We understand fundraising can be challenging so we've put together some common questions from customers to help guide you in the right direction.
Q: How do I get started?
A: First, create your fundraiser account on Read for My School. It's free to set up and there's no obligation to fundraise, but it provides an understanding of what it's like to promote a digital fundraiser for your school community. We found that once you see what we can do, you won't need additional volunteers to promote a successful fundraiser. Once you create your free account, we will assign an in-app support team representative to help you throughout the duration of your fundraising experience.
Q: What is Stripe and why do I need it?
A: Stripe is a 3rd party credit card processing company that handles all of the online pledge donation transactions for your fundraiser through the Read for My School app. Read for My School has partnered with Stripe due to its safe and secure handling of processing donations as well as services provided to our customers. For more information on Stripe as well as how it works with your fundraising experience on Read for My School, visit our pricing page.
Q: With my Stripe account, is it true that I have direct access to manage my profits?
A: Yes! Unlike other fundraising companies who hold your profits until the end of the fundraiser, Read for My School provides you direct access to manage your profits the way you want. Once your Stripe account is connected to your fundraiser, all donation transactions and profits received will transfer directly to your preferred bank account you designate when creating your Stripe account. How cool is that? Now you can use your fundraising profits during the duration of your fundraiser for fun prize incentives and other rewards without waiting.
Q: What are fundraising teams and why do I need to build them?
A: Read for My School's platform allows you to create as many teams as you want when you design your fundraiser. If you are designing a school challenge, each team could be a classroom or even by grade level. You can even design a classroom challenge where you just create one team. Learn more
Q: Do I need to upload emails of students and family members for them to participate?
A: No! Once you've set up your fundraising teams the way you like, you send out one (1) private invite code to all families looking to join and support your fundraiser. Once they've inserted your private invite code, they will be asked to join a team that you've set up. After that, they complete their reader profile and start their reading and fundraising experience. It's that easy to launch!
Q: Do all supporters have a donation page to share and raise money for my school fundraiser?
A: Yes! Even you as the administrator have a donation page to share with others looking to donate to your fundraiser. Here's an article to help you understand more.
Q: Can students read any books to support our fundraiser?
A: Yes! Students can easily track any books that they are reading directly in our Read for My School app. Here are some articles to help you understand more about tracking reading minutes as well as managing your personal bookshelf.
Q: What if I can't find my book?
A: While we update our platform to continually search for new titles, we recommend using our BOOK SCANNER tool on our mobile (Apple and Google Play) apps. All you need to do is click the scanner option when you search on your app. It will bring up your mobile camera phone. Then, take a pic of your book ISBN. It is usually located in the back of the book. Once you scan ISBN, our app will search for your title. Once it finds your book, select start reading - which will insert the book onto your personal bookshelf to start tracking minutes.
IMPORTANT: The book scanner feature is only available on our mobile apps and not available on our web app.
Q: Can families manage more than one reader profile under one account?
A: Yes! Families can add and manage multiple reader profiles under one email account. Whether you are a parent managing multiple children or a teacher managing multiple students, each account holder can easily add and manage multiple profiles on the Read for My school app. Here's an article to help you understand more.
Q: Is there a simple way to download reports?
A: Yes! While our app provides you with real-time stats across everything happening in your fundraiser, we understand that you might need to download reports from time to time. You can easily download and format your reading and fundraising reports right from our app to work directly in Google Sheets or MS Excel. Learn more
Q: How does this work for elementary or middle schools?
A: Once your admin account to set up, the next step is to build it out the way you want. Here's a support article that will walk you through it. It's probably easiest for you to view this first before going deeper into what you are looking for.
Q: How much effort or involvement is involved (both PTA/PTO and faculty).
A: Actually, one volunteer can build and manage a fundraiser - usually the admin who is in charge of their school fundraiser. As for teachers, they can join up just like their families and support your fundraiser the way you build it out (Example: teams by grade level or teams by classrooms, etc...). You are in complete control of how you need to design it.