How One High School Lift-A-Thon Raised Over $17,000 (and the Bar) for Their Fundraising

Summary:

• Events like high school Lift-A-Thons can raise thousands of dollars for sports teams with next to no setup or overhead costs required.
• One school football team in Pleasanton, CA raised over $176,000 in a single two-week Lift-A-Thon—enough to wipe out the debt they owed their school district and provide them with thousands in discretionary funds as well.
• Some organizations that help schools fundraise can take huge cuts of the money raised, which leaves students with fewer opportunities and hurts donor trust. FutureFund provides a viable alternative by being 100% free for schools.
• Schools that work with FutureFund also get access to a dedicated account manager and additional resources that make it easy to plan and launch fundraisers suited to their unique needs and goals.

A 17-year-old high school football player lays down on a bench in the weight room. His teammates gather around him. The boy shares a moment of eye contact with his spotter who says “Okay—let’s do this.”

Seconds later, the spectators erupt into cheers.

This 17-year-old has just bench-pressed 335 pounds—but over the past two weeks, he and his friends have also raised over $17,000 for their high school football team. That money will be enough to save the team, which has spent the last few years deeply in debt to their school district in Pleasanton, CA.

The only way to show the emotions in the room is for you to see it for yourself:

Keep reading to learn how using FutureFund’s free fundraising platform for K-12 schools made it all possible.

Funding Challenges for School Extracurriculars

In Pleasanton and many other districts throughout the United States, high school athletics receive zero public funding. Jerseys, buses, equipment, and other must-haves for school sports are all parent-funded. For relatively expensive sports like football, this presents serious financial challenges.

The team in our story is a perfect example—they were in debt to the school district by $11,000. Booster clubs had been helping by floating the team for the past several years, but they simply couldn’t fundraise enough money. They needed help.

FutureFund vs. Other Options

There are lots of different ways for schools to fundraise, but not all of them are equally effective. Even popular options like working with a fun-run company can deliver underwhelming results once their costs are accounted for.

I recently spoke with a Title I school in Texas that raised over $40,000 from a fun run—but only received $15,000 after paying fees to the company that they hired to help organize the event.

This doesn’t just make the fundraiser itself less effective—it can also hamstring future efforts. If parents knew half the money they gave was going to vendors, would schools ever be able to raise money from them again? Probably not.

When I asked how this made them feel, one PTA member was blunt. “How could this company have taken $25,000 from a Title I school?” they wanted to know. “What’s wrong with them?”

They voted unanimously to use FutureFund for their next fundraiser this fall.

Why a Lift-A-Thon?

Once the school outlined their challenges to us, we proposed a 2-week Lift-A-Thon fundraiser. A-Thons are a type of pledge campaign where students sign up to participate in an event and then collect pledges from friends and family members who want to support their efforts.

There were a few reasons why this type of event stood out as a promising option:

• Safety: A Lift-A-Thon takes place in the school gym, which is easy to supervise. The students also don’t have to do anything unsafe like go door-to-door and ask strangers to give them money—they just seek donations from friends and family.
• Low-Cost: All the equipment you need for a Lift-A-Thon is already in the gym, so you can spend next to nothing on your setup.
• Easy to Schedule: Lift-A-Thons can take place during regular gym time for the team—there’s no need to reschedule classes or practices to find time for them.
• Team-Building Potential: Most A-Thons promote school spirit by bringing the community together to support the different participants—but Lift-A-Thons are particularly good for this because participants are trying to reach their personal best instead of competing directly with each other.

Getting Our Pleasanton Lift-A-Thon Off the Ground

All of this meant that there was almost nothing needed to prepare for the event. We just created the campaign, then sent out a link via FutureFund encouraging players to sign up and invite five people each.

104 players signed up.

The format of the event was simple: the participants met in the weight room during their regularly scheduled gym time and took turns maxing out their bench press to see what they could do.

Critically, they weren’t competing with each other—they were trying to set new records for themselves. The school didn’t even need to offer prizes, because the chance for each participant to achieve a new permanent record was motivation enough.

Results from the Lift-A-Thon

In the end, not only did the team raise more than $17,000 from pledges, but money is also still coming in via a donation campaign we set up in FutureFund to run alongside the event. That was enough to pay off the $11,000 owed by the football team and give them over $6,000 in discretionary funds as well.

Better yet, other doors have opened since the team isn’t in debt anymore. For example, they’re now able to apply for grants they would have been disqualified from when they were still in the red, which gives them another avenue for raising the money they’ll need in the future.

Benefits Beyond Money

People think fundraising is all about money, but this event was also about community. What started as a fundraiser ended up as one of the best examples of leadership and team bonding we’ve ever seen.

The students in that weight room spent the entire event cheering each other on, fighting for each other, and wishing each other success no matter how much they were lifting. The energy was palpable.

We literally saw people growing up in the room that day as they learned the value of supporting and encouraging each other. Take it from the school’s Athletic Director, who participated as well and benched a cool 275 lbs:

“What a fantastic fundraiser. Those kids were so fired up. Amazing team bonding. The football energy is through the roof. I saw kids become leaders in there. Great stuff!”

The Future of School Fundraising

So many opportunities have come from this event and others like it—and the best part is, all the money they raise is available in the community already.

The moral of the story is this: the money your school needs exists, and it’s closer to hand than you probably think. All you need to do is make sure you have a plan and the right support to help you raise it.

Cutting out the overhead associated with other fundraising methods is a huge part of our mission at FutureFund. When we help schools keep more of what they raise, that directly translates into better outcomes for students.

The other main part of our mandate is to make fundraising a community event again. At the end of the day, it’s not the money the kids are excited about—it’s the activity at the center of it.

There’s no reason not to have these types of fundraisers—they cost next to nothing, don’t use extra time, and can be incredibly successful. And when you use FutureFund, they’re easy! Get started today for free, and learn more about how we can help plan your next fundraising event to be a success.