Running a liftathon fundraiser is a great way to help your sports team raise money for the upcoming season – especially if you’re looking for a way to tie your team’s performance into your yearly fundraiser.

Since launching our 100% free to use liftathon software back in May, we’ve seen sports teams all across the United States use the Teamfi Liftathon software with awesome success.

From running so many Liftathons, we’ve got a handle on all of the most common questions that come up. Here’s all the top questions we get asked about running a Liftathon:

How does a liftathon work?

A liftathon is a variation of fundraiser in which, prior to a selected testing date, you reach out to potential donors with a projection for how much weight an individual fundraiser participant is likely to lift and ask for a pledge (per pound of weight lifted) based on how much weight the individual successfully lifts.

For example, if for squat, bench, and deadlift a fundraiser participant were projected to lift 900lbs., a pledge they might receive could be $0.10/lb. which would be a projected donation of $90. Obviously, that donation could end up being more or less depending on how much weight is successfully lifted on the day of the liftathon testing.

Once a testing date is completed, the pledges are collected based on the amount lifted, and there you have it, a full liftathon from start to finish. As an aside, if you want to learn about how to run a fully digital and automated liftathon with Teamfi from start to finish, we've provided a full step-by-step guide on that!

Does it matter which lifts are used in a liftathon?

Not at all! A traditional liftathon is typically the main 3 lifts: squat, bench, and deadlift. However, we’ve seen many different variations of Liftathon including just benching (a “benchathon”) or any other combination of lifts. The most important thing to remember, regardless of which lifts you choose to include in your liftathon testing, is that it can be accurately tracked and is consistent for each participant throughout your entire fundraiser.

How do pledges and flat donations differ?

When running a liftathon using Teamfi, your fundraiser supporters will have the opportunity to donate both a flat amount or provide a pledge. The flat donation is just a standard donation that will not differ based on the fundraiser participant’s performance on testing day. For example, a fundraiser supporter could donate $50, and this would be a flat donation.

A pledge on the other hand, is when a fundraiser donor places a donation contingent on the fundraiser participant’s performance on testing day. For example, the donor could pledge $.15 per pound lifted. If the fundraiser participant ends up lifting 600 lbs. on testing day, that would end up being a $90 donation (.15 x 600 = 90).

How should you track player performance on the day of the Liftathon?

Thankfully, we’ve built tracking player performance on liftathon day directly into the Teamfi platform to make your life as easy as possible! Using Teamfi, liftathon day performance tracking it’s as easy as clicking a couple buttons.

However, if you’re planning on running a “pen and paper” style liftathon, we’d recommend using a three column sheet with the columns being Name, Projected Weight, and Actual Weight. Using this setup, you’ll be sure to know how each player performed in comparison to their projected weight. More importantly, diligently tracking the weights on liftathon day will help you communicate with fundraiser supporters who’ve pledged based on those results.

How do I collect the pledges?

We’d suggest having each of your players follow-up directly with any of their supporters who have pledged to them. This could be in the form of a text, call, email or all three! The important part here is that the donation amount (based on the pledge) is communicated clearly. Additionally, you’ll want to include the way you’re collecting donations in that communication.

‍If using Teamfi for your liftathon, the pledge collection will be automatic! As soon as you enter player results, the Teamfi platform will reach out to each supporter who has pledged with a personalized payment link for their pledge based on the performance of the player they’ve pledged to.

How long should the liftathon take?

The whole liftathon process from asking for donations/pledges to collecting the pledges usually takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks. For the testing itself, usually a couple hours should be enough time depending on the number of players on your team.

When’s the best time of year to run a liftathon?

We’ve found that the best time of year to run a liftathon is opposite of the time of year your team is in season For example, if you are a football coach, you might want to consider running your liftathon in the late winter/early spring.

There’s a couple reasons we’ve observed this timing to be most successful. For starters, most of the time, your team will be lifting more frequently in the offseason as compared to in season, and this will likely lead to better performance. Additionally, it serves as a way to keep the community excited about the football team in the offseason.

And that’s a wrap! All of the top questions we get from coaches about running a liftathon for their team. If you’re curious to learn more about how Teamfi can make your liftathon 100% free and completely automated, feel free to book a 30 minute demo and one of our founders will walk you through the product and answer any questions you have.

Additionally, if you want to see some examples of teams who’ve had success using Teamfi’s liftathon software, feel free to check out the following:

• Chelsea Football (Chelsea, MI) – $40,791 raised with their liftathon
• Hartland Football (Hartland, MI) – $21,394 raised with their liftathon
• Reed City Football (Reed City, MI) – $12,591 raised with their liftathon
• Reeths-Puffer Football (Muskegon, MI) – $12,227 raised with their liftathon

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