Somebody is going to ask how it went — a principal, a board, a PTO membership at the next meeting. What you say determines whether you get the same window next year without an argument, and most organizers under-report by giving a single dollar figure when they're holding something considerably more interesting.
This page covers which numbers a board actually wants, why you report net rather than gross, when the money lands in your account, and the one figure worth recording for next year's organizer.
What you actually have
For the whole fundraiser, see the complete guide to running a read-a-thon.
You can watch donations as they're made, and you have reporting for your entire group with drill-down to class and reader level. That means three layers of number, and each answers a different person's question.
- Group level — what your board and principal want.
- Class level — what teachers care about, and what your awards run on.
- Reader level — operational, mainly useful during the fundraiser rather than after it.
Pull the group and class figures once the event closes. That's your whole reporting job.
Report minutes alongside dollars
This is the single highest-leverage thing on this page, and almost nobody does it.
A dollar figure alone puts your read-a-thon in the same category as every other fundraiser the school has ever run, to be compared purely on size. Reporting minutes read next to it reframes the whole thing: this was a fortnight in which your school visibly prioritised reading, and it paid for itself.
That reframe does real work. It gives a principal something to say to a superintendent that isn't about money. It gives a board a reason to approve the same fundraiser again that doesn't depend on it out-raising the alternatives. And it answers the parent who asks why the school is fundraising at all — because the activity being sponsored was the thing the school wanted students doing anyway.
Break the minutes down by class too. An aggregate number across a whole building is genuinely striking when people hear it for the first time.
Report net, not gross
Report what your school kept, not what was donated — and say which you're quoting.
Your school earns 75% or 80% of total donations depending on package. If last year's product fundraiser is remembered by its gross figure, comparing your net against their gross makes a strong result look like a weak one. Convert both to net before anyone puts them side by side, or you'll lose an argument you should win — see the honest comparison for how the categories actually stack up.
Worth stating explicitly in the report: no products were bought, no inventory was ordered, no cash was handled, and Read-A-Thon paid the processing fees. There is no second layer of deductions arriving later, which is not true of every fundraiser your board has seen.
Group, class, and reader-level reporting is built in, and donations are visible as they're made. Signing up is free — about ten minutes, no upfront cost ever, no contract, no fundraising minimum. Start for free.
When the money arrives — put this in the report
Treasurers ask, and an organizer who can answer immediately looks like they have the thing under control.
Your profit is sent in two profit checks, 20 days apart. The first — for 80% of your earned profit — is sent 10 days after you end your event. The remaining small balance follows 20 days later, held back to cover chargebacks and bad checks.
One clarification worth writing into the report, because two percentages are in play and they get conflated. The 75% or 80% from your package is your share of total donations — what the school earns. The 80% in the payment schedule is a portion of that earned amount, paid first. They apply in sequence, not in competition. Detail on how donations work.
Tell your treasurer the date you reported the event complete, since that's what starts the clock.
Track participation, not just totals
If you record one number for next year's organizer, make it participation rate — the share of students who took part.
Dollars raised is the outcome; participation is the lever. Two schools with the same enrollment and very different totals usually differ on how many families took part rather than on how much each gave. A participation figure tells next year's organizer where the opportunity is; a dollar total just tells them what to beat.
Record it by class as well. A class at 30% participation and a class at 80% are two different problems, and the gap is usually about which teachers chased registration — see the teacher's guide.
What to put in front of a board
Six lines. Not a deck.
- Net raised — what the school keeps, labelled as net.
- Minutes read — school-wide, and the top few classes.
- Participation rate — school-wide, and by grade if it varies.
- What it funds — the thing you named when you set the goal.
- Payment timing — the two-check schedule and the dates.
- Volunteer hours — roughly. Boards almost never see this and it's often the most persuasive line in the report, because it's the cost every other fundraiser hides.
Add one sentence on what you'd change next time. It signals judgment, and it makes the fundraiser look like a program rather than an event — year two and beyond covers what's actually worth changing.
The honest part
Be careful what you claim for the minutes. They're self-reported, they're approximate, and they are not a measured literacy intervention. Present them as evidence of engagement — a fortnight in which your school read a great deal more than usual — and they'll hold up. Present them as a reading-achievement outcome and a board member who works in assessment will take the whole report apart, including the parts that were solid.
Same discipline on the total. Don't extrapolate a first year into a promise about the second. Participation varies between communities and between years, and an organizer who forecasts a number is creating a stick to be beaten with.
What happens next
Report in the same week you close out, while people still remember it. Pair it with the celebration for students and thank-yous for donors — the three together are the entire close-out and they fit in a single afternoon.
Then write down what you did, including the numbers above, and hand it to whoever runs it next year. Your fundraising coach can help you frame the report — phone, text, or email, Monday to Friday, 8am–5pm Central.