Like so many schools, Dakota Valley Elementary lacks the funds to employ every teacher's assistant necessary. This is where the PledgeStar fundraising method comes in and why the Aurora, Colorado, school has been consistently using the platform for the past six years.

Caitlin Cousatte, Dakota Valley's PTCO fundraising chair, explains why PledgeStar has been an integral part of the preschool-grade 5 campus' fundraising success. "We love that everything for our event is handled through PledgeStar," says Ms. Cousatte, who shares that prior to using the platform, the school needed multiple vendors involved in their events. The convenience of PledgeStar also extends to the school's families. "Supporters can just make a pledge and be done with it. Our volunteers have a lot less work to do now," she adds.

While the switch from a more expensive fundraising organization to PledgeStar brought changes, it gave Dakota Valley the flexibility to let parents and families stick with some of the previous methods, helping families feel comfortable when donating. "We fundraise online for a week," Ms. Cousatte says, "but still accept cash and checks for several weeks after that. It's great that we can do both with PledgeStar."

Dakota Valley's decision to partner with PledgeStar is reflected in the event's bottom line: through cash, checks, and online donations, the school's earnings have increased annually. "This year, our goal was $32,000," says Ms. Cousatte, "and we ended up raising almost $39,000."

Communication is just one more reason that Dakota Valley keeps coming back to PledgeStar. "Any time I have a question, my email is returned quickly," Ms. Cousatte says. Dakota Valley spread that necessary communication on campus by keeping the kids motivated throughout the weeks-long event. "We had a pep rally kick-off," says Ms. Cousatte, "where we sent home our pledge kit attached to a lanyard so the kids wouldn't lose it. We also had different classroom competitions each day, such as who had the most people register overnight and who raised the most money over the weekend."

When the day of the Fun Run finally arrived, even parents got involved. "We told parents they were welcome to participate," says Ms. Cousatte, "so at the end of their child's time slot, they could get out on the track and run with the kids."

Ms. Cousatte shares that in addition to a great fundraising platform, Dakota Valley learned that students and staff are inspired by PTCO encouragement and creativity leading up to the event. "We supply each teacher with a 2-foot by 3-foot flag and they come up with a class name and decorate their flag," she says. "As each class comes out to the Fun Run, we announce them by their class name. This year, we had fun names like the Ice Spice Monkeys, the Marvelous Moose Thunder, the Golden Coyotes—and a lot of other coyote-type names since our mascot is the coyote."

Since the Dakota Valley PTCO prioritizes funding classroom supplies, field trips, and large tech items, the school is always looking to increase their fundraising goal. Next year Dakota Valley plans to use the PledgeStar QR code to further increase donations. "A lot of families find this registration method easier to use," Ms. Cousatte says. "Some people do better scanning a QR code rather than clicking a link."