Athon fundraisers have long been a favorite for schools, sports teams, and community groups. They’re engaging, goal oriented, and incredibly effective. But what makes them even more powerful is combining them with peer-to-peer fundraising.
With Cheddar Up’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools, you can run an athon where each participant gets their own page to collect pledges based on activity or effort. It takes the pressure off organizers and makes giving simple for everyone.
Here is how to set up an athon on a fundraising platform that feels modern, manageable, and built to scale.
What Is a Peer-to-Peer Athon Fundraiser?
An athon fundraiser is an activity-based campaign where participants commit to doing something measurable, like reading books, walking laps, or completing challenges. Donors support these efforts through either flat donations or per-unit pledges, tied directly to the participant’s progress.
In a peer-to-peer format, each participant creates their own fundraising page. This turns every individual into a mini-fundraiser with their own audience, goal, and story to tell. It spreads your campaign’s reach and adds a personal connection that drives donations.
Common Athon Ideas
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Readathons
where participants log the number of books or minutes read.
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Walkathons
that count steps or laps.
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Shootathons
for basketball or hockey teams.
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Danceathons
for hours of participation.
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Serviceathons
tied to acts of kindness or volunteer hours.
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Swimathons
for the number of laps swum.
This format is flexible. You can customize it to fit your community’s interests and age range, and structure it as competitive, collaborative, or purely celebratory.
Why Cheddar Up Works for Athon Fundraisers
Cheddar Up gives you all the tools to run a streamlined, high-impact athon without needing extra apps or manual tracking. From setup to closeout, it handles the details, allowing you to focus on participation and promotion.
When you create a peer-to-peer campaign with Cheddar Up, you get:
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A centralized campaign page
to set the tone, explain your purpose, and collect donations
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Individual participant pages
that roll up to the main campaign and can be easily customized
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Flat or per unit pledges
so donors can choose what works best
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Built in progress tracking
for organizers and supporters to follow along
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No account required for donors
which reduces friction at checkout
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Automatic reporting and exports
to simplify reconciliation and thank you’s
All of these tools are included on the Basic Plan, with no subscription cost for organizers!
Your Athon Fundraiser, Step-by-Step
Choose Your Athon Format
Pick something that’s easy to measure and meaningful to your group. The best athons are inclusive and straightforward. You want something participants can realistically track and that resonates with your audience.
Pro Tip: Keep your age group in mind. Younger students in elementary school might track books or laps. Older participants may prefer goals based on miles, hours, or skills.
Start a Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
When you begin your campaign on Cheddar Up, choose the peer-to-peer format. This creates your main fundraising page, allowing participants to create their own pages under it. Each participant page can be customized and shared, making it easy to collect funds from individual networks.
Invite Participants to Join
Share a simple join link with your participants so they can create their own pages under your campaign. Each participant can add their name, photo, story, and goal. They’ll receive a unique link they can share directly with their networks.
Pro tip: Encourage participants to personalize their stories. A heartfelt note, video, or photo can significantly boost donations.
Track Pledges and Progress Automatically
Donors can choose to give a flat amount or pledge per unit of activity. Participants log their progress throughout the campaign. You’ll be able to view results by individual or group in real time, giving you the visibility to celebrate milestones and recognize top fundraisers.
You can also download reports for easy reconciliation and follow-up, including customizable exports that help with prizes or donor recognition.
Athon Fundraisers That Feel Personal Perform Better
People are more likely to donate when they feel a personal connection to the cause. A peer-to-peer athon gives them that. They are supporting someone they know, tied to a cause they care about, and watching that person achieve something real.
For organizers, Cheddar Up makes the process scalable and efficient. Whether you have 10 participants or 200, everything lives in one place. No spreadsheets. No chasing payments. Just a clean, modern solution built for busy group leaders.
Before you go
Make your next athon fundraiser effortless and impactful with Cheddar Up. From personalized participant pages to built-in pledge tracking, everything you need is in one place.
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Easy Elementary School Fundraising Ideas Kids Love and Parents Support
Elementary school kids are energetic, playful, and not into anything too complicated, so why should their fundraisers be? The best elementary school fundraising ideas feel like fun for the kids while staying simple for the volunteers who make them happen.
Below are 20 ideas built for elementary schools, grouped by how you want to run them, plus an easy, online way to collect payments.
Elementary school fundraising is different because younger children can be active participants, but they still need adults to take the lead on money, sales, and logistics. The best fundraisers play to both strengths: kids bring the creativity, excitement, and school spirit, while adults keep everything running smoothly.
Take payments, for example. A first grader isn’t going to manage a cash box, make change, or operate a point-of-sale system. Keeping payments with adults (and collecting online when possible) makes it easier to track every dollar, so cash doesn’t get lost in backpacks.
Door-to-door selling can be tricky as well. Young kids need adult supervision, and caregivers may not be comfortable sending them out to sell to strangers. Fundraisers that families can support from home or through a school event tend to make more sense.
So, what can elementary students do? All the fun stuff. They can color posters, run laps, cheer on classmates, perform, create something to sell, or proudly share the fundraiser with family and friends.
Fun Run Fundraiser: How to Plan One, Plus Ideas and Costs
Few fundraisers pull a community together like a fun run. If you are weighing a fun run fundraiser for your school or nonprofit, here is the full run-down (yes, pun intended): how to plan it, what it can raise, theme ideas, and how to collect every dollar you earn. A fun run is a walk or run, often themed, where participants raise money for a school or nonprofit by paying an entry fee or collecting pledges for each lap or mile they complete. The goal is participation over speed, so anyone can join regardless of age or ability.
In schools, a fun run is one of the most common PTA fundraising events because it needs little equipment and gets students, teachers, and families moving together. Nonprofits use the same format to raise funds and awareness for a cause.
You can organize a fun run in six steps. Give yourself at least six to eight weeks so you have time to line up volunteers, promote the event, and accept pledges.
Potluck sign up sheet template + planning tips
You offered to help pull together the potluck. Now you are the one texting a dozen people to find out who is bringing a main dish, and so far the table is shaping up to be all chips and desserts.
A potluck sign up sheet is the fix. Guests open one link and claim a slot, and the sheet sends the reminders so you are not following up all week. Below is a free online version you can grab in a minute, along with a quick setup walkthrough and category ideas for any kind of gathering. Start here. Our free potluck sign up template works for any gathering, from a backyard BBQ to an office lunch to a holiday feast, and you can have it live in about a minute.
It runs as an online potluck sign up sheet, so the whole list lives on one link. You share it once, guests open it on their phones, and everyone sees which dishes are already claimed and which slots are still open. There is no paper sheet to pass around and no file to email back and forth.
How to Organize a Group Gift the Easy Way: Ultimate Guide
Teacher gifts, coaches gifts, holiday gifts, thank-you gifts, end-of-year gifts, shower gifts, and so on. The group gift list is endless! If you’re wondering how to organize a group gift without getting a headache, you’ve made it to the right place.
If you’ve ever tried to plan a group gift, you know the real challenge is wrangling people. It’s the awkward Venmo requests, the “did you pay yet?” follow-ups, and the mystery of what happened to that extra $14.
The good news? A little structure up front makes a world of difference when you’re ready to start planning for that special group gift.
Below you’ll find a step-by-step guide that will help you coordinate a group gift from start to finish, including group gift giving etiquette, copy-paste scripts, a deadline strategy, and a plan for leftover funds.A group gift is a single present that is purchased by a group of friends, family, and other contributors.
For instance, a group of friends might decide to come together to purchase an expensive stroller from their bestie’s baby shower registry. Normally, one friend wouldn’t be able to afford the gift on their own. But if 3 friends chip in together, it makes the present achievable.
