Which fundraising platform should our school use for a read-a-thon?
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Raised suits a school-led read-a-thon that needs student sponsorship pages, shareable QR codes and optional class leaderboards without a setup fee or monthly subscription. Teachers organise the reading challenge; Raised handles the fundraising pages and payments. Check student privacy and reading-record requirements before launch, and include card fees in the budget.
Which jobs can the platform take off the organiser?
Use the read-a-thon template for the campaign and Team Mode for classes. The organiser can add students individually or import a CSV for each team. Approved student names can be used without email addresses, with links shared by caregivers or teachers.
Team owners can manage their team's members. Decide responsibilities before importing the roll: the school approves names and sharing, the campaign administrator checks payments, and teachers verify the reading activity. An online donation total does not establish how many books a child read.
Does a fundraising leaderboard measure reading?
No. Raised's fundraising leaderboard ranks money raised, not reading effort. Choose how your school records books, pages or reading minutes and use a school-managed log where required. Do not assume automatic book verification or automatic per-book charging from the presence of a read-a-thon template.
The public leaderboard uses fundraising totals. If the school wants a reading achievement award or an average-per-student class award, define and maintain that measure separately. Students should be able to join the reading activity regardless of their fundraising total.
What should you test for younger readers?
Add a sample participant using an approved test name, without uploading a real school roll. Check the direct link and the main campaign page. In Privacy mode, public teams, members and leaderboards are hidden; direct participant links still show their display name and team.
Choose school-approved aliases or first names before publishing. Students without email do not need a dashboard login. A caregiver can share each child's separate link without the child creating an account. Do not treat an access code for joining a team as a password protecting public donation pages.
When is another service worth considering?
Ask for a managed-service quote if your school needs someone to run campaign administration and handle family queries. Ask for a demonstration if automatic reading logs or a particular class ranking measure is essential. The best fit depends on those requirements, not only the template name.
Raised's New Zealand donation default normally adds the 5% platform fee and Stripe processing to the supporter payment. Australian donation fees are deducted unless donors choose to cover them. Check the supporter experience and current fees in the country where your school is fundraising.