Marching Band Fundraiser

Want to know about a marching band fundraiser that makes you money during practice?

Have you considered holding a March a thon? Why not formalize one day of marching and make it your marching band fundraiser? Get people to either donate lump sums to the band for your efforts or make pledges for each unit that each band member completes. It is not unreasonable to ask band members to get pledges of $50 or more for the event.

Now, to make the fundraiser even easier, we suggest you use the online software at Choose-a-thon. Instead of handling all the necessary paperwork that these types of fundraisers require, use the tools at Choose-a-thon instead.

It offers an online solution that handles all the administrative and marketing functions pertaining to your marching band fundraiser. The first thing that needs to happen is your band needs to have a fundraising administrator. The administrator goes to Choose-a-thon and clicks on the Get Started Now button.

That will take them to a screen where they will enter their personal information along with information on your band and the specifics of its March-a-thon. The system essentially builds a website for your band and its event. It asks for photos to be uploaded to personalize your website as much as possible. The set up takes minutes.

The next step for the administrator is to invite participants to the event. They will enter the name and email address of every one in the band. Choose-a-thon (CAT) will send those participants emails letting them know about the website and asking them to build a personal page about themselves and their role in the fundraiser. They also upload a photo and put in a little text to make a page just for them. The administrator has now more or less done the majority of their work.

The participants then start to invite sponsors to visit the website that was just created. Sponsors are asked to make donations or to pledge money per unit. Inviting sponsors is made extremely easy in CAT. We suggest each participant go to their address book on their computer and enter every single name and email address in the sponsor list page on the CAT site. CAT will automatically send out an email inviting people to your website where they will see your band page, your event page and the individual page of the person inviting them. They will be prompted to either make a donation right then using a credit card or making a pledge per unit. All donation and pledge records are visible on the website and can be seen the administrator and participant.

Then you actual March-a-thon is held and units completed are recorded. The administrator goes back into your CAT website and enters those results. CAT sends invoices to all the people that made pledges and gives them the ability to pay right then with a credit card.

Following the completion of your event, CAT mails your group a weekly check for 80% of the money collected. That continues for 8 weeks. Every two weeks a reminder is automatically sent out to people who have not paid.

Next time you hold a marching band fundraiser, consider using Choose-a-thon.