Running a Read-a-Thon as a PTA or PTO

A PTA or PTO is often the home for a school read-a-thon, and the board's job is different from the event chair's. The chair runs the reading period. The board approves the plan, protects the money, decides what it pays for and makes sure next year's volunteers can repeat it. This page covers that board-level work, plus what principals and the district need to know. New board members can skim answers to common read-a-thon questions first. For the full event plan, use our complete read-a-thon guide.

Approvals to get before anything is announced

Get three things in writing before the first flyer goes home. Settle every one of them six to eight weeks before reading starts.

1. The principal's yes on dates and school time. Ask for the reading window, a kickoff slot (an assembly or morning announcement), permission to send a letter home, and a clear answer on whether in-class reading time counts. Check the calendar for testing windows, breaks and other fundraisers in the same month.
2. Board and membership approval of the plan and budget. The motion should name the dates, the goal, what the money pays for, the spending limit and who the event chair and treasurer are. A sample motion is below. A board vote may not be enough. California State PTA's fundraising standards, for example, require the membership to approve a fundraiser in advance, with the vote recorded in the minutes, and an ongoing fundraiser to be re-approved each year. If you are a PTA, check your bylaws and your state PTA's rules; a PTO follows its own bylaws.
3. A budget line. If your budget was adopted before the read-a-thon was planned, add an income line and an expense line now, so the event shows in every treasurer's report.

Ask the principal about district rules early, because they can set your earliest start date. Is there a fundraiser registration form, and how far ahead is it due? Does the district cap fundraisers per year? Are there rules on online giving pages or on asking for money during the school day?

For principals and the district: who runs it

Settle early whether the event is school-run or parent-group-run, because that decides whose account holds the money and whose rules apply. Rules vary by district and state, so ask your district business office before the board votes:

Either way, teachers never handle money.

The front office's role

Sealed money envelopes usually arrive at the front office, which is real staff time. Agree the routine with office staff before launch. They receive sealed envelopes only and never open them. They log each one unopened, with the reader's first name, class and date. They put it straight into locked storage that only the treasurer, or the school's designated finance staff, empties. Office staff don't count money or write receipts. The front office guide (PDF) sets this out as a one-page desk guide.

A memo to the superintendent or district

If the district wants a summary, keep it to one page with these headings:

Roles and who owns what

A read-a-thon needs fewer volunteers than a carnival or a product sale, but each role needs one named owner. The two money roles must be different people.

For a small PTO, one person can hold the chair and communications roles together, and the teacher liaison can double as recognition lead. The treasurer and second counter should never be combined.

Financial controls that protect volunteers

Good controls are not a sign of distrust. They protect the volunteer who handles the money from ever being questioned. Adopt these as the standing rule for every fundraiser, not only this one.

• Money skips the classroom. Families send cash and checks in a sealed envelope marked with the reader's first name and class to the office or a locked box the treasurer empties, never through teachers or the log envelope.
• Two counters, every time. Envelopes are opened and counted by two adults who are not related and don't live together, with an officer or the event chair as one of them. Both sign the count sheet. Our two-person donation count sheet has space for both signatures.
• Deposit the same day. Deposit whatever you count the same day. Nothing goes home in a volunteer's car overnight.
• Recount before depositing. If money has to sit in a safe or lockbox, two people recount it when it comes out, before it goes to the bank.
• Two signers on checks. Prize and printing purchases are paid by check or card with two approvals, or reimbursed against receipts.
• Independent statement review. Someone without check-signing authority reviews each bank statement and the reconciliation.
• Two administrators on every account. Bank and online payment accounts each have at least two administrators, so no one volunteer controls access.
• Reconcile before you announce. Match online gifts, deposited cash and checks, and fees to your bank and payment provider statements before the total is announced. Our read-a-thon tracking spreadsheet keeps pledged, collected and outstanding by reader, and minutes by class.

Collection methods, deadlines, chasing unpaid pledges and donor receipts are covered step by step in our guide to collecting read-a-thon donations and sending receipts.

Check your tax status before you promise receipts

Whether a donor can deduct a gift depends on the organization that receives it. Some PTAs and PTOs are their own 501(c)(3) organizations. Some are covered by a group exemption through a state or national parent organization. Some have no exemption at all. Confirm your status before the parent letter says anything about tax deductions, and ask your state or national parent organization if you are unsure whether a group exemption covers you. If you aren't exempt, the receipts page explains how to ask your district or education foundation about receiving gifts for you, and our letter templates include a tax-status sentence for each case.

Small exempt groups usually file the short annual Form 990-N. The IRS revokes exemption automatically after three consecutive years of missed filings, according to its Form 990-N guidance. Put the filing date on the treasurer's calendar now.

Working with teachers

Teachers decide whether a read-a-thon feels like a celebration or a chore, so keep what you ask of them small and specific. Ask for five things, the same five in the teacher guide:

1. Hand out the reading log on kickoff day.
2. Mention the read-a-thon at the kickoff and once midway.
3. Write the class's in-class minutes on the class tally (one number a day).
4. Collect logs in the envelope provided on the log due date.
5. Tell organizers about any student who needs a different way to take part.

Do not ask teachers to collect, count or hold money, chase pledges or track which students have sponsors.

Hand every teacher our one-page teacher guide, which lists what the PTA will and won't ask of them. If teachers want to run their own reading challenges alongside yours, our page on classroom read-a-thons and the teacher's role has ideas that don't add work.

Say exactly what the money pays for

"Support our school" asks families to trust you. "New books for every classroom library" gives them a picture. Name one or two purposes in the board motion and repeat them in every letter.

In Holland, Michigan, the district reported that the PTO raised $26,800 the prior year, and that every TK–8 teacher received $100 plus $10 per student for field trips (Holland Public Schools). In Lynchburg, Virginia, the 2026 money went to each school's PTO (LCS Education Foundation). More are in our read-a-thon case studies.

To set a goal the board can defend, estimate it from your own numbers, not from anyone's claimed average. Our read-a-thon fundraising calculator works from enrollment, the share of readers who get a supporter, supporters per reader and the average gift. Arithmetic For example, a 300-student school where half the readers get three $25 supporters collects 300 × 50% × 3 × $25 = $11,250 before fees and costs.

Sample motion

Adapt the brackets and read it into the minutes, at the board and then the membership meeting if your bylaws require both. A specific motion shows next year's board exactly what was approved.

The board report: what to include

A one-page report keeps the board informed and gives next year's chair a real baseline. Report gross and net separately, because "we raised" usually means gross. Leave student names out of the report entirely.

Example An example report line set might read: gross $9,800, fees $250, costs $550, net $9,800 − $250 − $550 = $9,000. A board that sees this format every year can compare like with like.

Evaluating the event

To know whether the event did what you promised, add a few participation measures to the board report. Count them inside the school from your logs and tracking sheet, and let only totals leave the building: no student names, IDs or individual minutes.

• Logs returned against enrollment, by grade, such as "[logs returned] of [enrolled] second graders".
• Readers with at least one supporter, as a count and a share of enrollment.
• Minutes by class, home and in-class together.
• The readers you worried about. If you planned for English learners or readers with little support at home, count totals that show whether they took part, such as Spanish logs returned or logs returned in the classes you focused on.

A short anonymous survey, in families' home languages, fills in the rest.

How to describe the impact honestly

You can say how many minutes readers logged at home and in class, how many readers took part and how many had a supporter, what the money bought and when it arrived, and what families and teachers told you. Don't claim the event raised test scores or reading levels. No study has tested read-a-thons themselves; see claims to avoid. Say "our readers logged [total] minutes and the money bought [what it bought]", not "the read-a-thon improved reading".

Year over year: keep a handoff folder

Most PTA events lose their knowledge when the chair's child moves on. Keep one shared folder owned by the board, not by a volunteer's personal account. It should hold the final report, the approved motion, the letters as sent, the dates and what you would change. Our read-a-thon planning checklist lists the full handoff folder contents and a phase-by-phase task list the next chair can start from.

Spacing it with your other fundraisers

Each fundraiser asks the same families and grandparents, so leave at least two months between donation asks. A winter read-a-thon fits the slower indoor months. Some groups pair it with a spring walk; our PTA and PTO walk-a-thon guide and walk-a-thon planning guide cover that half.

To decide whether a read-a-thon should replace a product sale or ticketed event rather than add to them, use the fundraiser model comparison calculator, which shows net per volunteer hour, often the deciding number for a small board.

Board checklist

• Principal has approved dates, kickoff and the in-class reading question.
• Motion passed by the board, and by the membership if your bylaws require it, with goal, purpose, budget limit and named roles.
• District registration filed, if required.
• Tax status confirmed before any letter mentions deductions.
• Treasurer and second counter named; count sheet printed.
• Teachers have the one-page guide and nothing more than the five asks.
• Front office has agreed the envelope routine and has the desk guide.
• Recognition rewards minutes and participation, never dollars.
• Final report date set on the board calendar.
• Handoff folder created in a board-owned account.

When the board has signed off, the chair can take it from there with the full read-a-thon fundraiser guide.

Sources

1. Holland Public Schools, Read-A-Thon Update! - March Read-A-Thon (Mar 25, 2025). hollandpublicschools.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
2. LCS Education Foundation via Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, Eight Lynchburg City elementary schools celebrate reading over One Million Minutes and raising over $51,000 for School PTOs (Mar 11, 2026). business.lynchburgregion.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
3. Internal Revenue Service, Annual electronic filing requirement for small exempt organizations (Form 990-N). irs.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
4. California State PTA, Standards for PTA Fundraising. toolkit.capta.org (accessed October 19, 2026)