Event Fundraising Guide

Event fundraising gives schools, teams and youth organizations a way to raise money while bringing supporters together around a shared mission. A successful fundraising event starts with a clear, mission-linked financial goal, an event that matches parent, student, athlete, and volunteer capacity, and fundraising technology that keeps costs manageable. GoPledge, for example, offers schools and organizations a 0% platform fee.

Ready to make your next fundraiser easier to manage? Get started with GoPledge to create a customized fundraising page, simplify giving, and keep your community engaged from kickoff to the finish line.

10-Step Fundraising Event Plan

A successful event fundraiser starts with a clear goal and a simple way to get people involved. These 10 steps can help you launch your campaign, reach more supporters, keep participants motivated and track your progress toward your fundraising goal:

1. Set Your Fundraising Goal
   Decide how much you want to raise and what the funds will support.
2. Choose Flat Donations, Per-Unit Pledges or Both
   Supporters can make a flat donation or pledge an amount based on a participant’s results, depending on the type of fundraiser.
3. Choose Your Fundraiser
   You can simply raise money toward your goal or tie your fundraiser to an activity such as a fun run, walk-a-thon, read-a-thon, dance-a-thon or another “a-thon” fundraiser.
4. Create Your Fundraising Page
   Give supporters a place to learn about your fundraiser, see your goal and make a donation or pledge.
5. Invite Participants
   Students, athletes and other participants can join the fundraiser and have their own individual donation pages.
6. Have Participants Share Their Pages
   Participants can share their individual fundraising links with friends and family to reach more supporters.
7. Promote Your Fundraiser
   Share the fundraiser through your school, team or organization and encourage participants to continue reaching out to their networks.
8. Track Fundraising Progress
   Follow donations and pledges as they come in and see how your fundraiser is progressing toward its goal.
9. Keep Participants Engaged
   Use real-time leaderboards, campaign tracking and reminders to help maintain momentum throughout the fundraiser.
10. Celebrate Your Results
    Share what your school, team or organization accomplished and thank the participants and supporters who helped you reach your goal.

Choose the Right Event Type

The best fundraising event ideas are easy for your group to participate in and easy for supporters to get behind. Fun runs, walk-a-thons, jog-a-thons, read-a-thons, dance-a-thons and lift-a-thons can all give participants an active role in reaching your fundraising goal. Active events such as fun runs and walk-a-thons can let supporters pledge per lap or mile. GoPledge makes this easy by supporting both flat donations and per-unit pledges, whether supporters want to make a one-time contribution or pledge based on a participant’s results. For per-unit pledges, GoPledge automatically calculates the donation amount as results are added.

Keep Event Costs Low and Focus on Fundraising

Hosting a fun run, walk-a-thon or other “a-thon” at your school or organization can help keep costs manageable by using space and resources already available to you. Any budget you do need can go toward the details that bring the fundraiser together, such as signs and banners, printed materials, activity supplies or other promotional items that help build awareness and participation.

Promotion can also begin well before the activity takes place. Participants can share their GoPledge donation pages with friends and family online, helping spread the word and start raising money ahead of the event. With no platform fee, GoPledge provides a free way to support that online outreach alongside your other promotional efforts.

Design a Donor-Friendly Event Page

Make giving easy with a mobile-friendly page that clearly explains your mission. QR codes, participant pages, and peer-to-peer sharing can expand reach beyond event attendees.

GoPledge provides customizable fundraiser pages, participant profiles and shareable links, per-unit and one-time giving, real-time leaderboards, analytics, and scheduled email reminders.