Fun run or product sale
Looking for a fun run alternative? Here is the fair comparison.
Fun runs are great. Booster runs them, and Giving Market, the company behind Brian's catalog, is a Booster company. If your school is looking for a fun run alternative, this page compares the two fairly so you can pick the one that fits your volunteers and your calendar.
Schools searching for a fun run alternative usually have one of three reasons. The volunteers who ran the last one are tired. The field or the date fell through. Or the school wants money in the fall and the fun run is a spring thing. All three are good reasons, and none of them mean fun runs are bad. They are a strong Booster product and they work. A two-week product sale is the other strong one, and Brian has run it for schools since 1994.
Side by side
What a fun run needs
A date, a field or gym, a rain plan, a dozen or more volunteers on the day, a pledge platform and a few weeks of build-up. Kids run laps, families pledge, everyone is outside together.
What a product sale needs
A two-week window, packets in backpacks, a five-minute kickoff and an afternoon handing out pre-sorted boxes. Families share a link. Brian runs the calendar and the phone.
Who a fun run suits
Schools with an active volunteer base, a usable field and a spring calendar with room for an event. Schools that want the community day as much as the money.
Who a product sale suits
Schools with a small PTO, a packed calendar or a fall deadline. Schools whose families are spread across states and want Grandma to be able to buy.
Where the money comes from
A fun run raises pledges. The money comes from family and friends who sponsor laps, and the kids earn it by running. A product sale raises purchases. The supporter gets popcorn, cookie dough, candles or wrapping paper from the Giving Market catalog, and the school gets its share. Both reach beyond the parking lot. Both reward the kids, with a prize program tracked in an admin site on the product side. The difference is what the supporter is being asked to do, and some families would rather buy a tub of cookie dough than pledge.
Signs a product sale is the better fit this year
- Your volunteer bench is short. A product sale runs on a kickoff and a link. No event day.
- You need the money in the fall. Two weeks after Labor Day and the check is in the account before the holidays.
- The calendar is full. No field to book, no rain date, nothing that collides with the book fair.
- Your families are spread out. The online store ships to supporters in any state.
- You ran a fun run last spring. Asking the same families to pledge again six months later is a hard ask. A catalog is a different ask.
What product sales did this fall
A K-8 charter in Charlotte with 1,400 students sold $45,000 in eighteen days. An elementary school in Summerville, South Carolina with 1,200 students sold $45,000. An elementary school in Lexington, North Carolina with 600 students sold $35,000. Every one ran a two-week sale with zero upfront cost and pre-sorted delivery. They are on the case studies page.
Running both in one year
Plenty of schools do not choose. They run a product sale in the fall and a fun run in the spring. The asks are different, so families do not feel hit twice. In the fall a grandparent buys cookie dough and wrapping paper. In the spring a neighbor pledges laps. The fall sale funds the year and the spring event is the community day. If your school already has a fun run it loves, keep it, and book the fall product sale as the second check. Brian will help you set the fall window so the two never crowd each other.
If the product sale is the fit, the whole program for schools, PTAs and PTOs is on the school fundraisers page, with the step-by-step on how it works. Schools in the Mountain West have their own page. If a fun run is the fit, Brian will tell you so on the call and point you to Booster.
Questions people ask
Is a product sale better than a fun run?
Neither is better. A fun run is an event that needs a date, a field and volunteers. A product sale is two weeks of sharing a link with pre-sorted delivery. Pick by what your school has.
Can a school do both?
Yes, and plenty do. A product sale in the fall and a fun run in the spring, or the reverse. Keep them a season apart so families are not asked twice in a month.
Does a product sale reach out-of-state relatives the way pledges do?
Yes. The online store ships gift items direct to supporters in any state. Grandparents who would have pledged laps order from the catalog instead.
What does a product sale cost to start?
Nothing. Zero upfront cost and no minimum. Brian sends the catalog and the parent letter the day you book.
Ready to raise more this year?
Tell Brian about your school or team. He replies within one business day with a plan and a date.