I have 2 kids in elementary school and when my wife was asked to run the school's Read-A-Thon, she asked me how they could bring it online. Read-A-Thons are common fundraisers for schools where kids read as much as they can over a couple weeks and ask friends and family to support them by making donations to their school. Previously, the kids would record their reading time on paper logs and mostly get donations by cash or check, which unsurprisingly led to human error and a lot of work for the administrators

There are a handful of platforms out there that schools use to manage their Read-A-Thons, such as Read-A-Thon.com, but they charge a lot for what they offer (e.g. Read-A-Thon.com keeps 25% to 30% of the total donations) or ask donors for tips to support the platform. Rather than set up something with Google Docs/Forms or use one of the existing platforms, I built ForOurSchool.org and let the school use it for free. I added things that I thought the other platforms were missing, like leaderboards that could be disabled by the students, and made it so that there would never be any mention of the student's full name or image online (can't believe some platforms do that). Also, all money goes directly to a school's paypal, so that they have immediate access to it, and they can get reduced processing fees if their PTA is registered as a 501c3 (most are).

Thankfully, the kids and school liked it (donations increased by 50%), so this year, I opened ForOurSchool.org up to any school to use for free as well. This summer, I also added a Math-A-Thon platform and free online practice math problems which schools are scheduled to begin using this year. I may some day add fees for additional functionality, but right now, I'm happy to save some school some money.

Please try it out and let me know what you think. Here is a login to the demo site:

https://demo.forourschool.org/ user: hn@forourschool.org pass: forourschool123

Sign up or send me a message if you want to be a hero for your kid's school and save them some money.

About Me: For the past 10 years, I have been (solo) running PubExchange.com, a network for online publishers to partner with other sites and promote one another. I've also launched a few other platforms that I've temporarily shuttered, including SomewhereNew.org, a personalized questionaire that helps residents in NYC determine where they want to move within 100 mile radius of the city. I am also currently working on building an EV charging network powered by homes and businesses.