Several Corona Del Mar High School sports teams raised hundreds of thousands of dollars using the PledgeStar fundraising system.

It all started in 2015, when Assistant Football Coach Kevin Hettig utilized PledgeStar for his team’s Lift-A-Thon. In the past, team members sent handwritten letters to family and friends asking for donations to pay for everything from equipment to transportation. Hettig noted that this process was slow and did not yield a great return.

When Hettig heard about PledgeStar and how it automatically sends pledge requests by email, he decided to try it. The football players were able to lift their earnings high above their goal.

“We were very impressed with the overall efficiency of the system,” said Hettig regarding PledgeStar. “The ease of use was the most impressive part. We didn’t have to sit there and watch kids lick stamps and seal envelopes. Overall, it was just awesome.”

Over time, word spread about the football team’s fundraising success with PledgeStar. The Girls and Boys Water Polo teams both used PledgeStar, bringing in $36,000 each. Dave Strauss, a water polo booster, remarked, “We raised more money than we ever raised with a single fundraiser! The families loved the fact that it only took about 15 minutes to complete the entire set up and email process.”

Since 2015, several other sports organizations at Corona Del Mar have enlisted PledgeStar’s help for their fundraising. Boys Basketball, Girls Volleyball, Girls Soccer, and the Boys Lacrosse team all used PledgeStar to help lessen the burden of the high athletic costs facing students and their parents.

In the two years that PledgeStar has been used at the school, CDM athletics has raised almost $300,000. They continue to serve as a case study in how high school sports fundraising should be. With PledgeStar, they’ve worked less, and raised more.