How to grow your school fun run every year

The first fun run is the hardest one you will ever run. Nobody knows what to expect, every decision is made from scratch, and the committee learns as it goes. The second year is where a fun run becomes a tradition, and where it can quietly grow: more students with donations, more relatives giving, less work for the volunteers. None of that happens by repeating last year's plan word for word, though. It happens when you read last year's numbers honestly, keep what the team learned, and change a few things on purpose.

This article picks up where the debrief at the end of the complete planning guide leaves off. If you are planning your very first event, start there.

Measure the right things

A final total tells you how the event went. It doesn't tell you why, or what to do differently. For that, break the total into a handful of simple numbers. Every one of them can be worked out from a donation report and a class list, with a calculator or a spreadsheet, in under an hour.

Participation rate

Students with at least one donation ÷ students enrolled. If 210 of your 350 students had a donation, your participation rate is 60%. This is usually the most important number on the page, because a student with no donations is the easiest place to grow. It also tells you how many families the fundraiser actually reached.

Average gift

Total raised ÷ number of donations. This reflects your community and how you framed the ask more than anything the committee does on the day. A low average gift is not a problem to fix; it often means lots of small, sincere gifts, which is healthy.

Donors per participating student

Number of donations ÷ students with at least one donation. If those 210 students received 840 donations between them, that is 4 donations per participating student. This number shows how far each family's page traveled. When it sits at one or two, most students were supported by their own household and nobody else.

Online and offline share

Online total ÷ total raised (and the same for cash and checks). There is no right split. A school with many cash-preferring families should expect a large offline share. What matters is the trend: if offline giving is high and donors per student is low, families may not have realized they could send a link to relatives.

Donors from outside the household

You often can't know exactly who is a grandparent and who is a parent, and you shouldn't try to find out. Keep it simple: donors per participating student is your best stand-in. If you want a little more, count how many donations came from a different town or state, or simply ask a few families at the debrief who gave to their child's page.

Class-by-class spread

Work out the participation rate for each class, then compare the highest and the lowest. A school-wide 60% can hide one class at 90% and another at 25%. A wide spread usually points to something you can fix: a teacher who didn't get the kickoff materials, a class with many families who need information in another language, or a grade whose event slot clashed with something else.

Returning donors

Donors who gave last year and gave again ÷ last year's donors. You can only measure this from your second event onward, and only roughly, by matching names or emails between two donation exports. It tells you whether last year's thank-you and impact story landed. A donor who comes back is the cheapest gift you will ever receive.

Reading the numbers together

Metric	What it tells you	If it's low, try
Participation rate	How many families the fundraiser reached	Earlier page links, a reminder to families with no donations yet, a class participation challenge
Average gift	Your community's comfort level and how you framed the ask	Suggested amounts tied to the purpose ("$25 buys a library book"); otherwise leave it alone
Donors per student	How far each page was shared	A ready-to-send text message, an out-of-town day, a reminder to share after event-day photos
Online share	How easy giving was for relatives far away	Repeat that anyone with the link can give by card, and send the link more than once
Class spread	Where communication broke down	Talk to the teachers of the lowest classes before kickoff; check languages and timing
Returning donors	Whether last year's thank-you landed	Show donors what their money did, and let families reshare early

In Fun Run Fundraiser, the donation report and its CSV export give you the raw material for all of this in a spreadsheet, and each grade and class page shows that group's progress toward its combined goal.

Set next year's goal from last year's numbers

The first year's goal is an educated guess. From the second year on, you can build it from parts. The total raised is roughly:

students enrolled × participation rate × donors per participating student × average gift

That turns one big, intimidating number into four smaller ones, and it shows you which lever to pull.

A worked example

These numbers are an illustration only. Suppose last year looked like this:

Line	Last year	Next year's plan
Students enrolled	350	340 (a smaller kindergarten class)
Participation rate	50%, so 175 students	55%, so about 187 students
Donations per participating student	4	4.5
Number of donations	700	About 840
Average gift	$40	$40 (unchanged)
Total	$28,000	About $33,600

A few things to notice. Enrollment went down, and the plan still grows, because it leans on participation and sharing rather than asking each donor for more. The plan only moves two levers, and only a little. And it doesn't assume the average gift will rise, because that is the number the committee controls least.

From here, choose a public goal a little below the full plan, say $32,000, so the school has a real chance to beat it and celebrate. As a rule of thumb, an established event that grows its goal by 10 to 20% a year is stretching without setting itself up to fall short.

Two adjustments before you settle on a number:

• Take out one-offs. If last year included a single large gift or a sponsor's match that won't repeat, remove it from the baseline first.
• Tie each lever to a plan. If you are counting on participation going from 50% to 55%, write down what you will do differently to get there. A number without a reason is just a hope.

Keep what the team learned

The biggest threat to a second-year fun run is not a bad idea. It's the chair moving on and taking everything they knew with them. Write it down while it's fresh.

Build a handoff folder

A shared folder (or a physical binder, if that suits your PTA better) should hold:

• The timeline as it actually happened. Not the plan you started with, but the real dates: when you asked for the class lists and when they arrived, when the shirt order went in, which reminders went out on which days. Mark anything that ran late and by how much.
• The numbers. The metrics above, the budget against actual spending, and the final total.
• Vendor and contact list. Shirt printer, sound, water and snacks, printing, plus who at the school handles the calendar, the field and the office lists. Add a line about each: would you use them again?
• Sponsors. Who gave, how much, who asked them and how they like to be contacted.
• Every message you sent. Letters, emails, social posts and the announcement script. Next year's team can edit instead of writing from a blank page.
• What you'd change. The debrief notes, in plain words, with the most important changes at the top.
• Logins and access. Which accounts the fundraiser uses and who controls them. Keep the passwords themselves wherever your organization keeps passwords, not in the folder.

Recruit the next chair early

Ask during or right after the debrief, while the good feelings from event day are still in the room. People say yes more easily to a role they have just watched succeed.

• Use co-chairs. Two people share the load, cover each other's busy weeks, and if one moves away the event doesn't stop.
• Stagger the terms. A simple pattern: each co-chair serves two years, and a new one joins every year. There is always someone who has done it before.
• Shadow before leading. Invite a future chair to sit in on planning meetings and to stand next to the current chair on event day. A season of watching is worth more than any handoff document.
• Hand over sub-roles too. The person who ran sponsors or the volunteer roster can each train a successor, so expertise doesn't all sit with the chair.

Re-engage last year's donors, respectfully

The people who gave last time are your warmest audience, but they gave to a child, not to a mailing list. The most natural and respectful way back to them is through the families themselves.

• Let families reshare. When pages go live, remind families that the relatives and friends who supported their child last year will probably be glad to hear from them again. Give them a short message they can copy, written so it references last year ("Thank you for cheering Maya on last year...").
• Make the thank-you do the work. A thank-you that showed exactly what the money paid for (a photo of the new reading corner, the field trip, the playground) makes next year's ask easy. A donor who saw the result is far more likely to give again than one who only got a receipt.
• Be careful with direct emails. If your organization wants to write to last year's online donors itself, check its privacy practices first, send at most one short note with a clear way to opt out, and never share or reuse the list for anything else.
• Thank before you ask. If last year's impact story hasn't gone out yet, send it before anything that mentions the new event.

Keep it fresh

Students love traditions, but they also love novelty. Keep the core of the day the same and change one or two visible things each year.

• A new theme. A theme gives the kickoff, the shirts and the decorations a fresh look for almost no cost. Our list of fun run theme ideas has plenty to choose from.
• A new incentive. Keep the prize levels students already understand, and swap one reward for something new, ideally an experience rather than a thing.
• A new challenge. Last year's principal challenge is old news. Try a different kind: a grade-versus-grade participation race, a staff relay at the end of the day, or a challenge where the whole school earns something together.
• Students' input. Ask the student council, or every class, to vote on the theme or the school-wide reward. Students promote what they chose.

Grow the circle

Most first-year fun runs are funded by current families and their close relatives. Growth in later years often comes from people a step further out.

• Alumni families. Families whose children have moved on to middle school often still feel a connection. Ask them, through the school newsletter or alumni channels, to cheer on the current students, or to volunteer on event day.
• Grandparents. They are often the most generous and the most delighted to be asked. Encourage students to tell grandparents directly, through a call or a handwritten note with the page link. If your school holds a grandparents' day, mention the fun run there.
• Local businesses. Renew last year's sponsors early, with a thank-you and the photo of students in the shirts, before you ask for anything. Then add a few new ones, starting with any that missed last year's logo deadline. The guide covers sponsor levels and how to ask.
• Neighbors and the wider community. A school event can welcome support from anyone who cares about local schools. A short post on community pages, with the event page link, reaches people who would never otherwise hear about it.

As the circle grows, keep the experience fair for every student. Some families will always have smaller networks, and that should never show up on event day.

Start faster in year two

Building the roster is one of the slowest jobs in the first year. In the second year, you shouldn't have to start from zero. Ask the office for the new class lists as early as they exist, and plan the update rather than a rebuild.

In Fun Run Fundraiser, the Plus and Premium plans let you copy students and classes from a previous event into the new one, so the second year starts with last year's roster. Then update it for the new school year:

• Add the new students: the incoming kindergarten class, plus anyone who joined in other grades.
• Remove the students who have left: the oldest grade who moved on, and families who moved away.
• Check every class and grade. Students move up a grade, classes are reshuffled, and teachers change. Go class by class against the office's lists.
• Review goals. Personal and class goals that were right last year may need adjusting for the new plan.
• Check parent emails. Family contact details change. Confirm with the office which ones you may use.

What not to change

The temptation in year two is to improve everything at once. Resist it. Every change costs volunteer time and makes your numbers harder to compare. Keep:

• The format, if students loved it. A fun run that worked doesn't need to become a color run or a dance-a-thon.
• The time of year, if it fit the school calendar. Families start to expect it, and that expectation is worth something.
• A clear purpose. A specific goal for the money beat a vague one last year, and it will again.
• The communication rhythm. If two reminders and a final push worked, keep that pattern and improve the wording.
• Every child runs. Whatever else changes, the day is for every student, whatever their family gave. Our article on a fundraiser for every family has more on keeping it that way.

A good rule: change no more than two significant things a year, and write down why you changed them so next year's team can judge whether it worked.

A year-over-year calendar

The full countdown to event day is in the planning guide. This is the cycle that sits around it, from one event to the next.

When	What to do
Within two weeks after the event	Hold the debrief, work out the metrics, fill in the handoff folder, and ask who will chair or co-chair next time.
When the money is spent	Send the impact story with photos to families, donors and sponsors.
Before the school calendar is set	Get next year's date on the calendar, with a rain date.
Five to six months before	Choose the purpose, set the goal from last year's numbers, and pick the one or two things you will change. Thank and renew sponsors.
When new class lists are ready	Copy or rebuild the roster and update it for the new school year.
About three months before	Pick up the planning guide's countdown, using last year's actual timeline to fix anything that ran late.

Make next year your best one yet

Growing a fun run is mostly patient, unglamorous work: measuring the same things each year, writing down what happened, recruiting the next chair before you need one, and thanking people well. Do that, and each event starts further ahead than the last.

If you're ready to set up your next event, start your fundraiser. It's free to set up, with no subscription.