Getting started
Looking to start your fundraiser on Read for My School? Just follow the step below to get your read-athon ready to go when you need it.
Now that you've decided to support a read-athon for your next school fundraiser, the first thing you need to do is to create your school fundraiser account with Read for My School. There are no set up costs and only takes a few minutes to create.
Just follow the simple steps below to create your free fundraiser account.
What do I need to provide to create my read-athon account?
- Account login details - As the administrator to your read-athon, you will be asked to create an account. We support simple sign-on with Google Gmail or Facebook as well as any email address.
- Provide school details - simple school information so that we know a little bit about you as a customer.
- Provide fundraiser details - simple fundraiser information so that we know a little bit about your read-athon.
- Complete your admin profile - simple profile about you as the administrator of your read-athon.
What if I don't know all of the details to create my account?
No problem. Once you create your account, you can always log into your administrator dashboard and change any of the details described above at any time as you are planning out your fundraiser.
So what are you waiting for? Let's set up your FREE fundraiser account today!
Now that you've created your account, now it's time to start building it out so that it works for you! This step involves taking some time to think about the story you want to tell your families and donors. Fundraising is all about storytelling so talk it over with your school faculty and PTA/PTO board members so you have something fun and rewarding to share that will raise money for your school.
What to think about when creating your story
- Post a compelling story to connect with your donors - A successful read-athon is all about highlighting your passion for literacy and the value children receive by it. The good news is that we got you covered! We provide you with the tools as well as use already placed template content and goals you can use on your administrator dashboard. For additional assistance, please access your administrator toolkit.
- Create your teams to support your fundraiser - RFMS is a team-based fundraiser that supports any type of read-athon you want to build. Whether its a large school or small grade-level/classroom fundraiser, we provide you with a team builder tool to design your read-athon the way you want.
- Set up your custom reading and fundraising goals - We provide you with the tools to create custom overall, team, and even individual goals for your read-athon, however, we do recommend that you set goals that are obtainable to reach. Goals drive customer satisfaction so take some time or talk with our support team to help you.
What are some good tips to share?
As with all things fundraising, your story needs to fit what your community of donors want to here. We've found that successful fundraisers have a theme (Example: "Once Upon a read-a-thon"), goals that your community will embrace (example: $10,000 instead of $50,000), communication plan as well as support from your faculty or school administration (example: principal video; school mascot image)
The next step is to connect your Stripe account to your Read for My School fundraiser so that you can start accepting online pledge donations from your donors.
Stripe is a 3rd party credit card processing company and service provider that handles all of the online pledge donation transactions for your fundraiser. Read for My School has partnered with Stripe due to its safe and secure payment processing platform as well as financial services provided to our customers.
Stripe is FREE to setup and once connected to your fundraiser account on Read for My School, allows for you to have direct access to the funds you've raised throughout the duration of your fundraiser.
What are the benefits of using Stripe with my RFMS fundraiser
- A safe and secure payment processing solution for your donors - Stripe supports a variety of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, and provides tools for handling donation billing, and online transactions securely and efficiently.
- You have a direct connection to manage your profits your way - With Read for My School, you have direct access to your fundraising profits as they come in. Unlike other read-athon fundraising companies, we don't hold your money and issue a check at the end.
- Complete financial reporting to manage donors directly in the RFMS app - Once your Stripe account is connected, manage donor transactions and financial reporting directly within the RFMS app. Access all data from your administrator dashboard, and download reports for offline use if needed.
Stripe charges a payment processing fee of 2.9% + .30 per online donation transaction. For additional information, please check out our pricing page for more information.
If you need additional assistance with setting up your Stripe account, please contact our support team. We are happy to answer any question or share why we believe it is the market leader in global payment processing services on the web.
Now that you have your fundraiser ready to go, your last step is to market and get your families registered and ready to go when you want to launch.
Read for My School provides you with various invite options that you can customize and use to invite families to join in on the fun!
How can we help you market your read-athon?
- Custom parent letter - Includes your overall fundraising message, goals, and instructions (OR code; private invite links) for families to register and join your fundraiser.
- Bookmarks - Includes QR code to track reading sessions in the app or track offline. A great way to promote your read-athon as well as provides families a simple way to participate!
- Custom admin donation page - Your admin donation page has a JOIN FUNDRAISER button. Just share your donation page and families can register directly from your page!
- Social marketing banners - sample Facebook and Instagram banners that you can post and use to market your fundraiser.
- 20/20 Challenge - Need a fundraising theme? Try our 20/20 Challenge. It's a month long fundraiser (read 20 min/day; fundraise 20 school days) that is focused on giving you everything you need to plan your custom read-athon.
If you need additional assistance with tips or resources to promote your fundraiser, please contact our support team. We are happy to help design a school fundraiser that works for you.
Need Help? Talk to Us!
After creating your fundraiser account, a Read for My School representative will contact you to discuss your needs and support you throughout your fundraiser to ensure it meets your goals.
Need additional assistance? Schedule a call to speak directly with our support team!
