Jog-a-Thon Guide for Private and Catholic Schools

A Catholic school jog-a-thon or private school jog-a-thon looks like any school lap event on the field. The differences are behind the scenes. Tuition-paying families are already asked to give to an annual fund, there is often an advancement or development office that owns the donor list, the donor circle extends to a parish, grandparents and alumni, and the school calendar follows a faith or community rhythm. Plan around those things and the jog-a-thon becomes a welcome community day instead of one more ask. The course, waves, teacher roles and family messages work the same way they do anywhere, so start with the school jog-a-thon guide and use this page for what is different.

Coordinate with the advancement office first

If your school has an advancement, development or business office, meet with them before the principal sees a flyer. They will care about three things: donor fatigue, records and credit. Go in with answers.

• Solicitation calendar. Ask when the annual fund, gala and any capital campaign appeals go out, and schedule pledge weeks away from them.
• Donor records. Agree on how jog-a-thon gifts reach the school's database so donors are thanked once, correctly, and not asked again by another team a week later.
• Who acknowledges gifts. Decide whether the office sends receipts, the parent group does, or both (see below).
• Alumni and parish lists. The office may let you include the event in its alumni newsletter rather than handing over contact lists.
• Counting toward goals. Some schools count jog-a-thon gifts toward annual fund participation; others keep them separate. Know which before you write the parent letter.

If a parent association runs the event, the PTA and PTO jog-a-thon guide covers committee roles and approvals.

Tuition assistance or a specific project?

Families at a tuition-charging school sometimes ask why they are fundraising on top of tuition. A clear purpose answers that. The two common framings each have strengths:

	Tuition assistance fund	Specific project
Why it resonates	Helps families who could not otherwise attend; fits a mission of access	Donors can picture it: a playground, science lab, library, chapel repair
Who responds	Grandparents, parishioners, alumni who received help themselves	Current families and kids, who will use what they paid for
Watch for	Keep recipients completely private; never imply which students benefit	Set a realistic goal and say what happens to any surplus
Kid-friendly line	"So more kids can come to our school"	"So we can build our new playground"

Pick one and use the same sentence on every flyer, letter and announcement. To check the goal is realistic, work it backward with the pledge planner's goal tab.

Donors beyond current families

A private or parochial school jogathon draws on a wider circle than a public school event, because so many people feel connected to the school.

• Grandparents. Hold the jog-a-thon on or near Grandparents Day, or invite grandparents to cheer from the sideline and walk a lap with their grandchild. A grandparent who watched a child run is a grandparent who pays the pledge.
• The parish or faith community. With the pastor's permission, place a short bulletin notice or a table after services, inviting parishioners to sponsor a class rather than an individual child.
• Alumni. An alumni lap, a class-year challenge or a note in the alumni newsletter invites former students back to the field.
• Local businesses that serve your families. Many will sponsor a school their customers' children attend. The jog-a-thon sponsorship guide has packages and pitch wording.

Churches running their own lap event for a youth group or mission trip will find a parallel playbook in the church jog-a-thon guide.

Fit the Catholic school jog-a-thon into the faith calendar

Choose dates that do not compete with the moments families hold most important. For a Catholic school, that usually means avoiding the weeks around First Communion and Confirmation, Holy Week and the busiest Advent and Christmas stretch, as well as the school's own Catholic Schools Week activities unless you plan to make the run part of them. Christian and other faith-based schools have their own equivalents; ask the chaplain or campus minister for the dates that matter.

Some schools tie the run to a meaningful day, with care:

• The school's patron saint feast day as a community celebration, with a short prayer or blessing of the runners before the first wave.
• A service theme, such as setting aside part of the proceeds for a local food pantry or a sister school, which lets students run for someone else.
• A Mass or chapel service earlier in the day, with the run as the outdoor part of the celebration.

Keep religious elements simple and led by the school's clergy or campus ministry, and make sure students and families of other faiths feel welcome to take part fully.

Running the day at a smaller school

Many private and parochial schools are small enough to change the event-day math. A school of a hundred or two hundred students may be able to run TK through eighth grade in two or three waves, or even all at once on a short loop, if the counting checkpoint can keep up. Put your enrollment, loop and run window (compare the run lengths other private and Catholic schools reported) into the lap and course calculator before deciding; it shows the busiest minute at the checkpoint and the largest wave your counters can handle.

Small schools also have built-in advantages. Older students already know the younger ones by name, so buddy pairings are easy. Uniforms make a spirit-wear or free-dress day a genuine treat. And because families know each other, a whole-school participation goal ("every family returns a pledge form, even a blank one") is realistic in a way it rarely is at a large public school.

For what this looks like in practice, see two Catholic school examples: the long-running Holy Family School jog-a-thon and the first-year St. James-Holy Redeemer jog-a-thon, a small TK–8 school.

Gift acknowledgment and receipts

Donors to a private or parochial school often expect a formal acknowledgment, especially larger donors who give to the annual fund. IRS Publication 1771 explains that a donor needs a written acknowledgment from the charity to deduct any single contribution of $250 or more, and that a charity must give a written disclosure when a donor pays more than $75 partly as a gift and partly for goods or services. Whether your school, parish or parent association is the recipient organization depends on how your school is structured, so confirm with the business office or advancement office which entity issues receipts and what they should say.

Beyond the legal minimum, the thank-you norms at many private schools are personal: a handwritten note from the student, a thank-you from the head of school for larger gifts and a mention in the school newsletter for sponsors (with permission). Our page on donation receipts and taxes covers receipt wording, and the pledge collection guide covers when to send thank-yous after the run.

A letter for the wider school community

Use one letter for grandparents, parishioners and alumni, separate from the more detailed parent packet. Keep it warm and short:

Dear friends of [school],
On [date], our students will run, jog and walk laps on [field] to raise money for [tuition assistance / project].
For many of you, [school] has been part of your family's story. This is a simple way to be part of it again: sponsor a student, a class or the whole school, at [link or address].
You are warmly invited to come cheer at [time]. Grandparents and alumni are welcome to walk a lap with us.
With gratitude,
[Name], [role]

More templates, including parent letters and donor follow-ups, are in the jog-a-thon template collection.

Planning a walking event instead? See the Catholic school walk-a-thon guide and the private school walk-a-thon guide. For the general groundwork, use our walk-a-thon organizer resources.