Short answer: Reward minutes and participation, never dollars. Make the biggest reward a shared school-wide celebration, use books and reading privileges as prizes, keep tangible prizes small, and praise often. Lab research found expected tangible rewards can lower interest, while a survey of adults found childhood reading rewards did no detectable harm. Reading-related rewards fit both findings.
Prizes are the part of a read-a-thon where good intentions most often go sideways. A well-designed reward plan celebrates reading and every reader. A poorly designed one turns reading into a chore done for a toy, or ranks children by their family's network. This page starts with what the research actually found, then gives you design rules, an example prize ladder with costs, and a list of prizes sorted by price.
What the research says about reading rewards
Fact Three studies, none of them about read-a-thons, frame the debate: in a meta-analysis of mostly lab experiments, expected tangible rewards reduced later interest, more so for children, while surprises had about no effect; in a study of third graders, a book reward beat tokens; and a retrospective survey found no detectable harm from childhood reading rewards. Designs, effect sizes and limits are in our summary of reading rewards research.
What to take from all three
The lab evidence says expected tangible rewards can reduce interest. The one reading study says rewards closer to reading work better than tokens. The retrospective survey says childhood reward programs did no measurable harm to the readers it asked. None of these settles the question for a two-week read-a-thon. Together they support a sensible design: favor praise and shared celebration, choose rewards connected to reading, reward participation and minutes rather than dollars, and keep tangible prizes small.
Six rules for a reward plan
- Reward minutes and participation, never dollars. Dollars raised reflect a family's network, not a child's effort. Every prize on your plan should be reachable by a reader whose family can't ask anyone for money.
- Make the biggest reward a shared one. A school-wide or group-wide goal with a celebration everyone attends gives every reader a stake. Individual tiers can sit underneath it.
- Use books as prizes where you can. A book is a reward connected to reading. It also puts a book in a home that may have few.
- Keep tangible prizes small, and let some be a surprise. Expected rewards carried the biggest risk in the lab research; unexpected ones did not. A surprise book drawing in week two costs the same as a promised one.
- Praise specifically and often. Praise was the one reward that raised interest overall, and it costs nothing. Ask teachers and families to notice the reading itself: "You finished the whole series."
- Decide the plan and budget before launch. Announce tiers once, at the kickoff. Adding prizes mid-event usually costs more and teaches readers to wait for the next offer. Before promising any food reward or snack-based celebration, check your district's local wellness policy, which may limit food given as a reward during the school day.
Every rule above also has to work for a reader who listens to audiobooks, is read to, or reads in a home language. The guide to making the read-a-thon fair for every reader covers this in detail.
An example prize ladder by minutes
Example Here is a ladder for an example school of 400 readers running a two-week event, announced once at the kickoff. The share of readers reaching each tier is a planning assumption for this example, not a benchmark. Use your own past reading logs if you have them.
| Tier | Prize | Example cost each | Assumed share reaching it | Readers | Arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 minutes | A bookmark | $0.10 | 90% | 360 | 360 × $0.10 = $36 |
| 300 minutes | A sticker and a reading pencil | $0.25 | 60% | 240 | 240 × $0.25 = $60 |
| 800 minutes | A new paperback book | $4 | 12% | 48 | 48 × $4 = $192 |
| School goal | Pajama read-in day and a read-aloud by the principal | $0 | Everyone | 400 | $0 |
| Total | $36 + $60 + $192 = $288 |
Readers count at every tier they reach, so a reader who logs 800 minutes collects all three prizes. The readers column uses 400 × 90% = 360, 400 × 60% = 240 and 400 × 12% = 48. The expected $288 fits inside the $300 recognition line of the example event budget.
Before you order, check the expensive tier against a bad case. Arithmetic If every reader reaches the first two tiers and a quarter reach 800 minutes, the cost is (400 × $0.10) + (400 × $0.25) + (100 × $4) = $40 + $100 + $400 = $540, which is $240 over a $300 line. Plan for that before you announce: buy the books after the event once you know how many you need, ask a bookstore to donate some, or swap the paperback for a book drawing.
Set tiers so most young readers can reach the first one. As a rule of thumb, the first tier should be reachable with about 10 minutes of reading a day. A K–2 reader being read to at bedtime for 10 minutes a day over two weeks logs 10 × 14 = 140 minutes, enough for the first tier on this ladder. Scale these example tiers to the per-reader minutes goal in your planning report, so the first tier is easy, the middle tier sits near the goal and the top tier is a stretch.
Give every participant the free reading certificate PDF, which records minutes read and never dollars.
Setting your recognition budget
We have found no independent benchmark for how much a read-a-thon should spend on prizes. Keep recognition to a small share of the gross and fix the number before the event starts, so prizes never grow to match the excitement.
Arithmetic For example, for the example school collecting $15,000, the ladder above costs $288 ÷ $15,000 = 1.9% of what was collected, and the bad case costs $540 ÷ $15,000 = 3.6%. Do the same check with your own goal and your own bad case. Then ask whether the money spent on the top tier would do more good spent on the thing you're raising money for.
Ask a local bookstore, business or staff member to donate prizes or books in exchange for a thank-you in the family newsletter; our business request letter has the wording. Donated prizes protect your net and connect the event to the community. Prizes paid for by the event come out of what you raise.
Prize ideas by cost
Free
- Lunch with the principal or a favorite staff member, for a group drawn from all readers who logged
- Choosing the next class read-aloud
- Reading in a special spot: the principal's chair, the stage, a beanbag in the library
- Reading a book over the morning announcements
- Extra reading time or a reading-outdoors period for a class that reaches its goal
- A pajama and blanket read-in day for the whole school
- Being a guest reader for a younger class
- A personal note from the principal or librarian about something the reader read
Low cost
- Bookmarks (or have older students design one and print it on card stock)
- Reading stickers or pencils
- A new paperback, or a gently used book from a book swap
- A book-light for the bedtime readers
- A book placed in the school library with a bookplate naming the class that reached its goal
Class and school rewards
- New books for the classroom library, chosen by the class
- An author video visit for the grade that reached its goal
- A school-wide celebration when the total minutes goal is met
For themes that tie each tracker milestone to one of these rewards, see our read-a-thon theme ideas. Organizers who also run a walking event will find more options in the walk-a-thon prize ideas guide; most transfer if you tie them to minutes read instead of laps.
Staff challenges and the research caveat
Pie-the-teacher, the principal on the roof and similar stunts are popular finales, and students remember them for years. Marinak and Gambrell's caution, from their Education Week interview, applies here: these rewards have nothing to do with reading. You don't need to drop them. Make them a shared celebration of the school's total minutes, not a prize for top individual readers, and add a reading connection where you can. The principal can read aloud from the roof. The pie-throwers can be drawn from every reader who logged minutes, not chosen by who read or raised the most. Our kickoff, activity and finale ideas include real schools' staff challenges.
Prizes for the top fundraiser, public lists of who raised the most, and any tier based on dollars. They reward family networks, not reading, and they single out students without sponsors.
Recognizing readers without sponsors
- Base every individual tier on minutes, so a reader with no sponsors earns exactly what any other reader earns.
- Hand out certificates and tier prizes to the whole class at once, without calling names.
- Never post a list that shows who raised money, or how much.
Sponsor pools, wording for the parent letter and the rest of the plan are in our guide to students without sponsors.
The rest of the event, from goal-setting to collecting pledges, is covered in our read-a-thon fundraiser guide.
Sources
- University of Washington (author copy), A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation (Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999), Psychological Bulletin 125(6). depts.washington.edu (accessed October 19, 2026)
- ERIC, Intrinsic motivation and rewards: What sustains young children's engagement with text? (Marinak & Gambrell, 2008), Literacy Research and Instruction 47(1). eric.ed.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
- Education Week, 'No More Reading For Junk': An Interview With Barbara Marinak & Linda Gambrell. edweek.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
- Springer, Effects of extrinsic reinforcement for reading during childhood on reported reading habits of college students (Flora & Flora, 1999), The Psychological Record 49. link.springer.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
Frequently asked questions
Should the student who raises the most money get a prize?
We recommend against it. Dollars raised depend mostly on how many adults a family can ask, not on anything the child did. A top-fundraiser prize also makes it obvious which students had no sponsors. If you want to thank big supporters, thank the supporters directly. Keep every student prize tied to minutes read or simple participation.
Are pizza or candy rewards bad for reading?
The evidence is mixed. A survey of college students who remembered childhood reading rewards, including pizza and money, found no detectable harm to their adult reading. Lab studies found expected tangible rewards lowered interest in a task once the reward stopped. Given both, a small food treat at a shared celebration is unlikely to hurt, but books and reading privileges are the safer choice for individual prizes. Check your district's wellness policy before promising any food reward, because it may limit food given as a reward during the school day.
Do we have to give prizes at all?
No. A read-a-thon can run on a shared goal, praise, a visible tracker and a celebration at the end. Some schools skip individual prizes entirely and give every reader a certificate. If your budget is tight, a free school-wide celebration plus certificates is a complete reward plan. Spend the money on what you're raising it for.
When should we announce the prizes?
Announce the full plan at the kickoff, and include it in the parent letter so families know what to expect. Changing tiers mid-event creates confusion and can strain the budget. If you want an extra boost later, use an unannounced surprise, such as a book drawing among all readers who logged minutes that week.