School jog-a-thons are more popular than ever. With the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations for practicing social distancing, schools need to rethink how they can host successful and safe fundraisers. A jog-a-thon is one of the best school fundraisers that can be virtual using the right software, management, and other social-distancing solutions.
WHAT IS A JOG-A-THON?
Jog-a-thons are fundraising events where participants set a fundraising goal to jog or walk a certain number of laps around a predetermined distance in exchange for a donation per lap or a fixed donation amount.
JOG-A-THONS ARE SUCCESSFUL AND EASY FUNDRAISERS
A jog-a-thon satisfies the unique needs of both donors and fundraisers, and here is why:
- Accessibility to diverse audiences, both the young and the elderly.
- Do not require expertise.
- Demand minimal event planning with the right fundraising software management tool.
- Attract faithful supporters and new donors.
- Are easy to expand on. Since most fundraising events are multi-faceted, jog-a-thons are ideal fundraisers that can be supplemented with a sponsored health fair, live music, great food, family-friendly activities, or a raffle to raise more dollars.
JOG-A-THON CHALLENGES
The main challenges associated with hosting a school jog-a-thon include:
- Overall event coordination.
- Tracking each participant’s laps to correctly bill sponsors per lap.
While social distancing and virtual schooling now offer additional challenges, they are hardly insurmountable.
HOW TO OVERCOME JOG-A-THON CHALLENGES:
Let’s say you’ve decided to host a jog-a-thon for your elementary school. Now, imagine 100 cute, short, tall, funny, loud, friendly, maybe even cranky kids, grades 3-5, jogging around in laps together to raise money for chrome books and other school supplies. As an event planner, some of the questions you should be asking yourself to host a successful jog-a-thon for these tiny humans include:
- What is my budget for the event?
- What is my fundraising goal?
Now, let’s say you have a gross fundraising goal of $25,000. To meet this fundraising goal, you will need each tiny human to average at least ten laps and multiply that by an average of 5 donors per child, at $5 per lap. By this logic, your fundraising goal of $25,000 is within reach, but there are many other event details to consider!
For example:
- How am I going to track each lap per each participant?
- How will I bill each sponsor for each lap?
- When and how often will I
- What peer-to-peer fundraising platform should I use to communicate with parents, family, and friends about participating?
- What incentives should I offer each child to jog as many laps as possible? How can I track what I have promised?
- Who will donate water and healthy snacks for the event day?
- What rules should I enforce for participation?
- Who will coordinate paramedics or police presence?
- Where will the event take place?
- Who will be our event spokesperson?
While some of these questions may still apply for a virtual COVID safe event, a successful jog-a-thon requires excellent communication, tracking, and coordination. Blue Sky Collaborative’s SWEET! peer-to-peer fundraising platform can help!
RUN A SUCCESSFUL VIRTUAL SCHOOL JOG-A-THON WITH SWEET!
SWEET! is the culmination of decades of research and client feedback. It offers:
- Classroom and student fundraising pages.
- User-friendly forms that are 100% configurable to your needs.
- Custom communication tools.
- Branding and design that is an extension of your school website.
- Downloadable reports to make it easy to track and share results.
- Economic and competitive pricing.
To learn more about how we can help, visit our website www.blueskycollaborative.com or call us at (p) (800) 330-4109 ext. 803.