St. Hedwig School in Los Alamitos, California used PledgeStar to help raise more money during the school’s inaugural Jog-a-Thon fundraiser.

Co-Jog-a-Thon Chair and PA Board Member Erin de Lucia was first made aware of the PledgeStar online fundraising system after hearing rave reviews about the service from one of her friends at Lowell Elementary School in neighboring Long Beach, California.

“We were impressed with how much more money Lowell earned with PledgeStar than they had in previous years. My friend at Lowell totally sold me on PledgeStar, and I knew we had to give it a shot,” de Lucia explained.

St. Hedwig’s Jog-a-Thon was a huge success, bringing in over $51,000. De Lucia credited the success to Pledgestar’s email system which helped the school reach family and friends who would otherwise not have been asked to donate. “We loved how PledgeStar gave relatives an opportunity to contribute and be involved. Grandparents living in different states were able to directly impact their grandchild’s school in a positive way.”

St. Hedwig’s incentive program also helped the school exceed their fundraising goals. Students were given prizes based on how much money they brought in; the more they raised, the better prizes they received. At $100, students were given customized socks with the school’s Celtic logo printed on them. “It was crazy, the kids were really motivated to reach the $100 mark to get those socks!” recalled de Lucia.

In the past, the school put on several fundraising events throughout the year including wrapping paper and holiday wreath sales. After adding PledgeStar to the mix, St. Hedwig will now be able to do away with the other fundraisers.