Athon Fundraising Platform Providers

What Is an -Athon Fundraiser?

Fun runs, jogathons, and other pledge drive “-athon” events have long been popular fundraisers for PTOs and PTAs. They create a lot of excitement and spirit at school and, in the right circumstances, they can raise thousands of dollars. They’re also super for building community spirit and creating experiences that students will remember for years afterward.

How Does an -Athon Fundraiser Work?

• These events follow a simple structure: Students are encouraged to collect donations or pledges, either as a lump sum or a specific amount for each lap or unit that’s completed.

• They can be enhanced with themes (color run, mud run, glow-in-the-dark danceathon, etc.)—basically, you can turn your -athon event into anything you want!

• There are usually fun prizes for individual students, classes, grades, or even the whole school when fundraising or participation milestones are reached. Incentives and prizes are a super effective way to keep energy levels high and motivate student participation to the max.

Benefits of Working With an -Athon Company

These kinds of events can take a tremendous amount of organization and volunteer power to pull off. That’s where companies that will organize your -athon fundraiser for you come in, making it more accessible for smaller groups and easier for groups of any size! Depending on what level of support your group needs, you can choose a full-service solution to help plan and run your event or simply take advantage of online pledge pages and other fundraising tools.

Below are a few of the most popular companies who provide these services to parent groups. Check them out to find one that's right for your group!

99Pledges

Get Movin’ Fundraising

School-A-Thon/Color-A-Thon

99Pledges

Overview
99Pledges is the leading online fundraising platform for schools, enabling thousands to raise more funds than ever before.  It’s great for events such as fun runs, read-a-thons, spell-a-thons, pledge drives, and more!  Now with $0 startup and 0% platform fees, even more money goes to the kids!

We’ll set your students up with online donation pages and manage your entire event online, making it simple for volunteers, parents, and donors. We can have you live tomorrow and be with you every step of the way through the end of the easiest and most profitable fundraiser you’ve ever done!

Features and Benefits

• 99Pledges is the only platform that allows for ZERO parent setup. Best participation ever!

• 99Pledges is the only fundraising service designed for schools with NO platform fees!

• 99Pledges helps thousands of schools have their most successful fundraisers each year!

• Nearly 100% of 99Pledges customers use our services year after year.

• Most of 99Pledges customers come from referrals from existing customers.

• 99Pledges solves the headache of fundraising through innovative technology!

• 99Pledges loves our customers and would love to help you! Give us a shout!

Pricing and Profits

99Pledges is the most profitable fundraising solution of its kind. It’s simple.

• Cash/check donations: You keep 100%. 99Pledges will track and email receipts to donors.

• Online donations: 99Pledges has NO platform fee. We do collect 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction on your behalf for Visa/MC/Amex/PayPal.

• That’s it! No other fees whatsoever. No startup fees. No minimums. No contracts. No brainer!  

More details here: http://99pledges.com/pricing

What Parent Groups Are Saying About 99Pledges

“We loved it! It was so easy and we love your platform and low cost! We loved our experience! Thank you so much!”
—Sunrise School

Get Movin’ Fundraising

Overview

Get Movin’ Fundraising provides the most comprehensive online platform for EVERY type of Athon fundraiser: Fun Run, Walk-Athon, Color Run, Fit-Athon, Glow Dance-Athon, reading pledge drive, Serve-Athon and more. FundHub, our online software, gives parents the digital tools they want and need, like email, social media, and text share. Student fundraising webpages, family sharing options plus employer match services all to help raise you more. Plus, we make your job easy with incentive trackers, donation reports, activity counters, email builders, dynamic flyers, and the volunteer organizer!

We have the affordable technology your fundraiser has been missing. With these online tools and our expert coaching, you will double or even triple what you’ve raised on your own!

Features and Benefits

• Personalized Student Fundraising Webpages! Secure, COPPA compliant, 100% mobile optimized.

• Online Parent Tools! Family Dashboard (view sibling donation progress), Family Webpages to easily share via text, email or on social.

• Engage Teachers! Teacher Dashboard full of educational features and classroom fundraising options.

• Personal Event Coaches! Get help from beginning to end with one of our fundraising experts.

• Save Time with Dynamic Flyers! 16 Ready-to-use flyers, promotional schedule, and much more.

• Real-time Donation Tracking for 100% transparency! Instant reports for the most up-to-date and accurate donation data.

• Employer Match services, Volunteer Organizer, Email Builder w/ Dynamic Flyers, Activity Counter, Incentive Tracker, and Event Toolbox

Pricing and Profits

With new enhancements, schools average keeping 95-97% of all funds raised!

• We promise the best service, with the best features and maximum profits every day!

• Keep 100% of cash/checks, yet still add them in for exact donation data and prize distribution.

• Online usage fees are applied to only online donations.

• In the end, schools pay an average 4-5% of their online donations total only.

• There are no fundraiser minimums.

• Schools double & triple their profit all the time pairing with Get Movin’ Fundraising.

• Thousands of schools nationwide return each year! Learn why when you take an online tour of FundHub.

• Never pay a credit card or swipe fee! 

What Parent Groups Are Saying About Get Movin’ Fundraising

“We had a phenomenal experience with Get Movin'! We raised much more than in previous years and they were able to accommodate any and all last-minute requests. The platform was easy to use, featured robust reporting, and was easy to customize for our needs; it was a vast improvement over our manual tracking efforts of the past. We certainly look forward to working with Get Movin' for our future fundraising needs!”
—Ambyr Valko, Fundraising Chairperson, Blanche Sims Elementary PTO, Orion, Michigan

School-A-Thon/Color-A-Thon

Overview

We Wrote the Book on Color Run Fundraisers! Throw out your boring school fundraising ideas and replace them with a colorfully good time from School-A-Thon! We offer an easy fundraising platform to help schools and communities reach their goals in a vivid and super interactive way—Color-A-Thon color runs. Schools and organizations can earn up to a 70% profit. We Make it Easy! No Upfront Fees Free Shipping No Hidden Fees!

Features and Benefits

• Bulk color dust. The more money you raise, the more color dust we send.

• Individual color packs. Participants earn color dust packs for their donations.

• Parent letter. Pre-printed Parent letters and Money Collection Envelopes are provided.

• Custom pledge site. Each participant gets their own pledge site to help raise money.

• Credit card processing. We make it easy to accept your Color-A-Thon donations online.

• Money management software. Our easy-to-use tool helps you keep track of your donations.

• Student awards program. Great incentives to motivate your students.

Pricing and Profits

NO UPFRONT COST FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION! Your group will earn 70% of the donations received if you collect $12,500 or more, 60% profit for events that collect $7500 to $12499, and 50% profit for events that collect less than $7500. Groups pay $5.00 for all T-shirts awarded/ordered during the sale.

YOU CAN MAKE MORE! Schoolathon provides an area on your group’s website where you can insert online “Banner Ads”. You can sell ad space on the website and keep 100% of the proceeds.

What Parent Groups Are Saying About School-A-Thon/Color-A-Thon

“Schoolathon and their color run was the absolute best fundraiser for our elementary school. Students were excited about the individual prizes, the color run and getting color-blasted at the end was the icing on the cake!  We are doing another Schoolathon fundraiser this year, and everyone is even more excited for this one!  It’s a fun way to raise a money for our school!”
—Kati S., Fiddlers Canyon School PTO