handouts and flyers for the entire school! You do not have to do any copying of your own. I would highly recommend (sp) using them for the entire event. Kathryn is great to work with too. It is a lot of collection work. They sent us detailed reports of collections and amounts by breakdowns... classes, and schools (we have a k-8 with two schools right next to each other) a couple of times after the event. After seeing all that we are VERY glad we let them do the collections and keep a percentage. We helped finance our library automation project this year with the proceeds.
We're in Northern Jersey, and another school in our district used them and said they were great--they have a 1/2 hour assembly to get the kids pumped up, then the day of the walk-a-thon they have a DJ who does fun stuff with the kids, and I believe has some give aways. As far as we know they've got the corner on the market around here.
We're thinking about using them for ours, but I tend to be cheap, and would rather go to straight donations (not per lap), and would be willing to handle the DJ on our own if it's going to save us the 25%. My other officers disagree because they do handle everything, but I'm having a tough time swallowing that potential 4-5,000 loss!
We are pursuing a company called Walk-A-Thon Services baased out of New Jersey and I am wondering if anyone has had any experiences with this company that they would be willing to share?
If anyone knows of any other walk-a-thon companies that would be great also.
