Read-a-Thon Case Studies: 20 Documented Events

Below are 20 read-a-thons we could document from a school, library, district or news report, plus a short history of the MS Read-a-thon. Each write-up says what the organizers did, what they reported, what the case shows and what the source leaves out. They run from a $355 library weekend to a district foundation that raised more than $207,500, which is exactly why no single case should be read as a typical result.

If you are planning your own event, the complete read-a-thon guide walks through every step. This page is the evidence behind it.

How we chose these cases

We included an event only if a school, district, library, foundation or news outlet published its own account. We left out any event whose only record is a fundraising-platform campaign page, because those pages are written to sell and often change or vanish. Where the only source is a student newspaper or a single local news story, we say so.

What this selection can and can't tell you

• It is not a sample. We first gathered these events by searching the public web in October 2026 for organizations' own accounts and news coverage, and we add to them only at our quarterly reviews, under the same rules. Nobody chose them at random, so they can't stand for read-a-thons in general.
• Published events lean toward success. Groups write up events that went well and rarely announce disappointing ones. Expect the typical event to look less impressive than these.
• Coverage is uneven. Most events are in the US and in English-language sources. Schools that publish news pages, and towns with local news, are over-represented.
• "Raised" means different things. Some figures are pledged totals, some are collected, one is a mid-event update, and none reports costs or net proceeds.
• Scopes differ by a factor of hundreds. The events range from eight children to a whole school district, so dollar figures can't be ranked against each other. Arithmetic in this database stays within a single event.

Numbers are reported as each source gave them. Anything we calculated is marked Arithmetic and shows its steps. When a source leaves out something an organizer would want, such as student count or pledge format, we flag it with Evidence gap. Our full approach is on the research index and in our editorial standards.

Search the case database

All 20 documented events are in the table below. Search it, or filter by type of group, scale, evidence quality and what each source reports. Each event's details give its format, pledge structure, where the money went, arithmetic within that event, what its source leaves out, and the source itself. Download the database as a spreadsheet file (CSV).

What the sources report

Before using any figure, look at how incomplete the record is. Fact Of the 20 events, this is how many report each item:

Item	Events reporting it
Amount raised	13 of 20
Minutes read	9 of 20
Number of readers	8 of 20
Number of supporters	2 of 20
Pledge structure	8 of 20
Costs or net proceeds	0 of 20

Last reviewed October 19, 2026. Every quarter we re-check each source against the figures shown here, correct or retire anything a source no longer supports, and add new events only when an independent public source documents them. Each event shows the date its source was last verified.

Evidence gap No source reports costs or net proceeds, and only 1 event reports dollars, minutes, readers and supporters together. That is why this database has no "average raised" and no ranking by dollars: the events differ in scope (one classroom to a whole district), in what "raised" means (pledged, collected or mid-event), and in what they leave out. Use it to find events shaped like yours and to see what formats exist, not as a benchmark.

Database updates

• October 19, 2026: First full review. Re-checked all 20 sources (21 links, all reachable). Corrected four entries to match exactly what their sources state: added the 2024 recap as a second source for Burlingame; changed Saint Peter's format to a one-day read-a-thon; marked the Mount Carmel and Cranberry Lake locations as not stated by their sources; and removed Cranberry Lake's year, which its source does not give.

Public elementary schools

Eight Lynchburg City elementary schools, Virginia (2026)

Fact The LCS Education Foundation reported that eight elementary schools read from February 25 to March 6, 2026, logging 1,127,177 minutes against an 800,000-minute goal, and raised $51,372 from 1,407 supporters. The money went to each school's PTO. The year before, six schools logged over 732,000 minutes and raised over $42,000 (foundation press release).

Arithmetic $51,372 ÷ 1,407 supporters = about $36.51 per supporter. 1,127,177 ÷ 800,000 = 141% of the minutes goal.

Evidence gap The release gives no student count and does not say whether pledges were flat or per minute.

Four Lynchburg elementary schools, Virginia (2023)

Three years earlier, local station WSLS reported on four of the same district's schools. Each ran its own window of 9 to 16 days, and the combined total was 512,109 minutes and $44,110 gross, all going to PTOs (WSLS report). The school-by-school figures are the most useful part:

School	Minutes	Raised	Dollars per 100 minutes
Bedford Hills	178,875	$17,783	$9.94
Paul Munro	more than 106,000	$12,671	$11.95 at most
T.C. Miller	149,181	$7,804	$5.23
R.S. Payne	78,053	$5,852	$7.50

Arithmetic The last column is dollars ÷ minutes × 100, which we calculated. Paul Munro's figure is a ceiling, because the source gives its minutes only as "more than 106,000." T.C. Miller read up to about 43,000 more minutes than Paul Munro and raised about $4,900 less.

Evidence gap No participant counts, so we cannot say whether the gap came from more donors, larger gifts or something else.

Patrick Henry Elementary, Arlington, Virginia (2017)

The PTA set a goal of 500 minutes per student over just over a month. ARLnow reported that 360 students turned in logs totaling 263,211 minutes and that the event raised more than $22,000 for field trips and other needs. When more than 300 students hit the 500-minute mark, the principal kissed a pig (ARLnow).

Arithmetic 263,211 ÷ 360 = about 731 minutes per student who turned in a log.

The goal and the stunt were both about reading, not dollars. Evidence gap We don't know how many students were enrolled, so we can't tell what share turned in a log.

Holland Public Schools, Michigan (2025)

Fact This is a mid-event update, not a final result. The district reported $3,047 raised by its elementaries and $3,275 by its middle school for the PTO so far, with minutes of 22,840 at HLA, 13,875 at Holland Heights, 12,705 at West and 11,940 at Jefferson. The more telling detail is the prior year: the PTO raised $26,800 that year (the post doesn't say how much came from the read-a-thon) and turned it into $100 per teacher plus $10 per student for field trips (district news post).

Evidence gap Final 2025 totals were not published in this source.

Burlingame Community Education Foundation, California (2024–2025)

A district-wide foundation, not a single school. Its 2025 recap reports a five-day event with 1,592 readers, 937 fundraisers, 1,955 donors and 548,861 minutes, raising more than $207,500, up 10%, for an annual grant that funds PE, music and teacher training (2025 recap). In 2024 it reported more than $186,000 (posted as "and counting," so not a final total) from 2,173 readers, 706,000 minutes and 2,009 donors (2024 recap).

Arithmetic 937 ÷ 1,592 = 59% of readers fundraised. 1,955 ÷ 937 = about 2.1 donors per fundraiser. $207,500 ÷ 1,955 = about $106 per donor. $207,500 ÷ 1,592 = about $130 per reader.

From 2024 to 2025 the foundation reported fewer readers and fewer minutes but more money. This is a standing district-wide foundation, not a single school's PTA, so treat it as an outlier, not a target.

PS 20 The Clinton Hill School, Brooklyn (2025–2026)

Fact The school reports that more than 430 students read 127,831 minutes in 2025, raised more than $18,000 and added more than 900 books to the library. For 2026 it set a $20,000 goal, capped counted minutes at 180 per day, and does not count audiobooks (school read-a-thon page).

That audiobook rule differs from our own advice, which is to count listening as reading. It is a real school's choice, and the 180-minute cap is a practical guardrail any organizer can borrow. Our reasons for counting listening are on the page on making it fair for every reader.

South Elementary, Saint Peter, Minnesota (2024)

This K–1 building ran a one-day, pledge-based read-a-thon to open its "I Love to Read Month" and raised nearly $7,000, according to the district (district article). One day suits five- and six-year-olds, and the event rode on a month already on the calendar. Evidence gap No minutes, student count or pledge details were given.

Fair Grove Elementary, Missouri (2016)

The source here is a student newspaper, so treat it as a weak secondary report. It says the K–4 school read from March 18 to 28, students signed a nightly reading pledge, and the school met its $2,000 goal for the PTO (Eagle's Eye). It is a small, plain case with a short window, a stated goal and a promise to read each night. Evidence gap No minutes or participation figures.

Kleine Brogel Elementary, Belgium (2025)

A Department of Defense Education Activity school on a military installation. DoDEA reported a three-week read-a-thon with more than 14,000 minutes read, money going to classroom equipment, field trips and books, and top readers and fundraisers getting to pie their teachers (DoDEA news article).

Evidence gap No dollar figure was published.

Faith-based and independent schools

Our Lady of Mount Carmel school (2015)

Reported by Current, a local paper in the Carmel area. The article gives no city, state or date for the school; the year 2015 comes from the article's web address. Over two weeks, 234 students read 166,166 minutes (Current). A related Current story reports that a quarter of the money raised bought more than $2,500 in books for St. Ambrose Catholic School in Anderson (related report).

Arithmetic 166,166 ÷ 234 = about 710 minutes per student, or roughly 51 minutes a day over 14 days.

Our Lady of Good Counsel School, Pearl City, Hawaii (2016)

This one was not a fundraiser. The Hawaii Catholic Herald describes a three-month reading challenge with a goal of 8,000 books, which students beat by more than 800. Because students won, the librarian and the teachers standing in for the principal paid the agreed penalty: 24 hours on the school roof (Hawaii Catholic Herald). It belongs here because it shows the reading half of a read-a-thon working on its own. For running one without money, see classroom read-a-thons.

Mary McDowell Friends School, Brooklyn (2024)

A private K–12 school where each division picked an outside cause. The school reported that the Lower School raised $547 for No Kid Hungry, the Middle School raised nearly $5,000 split among three charities, and the Upper School read 36,541 pages against a 30,000-page goal and raised $1,322 for Books Through Bars (school recap).

Arithmetic 36,541 ÷ 30,000 = 122% of the page goal. The three divisions together raised roughly $6,869 (using $5,000 for "nearly $5,000").

Older students counted pages rather than minutes.

Middle and high school

Rick Hansen Secondary, Abbotsford, British Columbia (2025)

Fact The school called it its first annual read-a-thon: 23 students read for a full school day and raised just over $1,200 for library books (school announcement).

Arithmetic $1,200 ÷ 23 = about $52 per student reader.

A small group, one day and one visible purpose was enough. More on running events for this age group is on our middle and high school page. Evidence gap No minutes or donor counts.

Libraries and Friends groups

Lake County Public Library Foundation, Indiana (2025)

Fact The library's read-a-thon ran from January 13 to February 24, 2025. The library reports that 942 students raised more than $85,000, which it calls its most successful read-a-thon ever. The money supports both the library and each student's school. Reading-log envelopes go out through participating schools, and families at other schools can pick one up at a library branch. Sponsors pledge at least 5¢ per book, and the library discourages online giving platforms so that every pledge is credited to the right child (Lake County Public Library).

Arithmetic $85,000 ÷ 942 = about $90 per student. Because the total is "more than $85,000," this is a floor.

It is the only library–school partnership in this set: the library supplies the logs and the structure, the schools reach the readers, and both share the money. Evidence gap The page does not say how many schools took part, how the money is split, how many minutes or books were read, or what the event cost.

Cushman Library, Bernardston, Massachusetts (2016)

The Greenfield Recorder covered a 24-hour read-a-thon at this small library: 13 readers on Saturday and six on Sunday, raising $355 toward a $5,000 fund to replace an oil tank. Donors could pledge a flat amount, per page or per hour, and most of the money came from flat gifts of $10 to $50 (Greenfield Recorder).

Arithmetic $355 ÷ $5,000 = about 7% of the fund.

This is the low end of every documented result we found. The useful detail is the flat-gift finding: offered three pledge types, donors mostly chose the simplest. We cover that choice on the pledge structure page.

Tompkins County Public Library Foundation, New York (2025)

Fact The foundation's 13th annual read-aloud challenge raised nearly $11,000 for library materials. Participants closed their campaigns by sharing a video of themselves reading with their donors (foundation page). The closing video is a cheap way to show donors what their gift supported. Evidence gap No participant or donor counts.

Stillwater Public Library Trust, Oklahoma (2026)

The City of Stillwater announced a Valentine's evening read-aloud event for adults 21 and over on February 13, 2026. Audience members donate in a reader's name, and the reader with the most donations is named champion (city announcement). Evidence gap The announcement predates the event, and we found no published result.

Friends of the Stillwater County Library, Montana (2024)

A different Stillwater. This Friends group ran an all-ages read-a-thon from November 2 to 9, 2024, with pledges per book, per page or flat, and a goal of nearly $400 to buy plaques for eight Little Free Libraries (Friends group page).

Arithmetic $400 ÷ 8 = about $50 per plaque.

A goal this concrete lets every donor see exactly what a gift buys. Evidence gap No result posted. Library groups can find more on our library read-a-thon page.

Adult and community programs

Permian Basin Adult Literacy (PBALC), Texas

The Odessa American described the center's first read-a-thon, in which adult learners each committed to read 10 books between July and September 30, with sponsors matched to individual learners (Odessa American). The readers here are adults building literacy, and sponsorship is personal: a donor backs one named learner. Evidence gap The article gives no year we could confirm and no result.

Cranberry Lake Women's Association (year not stated)

The Township Journal, on a page dated September 29, 2011 that gives no year for the event, reported that eight children read 2,700 minutes over two weeks and earned $440 in per-minute pledges. The money was split three ways: 30% to a school for autistic children, 50% to books for the young readers, and 20% to the association's clubhouse (Township Journal).

Arithmetic 2,700 ÷ 8 = 337.5 minutes per child. $440 ÷ 8 = $55 per child. The split works out to $132, $220 and $88.

Patterns across the cases

These events are too different to average, but a few patterns hold.

Minutes do not predict money. Arithmetic In Lynchburg 2023, dollars per 100 minutes ranged from $5.23 to at most $11.95 across four schools in one district. Across all four, $44,110 ÷ 512,109 minutes = about 8.6¢ per minute. Money follows donors and gift size, not reading volume, unless every pledge is per minute.

Fewer readers can raise more. Arithmetic Burlingame went from 2,173 readers in 2024 to 1,592 in 2025 (27% fewer) and from 706,000 minutes to 548,861 (22% fewer), while money rose from more than $186,000 to more than $207,500. Per reader that is at least about $86 in 2024 (using the interim 2024 figure) and about $130 in 2025.

Small events can meet small goals. Fair Grove met $2,000. Rick Hansen raised just over $1,200 with 23 readers. Cranberry Lake raised $440 with eight children.

Flat gifts matter. At Cushman, most money came from flat gifts even though per-page and per-hour pledges were offered.

Gaps are the norm. Evidence gap Only Burlingame reported readers, fundraisers, donors, minutes and dollars together. Most sources omit at least two of those. If you publish your own results, report all five.

The MS Read-a-thon: a short history

How to use these cases

1. Match scope before comparing. A single K–1 building, an eight-school district event and a district foundation are different animals. Compare yourself only with cases of similar size and type.
2. Borrow mechanics, not totals. The 180-minute daily cap, the per-student minutes goal, the closing video and the per-classroom report-back are all transferable. The dollar figures are not.
3. Build your estimate from your own numbers. Use readers, the share with a donor, donors each and average gift. The fundraising calculator does the arithmetic, and the read-a-thon economics page explains each lever.

Walk-a-thon organizers can find a parallel set of examples in our walk-a-thon case studies. If your group ran a read-a-thon and published the results, send the link to hello@walk-a-thon.com and we will consider it for this page.

Sources

1. 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)
2. WSLS 10 News, Lynchburg elementary school students read combined 512,109 minutes for read-a-thon. wsls.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
3. ARLnow, Patrick Henry Principal Kisses Pig At Read-A-Thon Celebrations (Nov 21, 2017). arlnow.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
4. Holland Public Schools, Read-A-Thon Update! - March Read-A-Thon (Mar 25, 2025). hollandpublicschools.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
5. Burlingame Community Education Foundation, Read. Fundraise. Repeat! Our 2025 Read-a-thon in Review. bcefoundation.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
6. Burlingame Community Education Foundation, Recap: 2024 Read-a-Thon. bcefoundation.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
7. PS 20 The Clinton Hill School, Read-a-Thon. ps20.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
8. Saint Peter Public Schools, South students take part in Read-A-Thon activities (Feb 2, 2024). stpeterschools.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
9. Eagle's Eye (Fair Grove student newspaper), Read-a-thon week a hit in the elementary, raising $2,000. fairgrovenews.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
10. Department of Defense Education Activity, DoDEA Kleine Brogel Elementary School Students Celebrate Read-A-Thon Success With Pie in the Face. dodea.edu (accessed October 19, 2026)
11. Current, Students surpass reading goals. youarecurrent.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
12. Current, Related report on books donated to St. Ambrose Catholic School. youarecurrent.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
13. Hawaii Catholic Herald, At Our Lady of Good Counsel School, reading has its rewards and 'penalties'. hawaiicatholicherald.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
14. Mary McDowell Friends School, Read-a-Thon Recap. marymcdowell.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
15. Rick Hansen Secondary School, First Annual Read-A-Thon a Success! (Nov 28, 2025). rickhansen.abbyschools.ca (accessed October 19, 2026)
16. Greenfield Recorder, Readathon boosts Cushman past half-way point in oil tank drive (Jul 20, 2016). recorder.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
17. Tompkins County Public Library Foundation, Read-a-Thon. tcplfoundation.org (accessed October 19, 2026)
18. City of Stillwater, 'Library Lovers Readathon' returns Feb. 13 with line-up of community readers (Jan 14, 2026). stillwaterok.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
19. Friends of the Stillwater County Library, Read-a-Thon. friendsstillwatercountylibrary.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
20. Odessa American, Permian Basin Adult Literacy (PBALC) read-a-thon. oaoa.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
21. Township Journal, Cranberry kids read for Reach for the Stars. townshipjournal.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
22. Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Proclamation: MS Read-a-thon Day, September 17, 1979. lrl.mn.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
23. Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Proclamation: MS Read-a-thon Day, October 15, 1981. lrl.mn.gov (accessed October 19, 2026)
24. Irish Examiner, Millions of pages turned for charity (Feb 26, 2003). irishexaminer.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
25. MS Canada, MS Read-a-Thon: a million epic adventures for one incredible cause. mscanada.ca (accessed October 19, 2026)
26. Multiple Sclerosis News Today, MS Canada raising money, support with this year's Read-a-Thon for kids. multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com (accessed October 19, 2026)
27. MS Australia, Connecting through Reading: The MS Readathon Story (Raw Nerve episode 60). msaustralia.org.au (accessed October 19, 2026)
28. Lake County Public Library (Indiana), Read-a-Thon. lcplin.org (accessed October 19, 2026)