Success Stories

The COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of families across America to face unprecedented challenges. In addition to health and safety concerns, parent volunteers were worried about raising money for their schools. Cancelled Spring fundraising events meant schools would lack vital funding for future events, supplies, and programs when school resumed in the Fall.

When they realized their annual Jog-a-Thon would have to be postponed, PTA volunteers at Alderwood Elementary in Irvine, California acted quickly to plan a "shelter in place" fundraiser. Using PledgeStar and some simple, yet wildly successful ideas, they managed to raise over $85,000, more than their prior year's event!

In early March, PTA President Dawn Mortazavi talked with other parents in a virtual Zoom meeting as their annual Jog-a-Thon date quickly approached. "We knew that we had to postpone our Jog-a-Thon, but we didn't know what we would do without that money," she said. "In March, it was becoming clear that we weren't going to have any sort of finality for the kids, so we decided to swap the Jog-a-Thon for something else." Because PledgeStar's online fundraising system has always been “social distance” friendly, the PTA just had to change the type of event instead of figuring out another way to raise funds.

Mortazavi and other volunteers had already chosen a Lego Movie theme for the Jog-a-Thon when schools began to implement distance learning. The students were meant to jog around their field in April wearing Lego theme attire, but they knew that was no longer possible. They would need a creative idea to replace it... something that could be done safely from the kids' homes. So, the PTA board dreamed up an at-home Lego Build-a-Thon. They had no idea how it would work or whether it could raise a substantial amount of money.

On April 7, the Lego Build-a-Thon commenced in hundreds of Irvine living rooms. "We made our Owl mascot look like a Lego, bought Lego prizes, and everyone got a free T-shirt," said Mortazavi. "We had the students build creative Lego projects at home and their parents posted them on social media for friends, family, and classmates to see." Students loved the ideas of an at-home challenge that not only kept them busy, but created a feeling of community in a difficult and isolating moment.

Next year, thanks to the quick thinking PTA and PledgeStar's online fundraising system, Alderwood Elementary will have enough money to pay for their popular educational programs. With distance education looming as a possibility for the entirety of 2020, Mortazavi and other parents are trying to stay positive. "The Jog-a-Thon has always been by far our biggest fundraiser so the change made us nervous, but the kids got super excited for the Build-a-Thon. It ended up as a huge success!"

For over eleven years, principal JR West worked very hard to organize fundraisers for St. Peter’s School in Waldorf, Maryland. He put on elaborate galas, themed fun runs, family field days, and classroom Read A Thons. Planning, executing, and analyzing the success of the events has taken hours of his time, so he recently decided to simplify things. Instead of holding several events throughout the year, he cut the number of fundraisers down to two, and instead of using antiquated paper mailing campaigns for marketing, he switched to PledgeStar for online fundraising. “I saved $4,000 in postage and I can’t even calculate the man hours saved,” said West. “I just wish we would have done this sooner.”

At first, West decided to use an expensive big box company to set up his fun run online. He paid thousands of dollars for their service, but still he felt “desperate to find a more efficient way to run the events.” Recording all of the donations manually was a record keeping nightmare. It was a huge relief when West gave Pledgestar a chance for the first time.

“The best part is the tracking system that PledgeStar provides. I was getting so many phone calls every day from parents who wanted to know how much their child had raised. I thought, ‘Wait a minute, why don’t I kick that other company to the curb?’ I used PledgeStar and now I don’t get a single parent phone call.”

The administrative improvements weren't the only success West credited to PledgeStar. His initial fundraising goal was only $12,000, but with PledgeStar, St. Peter’s School raised over $62,000! Although raising 5x more was a very pleasant surprise, West also breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t have to send hundreds of thank you notes and tax receipts in the mail like he'd done in the past, because PledgeStar does that automatically.

“We’ll definitely use PledgeStar next year!” said West. “I love it so much because it reduced my work and brought in more money.”

In the spring of 2019, Portland area parents and students received dismal news from the local school district: more budget cuts and a big hit for public school funding. Thousands of community members later staged a protest in the streets of downtown Portland and many wore “Red For Ed” T-shirts to demonstrate their concern.

Fortunately for Patterson Elementary School, an ambitious mother introduced the PTO to PledgeStar’s online fundraising system. After some hesitation, Patterson PTO decided to use the system and, with PledgeStar’s help, increased their annual "Panther Dash" jog-a-thon earnings by 40% in one year!

Jessica Thorpe knew that her kids had several years left in the district and wanted to do something to improve the quality of education for them in the years to come. So, she rearranged things at work, prioritized volunteering at school, and attended her first PTO meeting at Patterson Elementary School with the hope of making even the smallest difference.

“I spent the summer researching online fundraising platforms,” said Thorpe. “I just thought to myself, ‘oh my gosh there has to be a better way.’”

Thorpe had heard of online platforms for fundraising and knew that Patterson has used traditional methods in the past. She thought that switching to an online platform might help the school earn more money to pay for the programs that the district would no longer cover.

Although Thorpe was fairly confident that online fundraising would be the best option for her school, others weren’t so sure. She proposed the idea to the PTO and was initially met with some skepticism. Parents were unsure about whether the online route was practical, and some thought it was simply a bad idea. Fortunately, the naysayers were eventually proven wrong.

Using PledgeStar, Patterson Elementary was able to raise over $35,000 at their annual "Panther Dash" jog-a-thon - a 40% increase from 2018!

When Thorpe found PledgeStar, she compared it to the dozens of other companies that she came across on the internet. She liked the ease of use that PledgeStar offered and was very impressed with the personal support she received from the staff.

“I was so impressed,” she said. “I was really happy that PledgeStar had the data and wealth of testimonials to back up their claims.”

The jog-a-thon that Thorpe and the other PTO members organized was adapted according to PledgeStar staff suggestions. PledgeStar’s research had shown that offering flat donations in addition to per-lap pledges had the potential to bring in more money. Other small tweaks to the event proved successful and the parents were grateful for the easy-to-use system that allowed them to reach a wider audience for potential donors.

“A lot of people thanked me,” Thorpe recalled. “They told me stories of having to reach out to family members and sometimes they only got IOUs that were never paid. Online fundraising was a million times better.”

In the fall of 2019, parent volunteer and PTO Vice President Jamie Rosen wanted to simplify things. She worked hard on fundraising for her kids' school the year before and wanted a way to earn even more money for Maple Dale Elementary, all while spending less time volunteering. Surprisingly, she figured out a way to do both.

Rosen knew that there were more efficient ways to collect money from donors than the traditional cash and check system they used in the past. "We're living in a digital age," she said. Plus, the local middle school had used PledgeStar for their walk-a-thon and volunteers told Rosen that it was a very easy system to use and how much of a success their fundraiser was thanks to the online fundraising system.

Using PledgeStar's online fundraising system for the first time, Rosen and other parent volunteers helped their school raise almost double what they had earned the year before at their annual fun run event. Their total amount raised, a whopping $54,000, exceeded their goal by almost $30,000!

"We thought that using PledgeStar might help," said Rosen. "In the past, we had people turning in cash and checks and going to our PTO website if they wanted to make a credit card donation. It wasn't the easiest thing. Plus, my niece and nephew in Texas had sent me a request for PledgeStar in the past, so I knew how simple it was. The risk was so low with a small investment compared to our goal, so we thought, 'why not try it?'"

In the end, more than half of the school's donations were collected on the PledgeStar site. Rosen credits the ease of use and ability to post on social media with their huge success. She saw posts with links to the site on her Facebook and Instagram feeds and watched the money add up every week.

The Warrior Run, as they called it, was an exciting day for all five grade levels at Maple Dale. Rosen set school wide fundraising goals, each with a prize of an inflatable obstacle course the students could earn for the event. Thanks to far exceeding each goal, the students were able to earn all three courses. They took turns running over bouncy hills and weaving through inflatable race courses. The District Superintendent even made an appearance and students enjoyed seeing him slide down a giant bounce house before the day was over.

"They loved it," said Rosen. "The kindergarteners even got a little wet because of the rain, but they didn't care. It was a fun, really successful event."

Maple Dale will use the money to pay for fun programs throughout the year, including a Cultural Heritage Night, author visits, and a Family Social. The extra income was a surprise, so the PTO volunteers, along with school staff, are thrilled to have the chance to decide what to do with it.

"It was a win-win situation," said Rosen. "There was really no downside and everything went really smoothly. We will absolutely use PledgeStar next year."

After her kids returned home from summer camp in July 2019, Tobey Elementary PTO President Holly Hill saw in them something she knew her school needed: energy. The kids described their camp activities and group competitions with such enthusiasm that they inspired Hill to think bigger in her PTO leadership role. She had watched the energy and excitement drain from the school fundraisers she helped with in the past, so she looked to the summer camp ethos for a new, fun-filled way to raise money. Then, at their first meeting of the school year, Hill and her PTO colleagues decided to scratch the fall walk-a-thon that they had been holding for several years and replace it with an all-new "Slime the Staff and Grade Wars" event. Hill knew, however, that a good theme was not all that was needed to put on a great school fundraiser. She also needed a platform to make it easy to raise money and reduce the amount of work needed so she could focus more on the kids.

Hill said that after she received an email about PledgeStar from Tobey Elementary's principal, she wanted to shop around for online fundraising competitors. "We knew that the high school in the area used a different company that charged so much more for its services," Hill recounted. "PledgeStar has a cap on the amount you pay, which we liked, and it was still much, much lower than the other providers we'd seen. Plus, manually processing all the 'stuff' for a walk-a-thon is really a pain."

With the fundraising platform taken care of, Hill turned back to how to get the most enthusiasm out of the participants. "Kids love slime," Hill said, "I was thinking, what can we do to get everyone motivated?" She decided to create a simple fundraising competition between grade levels with one extra special incentive: to cover teachers in slime. It turned out that Hill was right. The fun challenge and PledgeStar were clearly the answer. Tobey Elementary raised about $9,000 at their 2018 walk-a-thon, but the 2019 Grade War brought in a whopping $20,000. And while the slime event was a new idea, 2019 was also the first year that the school used PledgeStar as a fundraising platform.

Hill also wanted to make sure that even kids who weren't able to bring in donations were excited for the competition, so instead of focusing on individual prizes for the top earners, the classrooms and grade levels competed as teams to reach their fundraising goals. Each class was challenged with raising $1,000 per room for a schoolwide goal of $14,000. Because the students ended up raising over $20,000, every classroom reaped several rewards.

Students were able to decide on indoor recess activities for a snowy state: board games, puzzles, books, and other fun additions to their classroom for days that were too cold to play outside. Additionally, funding was allocated to school events like holiday parties and parent/student events like Muffins with Mom.

Not only did each classroom get to decide on a special party or games for their rooms, but the students also got to see every one of the teachers, principal, and even their campus officer slimed at a special event on the playground to close out the successful fundraiser.

"We wanted to encourage a community and a common goal among the students," said Hill. "It was by far the best fundraiser we've ever had."

At Sherwood Charter Elementary School south of Portland, Oregon, a volunteer librarian was finally able to purchase new books for her students by organizing a PledgeStar Read A Thon.

Parent volunteer Shannon Burns has worked in the school's library for about two years when she had the idea. She was attending a PTA meeting when she heard about PledgeStar from another parent and recalled how much her school library could use money for books and supplies. As a charter school, Sherwood's library is completely donation-based, so most of the books on the shelves were used, falling apart, or outdated. Burns wanted more for her students.

She decided to plan an online Read A Thon to raise money for the library. The Read A Thon was held over two weeks, and students tracked their minutes read at home using PledgeStar’s helpful Read A Thon tools as well as collected donations from family and friends for their efforts. "It was so easy to do online," Burns said. "It's nice for parents to collect money that way, especially from grandparents and family in other states."

The Read A Thon was a great success. Burns and other parent volunteers were able to purchase about 250 new books from a warehouse and local toy store. Because students had been reading used and older books for several years, Burns had compiled a wish list based on student recommendations. After the Read A Thon, almost all of the books on the list were placed on the Sherwood library shelves. Burns said she plans to buy all of the remaining recommendations in the near future.

"The Read A Thon left us with a huge budget for next year," she said. "We can also pay for processing supplies, labels, a new bookshelf, and a rounder for the library." In the past, Burns had visited a Scholastic Books warehouse to pick up books that she purchased herself. But there was no way she would be able to fund everything the students wanted and needed to enjoy reading as much as she did. She knew the Read A Thon was needed to make that happen.

Next year, Burns plans to keep her position as librarian at Sherwood and will use PledgeStar for her 2020 Read A Thon.

On Melrose Avenue in the heart of Los Angeles, California, a unique school with a diverse population managed to do something extraordinary at its annual jog-a-thon this year.

In February of 2019, the Melrose Elementary Stars, as they are called, raised over $68,000 at their jog-a-thon, more than doubling their earnings from 2017. The school had recently adopted PledgeStar as their online platform for fundraising, and PTO volunteers quickly figured out the best way to use PledgeStar to best meet their school's unique needs.

Melrose Elementary is located on a famous street in Los Angeles, surrounded by million dollar homes and famous landmarks in the community. Like much of Los Angeles, the population is diverse, and the school is identified as a "magnet," meaning that it is designed with unique programs and classes meant to attract students from all across LA. And, because over half of the student body comes from low income families, fundraising at the school can be a challenge.

PTO volunteer Katie Weber said that in the past, jog-a-thon fundraising had been competitively focused on which students could bring in the most money, but that this didn't sit right with her or other parent volunteers. "We felt that was a little too exclusionary and we wanted to be able to include more students," she said. So, Weber and her PTO partners devised a new strategy in which all of the students could feel included.

The 2019 jog-a-thon fundraising competitions were altered to include participation competitions. Weber divided the classes into teams and challenged them to get as many students as they could to sign up on PledgeStar, and any small donation could put them on the map.

"We wanted to spread out the incentives so it would reduce competition," said Weber. "Even a donation of $5 counted with the new setup. Maybe with the other way we would see a larger average donation, but with the new structure we were able to encourage more students to participate." Students were no longer discouraged if they felt their donors would not donate big bucks, and with the PledgeStar system, the more students participating and sending out at least 10 requests is what makes the difference.

Weber's strategy proved successful. Students in every class logged onto PledgeStar to collect donations, and any donation was counted toward class competitions. With close to $70,000, the school will fund its unique programs like ballroom dancing and Garden Rangers, furthering its goal to attract students in the future.

"Everyone had great things to say about PledgeStar," Weber said. "It's super easy to use and it's very user friendly, which is essential for our school."

Weber said that Melrose Elementary will use PledgeStar next year for its jog-a-thon. As the school continues to grow and attract new students, the PTO will adapt to serve the student body the best way possible, which was an undoubtedly successful this year.

South Oceanside Elementary school, or South O', as the locals call it, brought in a record-breaking $22,000 this year at their annual jog-a-thon, surpassing last year's dollar amount by $8,000 and increasing their 2017 average by almost seven times!

Before the addition of PledgeStar's online fundraising platform, the jog-a-thon at South O' used to bring in about $3,000 every year using traditional donation request methods like going door to door and calling relatives to ask for sponsorships. Two years ago, however, PTO volunteers decided to move the fundraising to an online platform. They thought their earnings would increase at least a little, but didn't have high expectations because South O is a Title I School, where over 56% of the population qualifies for free and reduced lunch. The results of the jog-a-thon after including PledgeStar went above and beyond their expectations.

"It was like night and day," said PTO volunteer Sara Johnson. "We thought it was going to be hard to use. Some people were nervous, but it was a lot easier than we expected and we earned more than we thought was possible. It was incredibly successful."

When Johnson and the other PTO members saw that their first year using PledgeStar had quadrupled the jog-a-thon's earnings, they set their bar even higher for 2019. She said that there were a few people who were doubtful that the school would ever be able to raise more than $20,000, especially since over half of the families in the school were low-income. They were wrong. After raising more than $22,000 this year, Johnson said that the PTO volunteers are aiming even higher in 2020. "We hope to earn over $25,000" she said, "We're hoping to continue to see this grow and we feel confident that it can."

Johnson and a handful of PTO volunteers used incentives and an exciting superhero theme to get the kids excited to participate online. When students signed up on PledgeStar, they received rewards like gift cards, sweatshirts, or a free yearbook. Each class had a team color and the students were encouraged to dress as superheroes on the day of the event. "We wanted to make it fun for the kids, so we had music, prizes, and bubbles at the jog-a-thon," Johnson said. "Two volunteers dressed up as superheroes and ran with the kids, and prizes had a superhero theme."

Johnson said that PledgeStar's customer service is one of the reasons she plans to use the service again next year. "Even the smallest issue had a fast response time. It was user friendly and easy to navigate from year one." If anyone is hesitating to use PledgeStar, she added, "Just go for it!" She is hopeful that with PledgeStar, next year can be an even more successful event than ever before.

Every year since they began using PledgeStar, students at Sunset View Elementary school in Point Loma, California, have seen their earnings increase.

The 2019 annual jog-a-thon at Sunset View raised more money than students, teachers, and parents volunteers expected thanks to PledgeStar and several dedicated volunteers. The event had historically brought in about $40,000 before PledgeStar was introduced as an online fundraising platform. In their first year, the amount doubled and its second year earnings totaled about $90,000.

"We didn't change much else," said parent volunteer Jill Wyatt. "PledgeStar really helped us reach a broader audience of parents, family, and friends."

Wyatt also attributed much of this success to the number of volunteers that the school had to make events happen. Several parents organized donations for student incentives. One family even owned a graphic design company and offered to design a t-shirt logo for event, which was "Live Aloha" theme. Volunteers passed out floral leis, sunglasses, and other Hawaiian theme prizes when students met their fundraising goals.

Organizing and executing the Sunset View jog-a-thon was no small feat. The event ran throughout the entire school day, and jogging around the track was just a small part of the affair. Parent volunteers coordinated a karate instructor, lacrosse games, a gymnastics coach, and other fun activities to get the kids excited to raise money for the school. "It was a fun one for the kids to get behind," said Wyatt. "It's hands down the most fun day of the year."

The volunteers at Sunset View didn't stop at creating fun events for the kids. Their non-profit foundation, KidsFirst at Sunset View, also pays for enrichment classes like art, music, and cultural experiences like Spanish lessons. Once a month, students rotate through the enrichment classes while teachers hold a meeting day to align their curriculum and work together. KidsFirst has also paid to hire an additional teacher when class sizes are too big, as well as for classroom supplies and campus beautification projects.

"Others want to know how we do it." Wyatt said when asked about the multiple programs the foundation funds at Sunset View. "PledgeStar is the first thing we mention." Wyatt also said that Sunset View definitely plans to use PledgeStar next year.

When Rachel Hatch joined Urban Discovery Academy in 2017, she had ambitious plans for the big city charter school that started as a small gathering of families and grew into a diverse institution in the heart of San Diego.

Hatch knew that charter schools only receive about 72 cents for every dollar a public school receives from the state, and fundraising at Urban Discovery Academy in its early years had been challenging. Its first jog-a-thon brought in about $4,000, which was hardly worth the effort it demanded, but Hatch recognized that the event had potential for becoming a major source of revenue for the school. She had seen PledgeStar used at her own child’s school, and knew that an online platform, with access to social media networking, was definitely the way to go.

It turned out that Hatch was right. After using PledgeStar for the first time, UDA increased its earnings by about five times, bringing in a whopping $20,000 in 2018 and again in 2019. What started as a fun event to bring in a little extra money for the school turned into one of the school’s major fundraising events for the entire year!

“It was incredibly simple,” Hatch said, “We went from expecting close to nothing to knocking the socks off the foundation. It really blew the doors off for this event and I see the possibility of potentially doubling this amount.”

After the 2019 jog-a-thon, Hatch saw one key aspect of the event that she believed could unlock the doors to success in the next few years. Only about 50% of the school population registered on PledgeStar in 2019 and Hatch knew that getting students to register on the platform was the first step to accessing donations from their friends and family. Next year, Hatch hopes to campaign to get at least 80% of the students using PledgeStar for the jog-a-thon. She is confident that encouraging community participation is the best way to get families involved in the fundraising process.

“We really want the parents to feel invested in their children instead of just asking them to throw money at the foundation,” Hatch said. “Getting grandma, grandpa, aunts, and uncles to donate small amounts feels different to the parents. They know that the money is going directly to their child rather than some other company thanks to PledgeStar’s unbelievably low fee. We want to work on creating those experiences for them, and PledgeStar is one way we can do that.”

Hatch and other school staff plan to rev up their jog-a-thon campaign for 2020. Their ideas range from inviting Storm Troopers to visit students at the jog-a-thon to having the students dress in costume on the day of the event to get them excited and motivated to support the school. With a goal of doubling their $20,000 average, programs like engineering, art, PE, theater, and their transitional kindergarten classes will continue to be funded with the community’s help. Using social media and online platforms like PledgeStar, Hatch said, “is able to make great things happen. We’re undertaking a big endeavor in downtown San Diego and PledgeStar is helping us every step of the way.”