Q&A

Fun Run prizes?

This is our 2nd year doing a Fun Run at our elementary school and we are stuck about how to do prizes. Last year they did it by who brought in the most money with a $100 gift card, a $75, and $50gift card for prizes. The problem with that is 3 kids brought in the same amount. Furtunately they were all from the same family so they split the gift card. We want to avoid that this year but are not sure how. Do we do 1st, 2d, 3rd? If we do what do we do about a tie? Do we do 1 grand prize? Again how do we break a tie. We do not want parents thinking we are unfair or that we are not rewarding the child for their hard work by spliting a prize. We are giving away free water bottles, and a pop corn party and a pizza party. We have set those qualifications for all that participate. We just feel like we need a better incentive. Please help!!
- aspisak77

This is our first year doing a Fun Run, so I am not an expert, but we bought a nice trophy for the CLASS that raises the most money. Instead of rewarding individuals. Then we are awarding the entire student body when certain goals are reached - $1000 - crazy hat day, $2500= pajama day, $5000=double recess day, $7500=cider and donuts for everyone, $10000=bounce house event for eveyone. The first 3 prizes are free to us, but the kids get excited over. We wanted to avoid the competition and encourage everyone to work together to achieve the goals set. Good luck to you!
- cleopat999
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The only reason the class prize was shot sown in our meeting was because they did not want to reward a whole class if only a hand full of those kids raised all that money and the rest didnt do anything, but they get rewarded anyway. Why should the kids who did not raise any money get a winners prize? Obviously your school is much larger school than us so maybe that works out. We only have 410 students prek-5. Also our budget is not much. We do have an ultimate goal and if they reach it the principal is going to do something outrageous and funny. Thank you for the suggestions.
- aspisak77
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For our spring event the kids are asked to bring in pledges, the kids are given one raffle ticket for every $5 they bring in. The more money, the more raffle tickets they receive. Then we have an array of different prizes; horse riding lessons, admission to an amusement park, a bicycle, etc. Once all of the money is tallied and raffle tickets have been given out then at the end of the week we announce the actual "live" drawing over the loud speaker at school. The kids get very excited to hear who wins which prizes. No, we do not award the prizes to who raises the most money but they are recognized in a thank you flyer which goes home letting parents know how much money was raised, who won the raffle prizes and who raised the most money.
- crazymommachap
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We are struggling with the same question ourselves. We are entering our 2nd year and trying to select prizes that will excite the kids. We are going to stick with our basic prize structure but add one more level to help encourage the kids to reach a bit higher. We do flat donations that are due the day of the run, this saves tremendous time and effort on our part. Last year we awarded a prize (a school pen) to EVERY student who make a donation regardless of an amount. Then we offered the following prizes, that had the school logo on them, based on actual amount collected (not pledges that you may or may not collect): $20 Flying Disc, $40 Water Bottle, $60 Lunch Bag, $100 invitation to a dance party during the school day ($60 for each additional sibling). We then had top prizes for our top collectors. 1st place: Nintendo Dsi, 2nd place: e-spark scooter, 3rd place: Nook, 4th Place: iShuffle. To keep momentum going during the fundraising drive we had each class decorate a banner that they marched in with during the run. The banners were judged and the winner from each grade level got to go to the Kona Ice Truck. This was a huge hit! This year we are thinking about the following top prizes: 1st place: TV, 2nd place: e-spark scooter, 3rd place: $50 Visa Gift Card. We will also add a $160 prize level ($60 for additional siblings) to a video game truck. The great think about this level is that families will already have 1 kid at this level if they have their kids going to the dance party. They just have to raise $60 more for their other students to go to the video game truck. When you piggyback the prizes people are more apt to reach a bit higher. Best of Luck!
- ashley_PTO
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Yes
- magconylox
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Not sure where you all live but, have you considered using Boosterthon.com, they really take all of the guess work out of hosting a fun run.
- SummerSlovak
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Instead of doing rewards for the student(s) who raised the most money, I would recommend giving incentives that benefit every student, that are given depending on the amount of money raised total. For example, extra recess if the school raises $1000.
- Crimson ShadowYT
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