How Celebration Church Used a 24-Hour Relay to Fund a New Building (Case Study)

When David Fox needed to raise money to build a new church, he didn't have time to evaluate a dozen platforms. He needed something his congregation could use without instructions, that could handle both flat donations and per-activity pledges, and that could be online before the volunteers showed up on Saturday morning.

He found PledgeAthon on April 6, 2026 at 3:48 PM Eastern. By 3:49:56 PM — just 89 seconds later — his campaign was live and accepting donations.

This is the story of how that campaign turned into nearly $8,000 in donations from 34 supporters in the first four days.

The Setup: A 24-Hour Relay for a New Building

Celebration Church Caserta needed funds to construct a new church building — the kind of capital project where every dollar matters and the timeline doesn't bend. To rally their community, the team chose a 24-hour relay event: members would commit to running, walking, or otherwise being active during a continuous 24-hour window, with sponsors backing their effort.

The trick: how do you collect those pledges online, when half your donors want to give a flat $50 and the other half want to give a few dollars for each hour their friend participates?

In David's own words:

"I searched for hours to find a website that was easy for people to use, secure, and had the option to either donate a flat or pledge funds per activity. PledgeAthon was the only site that met our requirements."

Why "Flat or Per-Activity" Was Non-Negotiable

Most online donation platforms — including the well-known general-purpose ones — assume every donation is a flat dollar amount. You give $50, the campaign collects $50, end of story.

Relay-style events break that model. Some sponsors want to pledge $5 per hour their friend is active — that's $120 if their friend completes the full 24 hours, or $60 if they only make it halfway. The pledge amount depends on the outcome. Without per-activity pledging, you're either calculating totals manually after the event or forcing every donor into a flat-amount mold that doesn't match how they actually want to give.

PledgeAthon was built specifically for this. Donors choose flat or per-activity at the point of pledge, and the platform calculates the final charge automatically once participants log their results. No spreadsheets. No follow-up emails asking sponsors to confirm the amount.

In Celebration Church Caserta's campaign, that flexibility played out exactly as you'd expect: 38 flat pledges and 11 per-activity pledges — a real mix that traditional flat-only platforms would have missed half of.

The Results (So Far)

The Building Hope Relay campaign launched on May 14, 2026 and runs through May 30. As of this writing — just four days in — the numbers tell the story:

• $7,998 raised in confirmed donations
• 34 distinct donors supporting the campaign
• 49 total pledges received
• 2 participants activated for the relay
• Mix of donation types: 38 flat donations + 11 per-activity pledges

With nearly two weeks still left on the campaign, those numbers are still growing. But the early signal is unmistakable — when the platform matches the event format, donors give.

The "Up and Running in Minutes" Claim, Verified

One of David's most striking comments was that he got the campaign "up and running in minutes." We checked the timestamps.

• 3:48:27 PM ET, April 6, 2026 — David completed signup
• 3:49:56 PM ET, April 6, 2026 — His campaign page was live

That's 89 seconds from creating an account to publishing a working donation page. Not "minutes" — under a minute and a half.

That kind of setup speed isn't an accident. PledgeAthon's signup flow asks only for the information needed to start collecting pledges. There's no multi-week onboarding period, no sales call, no contracts to sign. You sign up, create a campaign, share the link.

What Went Wrong (And How It Got Fixed)

David's testimonial includes a line that's easy to gloss over but worth dwelling on:

"On top of that, the PledgeAthon team helped us fix some issues (due to a mistake on my end) more quickly than I could have hoped for."

No fundraiser runs without a hiccup. David had a configuration question that came up mid-campaign, and the platform's support team resolved it the same day. That's not optional for a real fundraiser — when your campaign is live and donors are trying to give, you can't wait three business days for a support ticket to be answered.

What This Means for Other Churches Planning Capital Campaigns

A few takeaways for church teams thinking about funding a building project or other large capital effort:

1. Pick a platform that supports the event format you're using. If you're doing a relay, walk-a-thon, jog-a-thon, or similar per-activity event, you need per-activity pledging — not just flat donations. Most generic donation platforms can't do this.

2. Setup speed matters more than features you'll never use. PledgeAthon's signup-to-live in 89 seconds isn't a hypothetical benchmark; it's what happened in this real campaign. When you're racing against an event date, you can't lose a week to onboarding.

3. No platform fees beats every other pricing model for capital campaigns. PledgeAthon takes no platform fee. Donations flow to the organization after standard Stripe card processing only (2.9% + $0.30). For a campaign raising $8,000 in four days, that's hundreds of dollars saved compared to platforms that charge 3-5% on top of card processing.

4. Support quality is invisible until you need it. Read reviews for what support is like when something goes wrong, not when everything is going well.

Run Your Own Pledge-a-Thon

If your church, school, team, or nonprofit is planning a relay, walk-a-thon, read-a-thon, or any other event-based fundraiser, PledgeAthon is free to use. No platform fees, no monthly subscription, no contracts.

You can start your free fundraiser in under two minutes — David did it in 89 seconds.