Short answer: Send a parent letter about two weeks before reading starts. It should give the dates, what counts as reading, how flat and capped per-minute pledges work, and when logs and money are due. Then have families email or text their own supporters, send a halfway update and a final push, tell per-minute supporters their total, and thank everyone. All ten templates, including a request to a local business, are below.
Every message you send in a read-a-thon has one job: tell families what to do next, or tell supporters what their help did. This page gives you ten ready-to-use templates, from the first letter home to the last thank-you. Each one says when to send it, and all of them use [brackets] for the parts you fill in. For how these messages fit into the whole event, see the read-a-thon fundraiser guide.
- Parent letter (English)Template 1 as an editable Word document. Add your dates, goal and contact details, then print or email.Download DOCX
- Parent letter (Spanish)The same letter in Spanish, ready to edit. Send it to families who prefer Spanish, or with the English letter.Download DOCX
Sending schedule
Here is when each message goes out, measured from the first day of reading. Our planning calendar tool turns these into real dates for your event and exports them to your calendar.
| When | What | From → to |
|---|---|---|
| 4–6 weeks before reading starts | 10. Request to a local business | Organizer → businesses |
| 2 weeks before reading starts | 1. Parent letter, with the pledge sheet | Organizer → families |
| 1 week before reading starts | 2. Donor ask email and 3. text message | Families → their supporters |
| Halfway through reading | 4. Halfway update | Organizer → families |
| 2 days before reading ends | 5. Final-push reminder | Organizer → families |
| Within 2 days after logs are due | 6. Final amount to per-minute supporters | Families → per-minute supporters |
| A few days before the money deadline | Payment reminder (one only; wording on our donations page) | Organizer → families |
| After money is counted | 7. Thank-you to donors; 8. thank-you to teachers | Organizer → donors (families may send their own personal thanks); organizer → teachers |
| About 1 week after the money deadline | 9. Unpaid pledge note (one only) | Families → supporters with open pledges |
Organizers send four messages to families (the parent letter, halfway update, final-push reminder and payment reminder), plus thank-yous to donors and teachers and any business requests. Families send the rest. Keep it that way: families know their own supporters, and the organizer never needs supporters' contact details to bill or chase pledges.
1. Parent letter
When to send: about two weeks before reading starts, with the pledge sheet, so families have time to line up supporters. Readers bring the reading log home on kickoff day as a reminder. The letter explains the dates, what counts as reading, how pledges work, the two due dates (logs, then money), and the promise that no one's name is posted with dollars.
Fill in a specific goal. "New books for classroom libraries" moves people more than "school needs." Decide now what any money over the goal will fund, and say so in the halfway update and the thank-you. Keep the sentence about what counts as reading even if you shorten the rest, because it is the one families ask about most. Copy the pledge menu and goals from your planning report. Keep steps 4 and 5 as written: logs go back to the teacher, and money goes separately to the office, never in the log envelope. The promise about names and dollars matches the approach in our student privacy guide. If donors may ask about deductions, add the tax-status sentence that is true for your group above the sign-off.
2–3. Asking supporters
2. Donor ask email from a family
When to send: in the week before reading starts, so supporters know the plan. Families can forward it as is or personalize it.
The menu in this email matches the options on our pledge sheet. To set your own amounts and caps, see how to choose flat or capped per-minute pledges.
3. Short text message ask
When to send: the same week, for close family and friends who'd rather get a text.
4–5. Updates during the event
4. Halfway update to families
When to send: at the midpoint of the reading period. Share totals for the whole group, never individual students.
5. Final-push reminder
When to send: two days before reading ends. Keep it short and list the three things families need to do.
6. Final amount for per-minute supporters
When to send: within two days after logs are due. Send it while the event is fresh.
Example A supporter pledged 5¢ a minute with a $20 cap, and the reader logged 320 minutes. Arithmetic 320 × $0.05 = $16, which is under the $20 cap, so the supporter owes $16. Had the reader logged 500 minutes, 500 × $0.05 = $25, over the cap, so the supporter would owe $20. Families can let the reading minutes tracker work this out for every supporter.
7–8. Thank-you notes
7. Thank-you to donors
When to send: once the money is counted and you know the total. Say exactly what the money will do.
For a donor to deduct a gift of $250 or more, they need a written acknowledgment from your organization, not from a family (IRS Publication 1771). Cash donors of any amount also need a written receipt to claim a deduction, since they have no bank record. Use the acknowledgment letter on our donations, counting and tax receipts page.
8. Thank-you to teachers
When to send: the same week as the donor thank-yous. Teachers carry part of the load even when you keep their asks small, so thank them by name.
9. Note to a supporter who hasn't paid
When to send: about a week after the money deadline, once. If it doesn't bring a payment, let it go and thank the supporter for their encouragement.
Notice what this note leaves out: guilt, urgency and any suggestion the reader is affected. The reader's minutes count whether or not the pledge is paid.
10. Request to a local business
When to send: four to six weeks before reading starts, so the business has time to decide and you know your prize and sponsor budget before kickoff. Make two concrete asks, and offer recognition that never names children.
The sponsor-pool arithmetic, and why it matters for readers without sponsors, is on our page on making a read-a-thon fair for every reader.
The tax-status sentence
Donors often ask first whether a gift is deductible. Add one of these sentences to the parent letter (template 1), the donor ask (template 2) and the business request (template 10). Use only the sentence that is true for your group; how to check is on our tax-exempt status guide.
Translation and home languages
Send each family the letter in a language they read. A few practical steps:
- Ask families which language they want. Add a line to registration or the first message: "Would you like read-a-thon messages in another language?" Then send each family one version, not a stack of every version.
- Use the Spanish parent letter as a starting point. It's already translated and editable. Have a fluent speaker check your dates, goal and contact details after you fill them in.
- Get human help for other languages. Ask your school's family liaison, English-learner staff or bilingual volunteers. Machine translation can help with a first draft, but have a fluent reader check it before it goes out.
- Keep the sentence about home languages. "Reading in any language counts" tells families their reading at home is welcome, which matters as much as the translation itself.
- Translate the short messages too. The halfway update and the final-push reminder are the ones families act on, so they should arrive in the same language as the letter.
The reading log is also available in Spanish. Find it, along with the pledge sheet and the other forms, in our read-a-thon printables library. If your group also runs a walking event, our walk-a-thon letter and message templates follow the same pattern. For everything else, go back to the complete read-a-thon guide.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions: Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements. irs.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
Frequently asked questions
Should the parent letter go home on paper or by email?
Both, if you can. Paper in the backpack reaches families who don't read school email, and it travels with the pledge sheet. Email or your school's messaging app reaches families who lose paper. Send the same text both ways so nobody gets conflicting dates. If you can only do one, use whichever channel your school already relies on for important notices.
Can students send donor messages themselves?
Older students can write a personal line, which supporters love, but a parent or guardian should send the message and handle any replies. That keeps supporters' contact details with the family and keeps children out of money conversations. If your group uses an online service that sends messages for readers, ask how it handles children's information first.
How many reminders are too many?
As a rule of thumb, families should hear from the organizer about five times: the letter, the halfway update, the final push, one payment reminder before the money deadline and the thank-you. Supporters should get an ask, a final amount if they pledged per minute, a thank-you, and at most one note from the family if they haven't paid. Past that, messages start to feel like pressure.