When you plan a donation-based or entry fee-based Color-A-Thon with School-A-Thon, our awards and incentive program is already conveniently included. Fundraiser prizes include everything from crazy hair headbands to brightly colored tutus. But if you’re looking to boost fundraising incentives even more to encourage participants to amp up their efforts, we can help.
We’re sharing some fun fundraising incentive ideas, rewards and prizes. Because the more incentives and fundraiser prizes you have to offer, the more participation you’ll have and the more successful your fundraiser will be. And an added bonus? Establishing fundraising goals and offering fun incentives will help to teach kids about goal-setting and teamwork — it’s a win-win!
Fundraising incentives can range from individual prizes and rewards to class parties and outrageous stunts by the principal. What’s right for your students and your school will depend on your school’s culture, fundraising goals and budget.
Put Fundraising Goals In Place
When planning your fundraiser, start by setting up stepped goals for your participants. These goals can be anything from giving participants a small reward when they receive their first donation to giving them a bigger prize when they’ve reached the $200 fundraising milestone. Just make sure your fundraiser rewards program is set up fairly and proportionately. You can set up bonus fundraising incentives for students, for classes/teams or both! Some fundraising benchmarks or end goals you can put in place include the following:
- When a participant gets their first donation
- When a participant reaches various fundraising milestones ($50, $100, etc.)
- Most class or group participation
- Most funds raised by a participant, class or team
So, you have your goals set up and now it’s time to come up with prize ideas. There’s honestly no end to what you can offer in terms of school fun run prizes and incentives — and most of them won’t cost your school much at all!
Fundraising Incentives From School-A-Thon
As we’ve mentioned, when you work with School-A-Thon, school fundraiser prizes and incentives are already included. With each donation level achieved, students will receive the following:
$30 Donation Level
- Blast T-shirt
- Color dye pack
$60 Donation Level
- Hero tie-dye bandana
- Color glasses
- Color dye pack
$90 Donation Level
- Hero wristbands
- Color dye pack
$150 Donation Level
- A color blaster
$250 Donation Level
- Crazy rainbow wig
- Rainbow boa
- Super-soft flyer
$500 Donation Level
- Hero cape
- Rainbow socks
- Tutu
- Jumbo mallet
1. Additional Individual Fun Run Prizes
Bonus individual recognition for participants will require prizes on your part for each fundraising milestone. The prize level should ramp up the more the participant raises. An easy idea is to keep school fun run prizes limited to smaller items or things students can wear during the fun run or at the Color Blast Party. Some fun and affordable ideas include the following:
- Temporary tattoos
- Colorful candy
- Rubber bracelets
- Beach balls
- Colorful erasers, pencils, markers or gel pens
- Keychains
- Bright shoelaces
- Stuffed animals
- Drawstring bags
2. Individual Entertainment Passes
If you want to try something a little different in terms of fundraising incentives for students, consider handing out entertainment passes. They allow kids to enjoy activities with their friends and family while supporting local businesses.
Don’t underestimate the power of local businesses and their interest in participating. Reach out to companies in your community for prize donations. They may be willing to provide passes for free or at a discounted rate to support a good cause!
Ideas include:
- Bowling passes
- Pottery painting sessions
- Bounce or trampoline house passes
- Ice rink/skating rink passes
- Arcade tokens or passes
- Movie theater tickets
- Restaurant gift cards
- Free yogurt or ice cream tickets
- Mall gift cards
- Go-kart tickets
- Mini golf tickets
- Local amusement park tickets
- Waterpark tickets
- Tickets to sporting events
3. Classroom Activities
Looking for something different to boost participation in addition to the individual prizes provided by School-A-Thon? Consider adding an incentive for each classroom team. These can be in-school activities that the entire winning class gets to participate in. You can even get the principal to attend the party for an added incentive. It’s a great way to get everyone involved and increase classroom and school pride. Ideas include:
- Ice cream party
- Pizza party
- Movie party
- Extra recess
- Free homework passes
4. Principal Participation
For something the entire school can get behind, create a school fundraising goal that gets the principal involved. This is a great way to boost student participation and school spirit — plus getting the principal to partake in the fun is a massive motivator for kids. Just make sure you run any ideas past the principal first!
Some principal prizes include:
- Principal gets taped to the wall using rainbow-colored Duct Tape
- Principal dyes their hair the school colors for the day
- Put the principal in a dunk tank filled with colored water
- Slime the principal
- Silly String the principal
- Color powder the principal
Once you have your fundraising incentives in place and your Color-A-Thon scheduled, kick off your fundraiser with an assembly. During the assembly, the principal or organizer can go over fundraiser details, prizes, show a video and challenge the students to meet an all-school goal. It’s important to highlight prizes regularly to keep students excited and interested. You can do this through morning announcements, posters, emails, newsletters and other forms of student communication.
School-A-Thon fundraisers are fun for everyone involved, which helps with everything from color run volunteering to participation, so get creative and have a blast with it!
Let School-A-Thon Help Create Your Next Memorable Fundraising Event
Looking to shake up your school’s fundraiser program but don’t know where to start? Let School-A-Thon help! With our fun and interactive Color-A-Thon fun runs, we’ll help you host an unforgettable fundraising event. Have a question or need more information about hosting your own color run? Contact us today. Whether you’re looking for the best school fundraisers or simply want to know when to schedule your color run, we’re here to help!
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