Read-a-Thon Pledge Sheet (Free Printable)

A pledge sheet is the paper record of who promised what for one reader. Ours is a single page, it works for flat gifts and capped per-minute pledges, and it deliberately has no space for phone numbers, email or home addresses. Print it free, then use the field-by-field notes below to explain it to families. For the rest of the event, see the read-a-thon fundraiser guide.

• Read-a-Thon Pledge SheetOne page, US Letter, black-and-white friendly. 14 supporter lines, flat or per-minute with a cap, no contact fields.Download PDF

The sheet, field by field

Every field is there for a reason. Most of them exist to save your treasurer time when the sheets come back.

Header

• Reader (first name or initials). Enough for the family and the treasurer to match the sheet to a reading log. A full name isn't needed, and leaving it off means a lost sheet reveals less.
• Class or group. The treasurer sorts sheets by this field and credits class totals from it. For a library or community event, use a team, branch or age group.
• Minutes goal. The reader's own goal. Supporters see it, which helps them choose a sensible rate and cap.

Supporter lines

Column	What goes in it	Why it's there
Supporter (first name or initials)	"Grandma," "Aunt K." or initials	The family knows who it is. Nobody else needs to.
Flat or per minute? (circle)	Circle one word	Tells the treasurer at a glance whether the line is already final or still depends on minutes.
Amount (or ¢/min)	A dollar amount for flat, or a rate such as 5¢ for per minute	One column for both keeps the sheet short.
Cap (per min)	The most a per-minute supporter will pay, in dollars. Leave blank for flat gifts.	Protects supporters from a surprise bill and makes every line predictable.
Paid ($ and cash or check #)	The amount received, plus "cash" or the check number	Lets the treasurer reconcile the sheet against the envelope and the deposit.

Footer

• Total minutes read. Copied from the reading log after the last day. Every per-minute line is calculated from it.
• Total collected. The sum of the Paid column. The family fills it in, and the treasurer checks it during the count.
• Checks payable to. Fill this in before you copy the sheets, using the exact legal name of the organization receiving the money. Checks written to a teacher, a parent or a vague name like "PTA" cause deposit problems.

The sheet also prints a short worked example for supporters: a pledge of 5¢ a minute with a $20 cap. At 300 minutes that is 300 × $0.05 = $15. At 600 minutes it would be 600 × $0.05 = $30, so the cap applies and the supporter pays $20. For more on choosing rates and caps, read our guide to flat, per-minute and capped pledges.

Why the sheet has no contact fields

Most pledge sheets ask for each supporter's phone, email and address. Ours doesn't, on purpose. A pledge sheet travels in a backpack, sits on a kitchen counter, gets passed around at a grandparent's house and ends up in a classroom bin. Anyone who finds it can read it. A sheet with a dozen neighbors' phone numbers and addresses, next to a child's name, is a privacy problem you don't need.

The family already knows how to reach its own supporters, so the sheet doesn't need to. A note printed at the bottom asks supporters not to add contact details and to ask the organizer if they need a receipt. That keeps receipt requests with the treasurer, who can collect an email address privately. Our student privacy guide covers the other places personal details tend to leak during a read-a-thon.

A filled-in example

Example One reader, six supporters, and a minutes goal of 400. The reader logs 480 minutes. Supporter names are placeholder initials.

Supporter	Flat or per minute	Amount (or ¢/min)	Cap	Owed at 480 minutes	Paid
Grandma	Flat	$25	—	$25.00	$25.00 check #2187
A.B.	Per minute	5¢	$20	$20.00 (cap)	$20.00 cash
Neighbor J.	Flat	$10	—	$10.00	$10.00 cash
Uncle R.	Per minute	10¢	$40	$40.00 (cap)	$40.00 check #431
K.L.	Per minute	3¢	$12	$12.00 (cap)	$12.00 cash
Coach T.	Flat	$20	—	$20.00	$20.00 check #1150
Total				$127.00	$127.00

Arithmetic How each per-minute line was worked out:

• A.B.: 480 × $0.05 = $24.00. That's more than the $20 cap, so A.B. owes $20.00. (The cap was reached at $20 ÷ $0.05 = 400 minutes.)
• Uncle R.: 480 × $0.10 = $48.00. That's more than the $40 cap, so he owes $40.00.
• K.L.: 480 × $0.03 = $14.40. That's more than the $12 cap, so K.L. owes $12.00. (Each cap here is the rate times the 400-minute goal: 400 × $0.03 = $12.)
• Total: $25 + $20 + $10 + $40 + $12 + $20 = $127.00. Flat gifts make up $25 + $10 + $20 = $55; per-minute pledges make up $20 + $40 + $12 = $72.

Two things to notice. First, all three per-minute supporters hit their caps, which is what a well-set cap should do when a reader beats the goal. Second, the three flat gifts were final from the start and could have been paid before reading began. The family only had to follow up with three people once the minutes were in.

The reading minutes tracker does this math for each supporter automatically, caps included, if a family prefers to log on a phone.

Paper or online pledges?

Online pledges need no sheet. Supporters pledge and pay on a web page, the amounts are tallied for you, and nothing gets lost in a backpack. Paper still matters because some families and many older supporters prefer it. Some supporters want to hand over cash or a check, and some families have limited internet access or are wary of sharing information online.

Offer both, and make them match. Use the same pledge choices online and on paper, with the same flat amounts, the same rates and the same caps, so nobody has to translate between them. Tell families they can use either method, or both, and that every reader's minutes count either way.

	Paper sheet	Online pledges
Best for	Cash and check supporters, families without reliable internet, in-person asks	Distant relatives, card payments, families who prefer phones
Organizer work	Counting, reconciling and data entry	Setup, plus answering questions about the payment page
Main risk	Lost sheets, illegible handwriting, unpaid per-minute lines	Fees, and data collected about donors and children
Privacy	No contact fields on our sheet	Ask the provider what it collects and who sees it

Collecting sheets back

1. Set two dates and print both on the sheet's cover note. Logs and pledge sheets are due two school days after reading ends. Money is due one week after that. Put both in the parent letter too. Flat gifts can come in any time, including before reading starts.
2. Logs and sheets go back through the class. The teacher collects them in the envelope you provide and drops it at the office. Teachers don't open, count or chase anything.
3. Money never goes in the log envelope. Families seal cash and checks in a separate envelope marked with the reader's first name and class, and drop it at the office or in a locked box the treasurer empties. Teachers never collect, count or hold money.
4. Send one reminder before the money deadline. The organizer sends it to families, with a nudge to tell per-minute supporters their final amount. After the deadline, the family sends one note to any supporter still unpaid.
5. Accept late sheets gracefully. Count late money; set a cutoff only for recognition.

What to do with the sheets afterward

Once the envelopes are in, the sheets become the treasurer's reconciliation record. Two people open each money envelope together and check the cash and checks against the Paid column on that reader's sheet, then record the totals on a count sheet. Lines that were pledged but not paid go on a short follow-up list. The family, not the treasurer, should do the follow-up with its own supporters. Our guide to collecting donations, counting and receipts walks through the full process, including written acknowledgments for larger gifts.

After the books are closed and any receipts are sent, don't keep the sheets longer than you need them. Either return them to families or shred them. Keep the class and group totals, and the deposit records your organization's own policy requires, in the handoff folder for next year. If you track each reader's pledged, collected and outstanding amounts, our read-a-thon tracking spreadsheet takes the totals straight from each sheet.

Want the reading log, certificate and other forms too? Browse the full set of free read-a-thon printables, or go back to the complete read-a-thon guide.