Lift-a-Thon Fundraiser Platform
Per-rep and per-pound pledge tracking, athlete donation pages, and automated collection — everything a football, wrestling, or powerlifting program needs to run a liftathon fundraiser that raises real money. Zero platform fees.
What is a lift-a-thon?
A lift-a-thon (also spelled liftathon or lift a thon) is a fundraising event where athletes collect pledges from family and friends, then bench press, squat, or deadlift at a scheduled event. Sponsors pledge per rep, per pound lifted, or give a flat amount. Each athlete gets a personal donation page, shares it for a few weeks, and on lift day the reps and pounds on the bar turn into dollars.
Think of it as a walk-a-thon for the weight room. Instead of counting laps, you count reps and plates. The linebacker who will never sell cookie dough door to door can absolutely push 185 on bench, and his uncle two states away can pledge $1 a rep from his phone.
Lift-a-thons are best known as a football team fundraiser, but a wrestling fundraiser, powerlifting club, CrossFit gym, or church youth strength group runs the same playbook. A 28-athlete wrestling team and a 62-player varsity roster use the same pledge-and-lift model. Only the plate math changes.
Why a liftathon fundraiser raises more
Every athlete raises
With coupon books, your starting quarterback sells $400 and your third-string lineman sells $20. In a lift-a-thon, everyone lifts. The freshman who benches 95 and the senior who benches 315 both bring in sponsors — different numbers, same participation.
Already on the schedule
Coaches run winter lifting anyway. A lift-a-thon turns a Tuesday max-out session into a fundraiser. You are not adding work — you are attaching revenue to work that is already happening. Hold it during a parent open house and the crowd shows up for free.
Sponsors like the ask
Nobody gets excited about a $15 tub of cookie dough. Pledging $1 a rep on a nephew's bench press is an easy yes. When he cranks out 22 reps at 135, the sponsor pays $22 and feels like they watched something. A 10-second clip of that last rep drives donations from people who had not given yet.
The money stays home
A southeast Texas football program sold coupon books and cleared $3,100 after the vendor's cut. The next year 62 players benched, squatted, and deadlifted on a Saturday morning and raised $18,400. No inventory, no 40-50% vendor cut. Your biggest expense is chalk.
Built for lift-a-thons
Everything your football program, wrestling team, powerlifting club, or strength group needs to run a liftathon fundraiser.
Per-rep and per-pound pledge tracking
Sponsors pledge $1-3 per rep on bench, $0.50-2 per rep on squat or deadlift, or $0.10-0.50 per pound of a max lift. After the event, enter each athlete's reps or top weight and every per-unit pledge converts to a dollar amount automatically.
Zero platform fees
Donations go to your organization (less standard Stripe card processing on online pledges). The only cost is standard Stripe processing (2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction). Cash and check donations cost nothing. Through TipShare, we go a step further — 10% of donor tip proceeds (after standard payment processing) flows back to your organization. No other fundraising platform pays you back.
Personal donation pages + QR codes
Every athlete gets their own page with a shareable link and QR code. Text it to grandparents, drop it in a parent's office chat, print it on the lift-day flyer. Sponsors donate in 30 seconds.
Flat + per-unit donations
Donors choose: pledge per rep ($2/rep), per pound ($0.25/lb), or give a flat amount ($50). All three on every page. In practice about 40% of sponsors go flat, 35% per rep, and 25% per pound — offering every option raises the most.
Live leaderboard
Athletes and position groups see where they stand in real time. Offense vs. defense for the top fundraising total is a rivalry that sells itself, and a projector in the weight room turns it into part of the show.
Automated collection
After you enter results, per-rep and per-pound sponsors are charged automatically. Email reminders go out on schedule. Groups collecting online with card-on-file collect 95%+ of pledges vs. 55-65% with paper forms.
How it works
From setup to collection in four steps.
Create your lift-a-thon
Name the event, set the lift date, and upload your roster via CSV. Give it a goal with a purpose — “$15,000 for new racks” raises more than “support the team.” Takes about 60 seconds.
Athletes share donation pages
Every athlete gets a unique donation page with a link and QR code. Sponsors pick per-rep, per-pound, or flat. Start sharing three weeks out — that is when most of the money comes in.
Lift day — log the numbers
Athletes lift with spotters and a head judge at every station. One scorekeeper per station records the weight on the bar and clean reps. Per-rep and per-pound pledges convert to dollars automatically.
Collect automatically
Results go in, charges go out. Per-unit sponsors are charged on actual numbers, reminders send themselves, and you watch it from the dashboard. Send every sponsor a thank-you with a photo within 24 hours.
How much a lift a thon fundraiser raises
Set expectations up front so sponsors pledge with confidence. A sponsor who knows their nephew will bench 135 for about 18 reps is comfortable at $2 a rep. Without that context they hedge at 50 cents or skip the per-rep option entirely. Per-athlete averages land at $275-450, and the biggest lever is sponsor count: an athlete with 3 sponsors raises $60-120, an athlete with 12 raises $300-600.
$8,000-$9,200
Wrestling or powerlifting club
18-28 athletes, $329-444 each
$8,000-$13,000
30-35 player team
JV football, about $371 per player
$15,000-$20,000
Full football roster
50-62 athletes, about $300 each
Middle school programs run rep-only events and usually land toward the low end of those ranges, which is fine. Year two raises noticeably more than year one because the donor base carries over and families know what to expect. If your athletes also play spring ball, a hit-a-thon uses the same pledge model, and sports teams of every kind run both on PledgeAthon.
Safety and planning checklist
A lift-a-thon puts heavy weight over young athletes. The programs that run one every year have zero incidents because they treat the list below as non-negotiable. A typical Saturday runs doors at 8:00, warm-up at 8:15, first lifts at 8:45, and awards at 11:00 — top lifter, top fundraiser, most improved.
Two spotters minimum on every lift — three on bench and squat (one on each side of the bar, one behind the lifter)
Spotters are coaches or experienced lifters, briefed before the event. Never an untrained parent volunteer
A certified strength coach or athletic trainer supervises the whole event, with a first aid kit on site
Middle school (grades 6-8): no maxing out. Load 60-70% of estimated max and count reps instead
9th-10th grade: controlled max-outs only, starting conservative and working up with experienced spotters
11th-12th grade: full max-outs are appropriate for experienced lifters under a coach's direction
Signed parent/guardian waiver on file for every athlete before they touch a bar — your athletic department has a template
Collars on every bar, a 15-20 minute group warm-up, and a head judge with form standards posted at each station
Bench: bar touches the chest, full lockout, no bouncing. Squat: hip crease below parallel. Deadlift: full lockout, no hitching
Event formats for your first lift-a-thon
Max-out meet. Each athlete works up to a one-rep max on bench, squat, or deadlift, with a head judge calling every attempt. Pairs with per-pound pledges — “Tyler squatted 405” is the story that gets shared. Best for juniors and seniors with real training behind them.
Rep challenge. Set a fixed weight per athlete (60-70% of estimated max, or a standard like 135 on bench) and count clean reps. Pairs with per-rep pledges. Best for middle school, mixed rosters, and wrestling teams — a 130-pound wrestler doing 25 reps at 95 raises the same kind of money as a 220-pound lineman doing 15 at 225.
Team total. Every athlete's reps or pounds roll into one program-wide number that sponsors pledge against, often split offense vs. defense or by weight class. Best for big rosters where you want every kid to matter and a single headline total to post afterward.
Per-rep pledges raise more
Flat donations only: $200 per athlete
8 sponsors at $25 each. Decent — but the sponsors never see the effort, and nothing pushes the athlete for one more rep.
Per-rep pledges: $432 per athlete
8 sponsors at $3/rep, athlete hits 18 reps on bench. Same sponsors, 2.2x the money. On a max-out meet the per-pound version works the same way — $0.25/lb on a 315 squat is $78.75 from one sponsor.
Groups collecting online collect 95%+ of pledges. Paper forms? 55-65%. On a $13,000 lift-a-thon, that gap is $4,000-$5,000 in real money. See pricing — the only cost is standard card processing.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a lift a thon fundraiser raise?
The typical range is $275-450 per athlete. A 30-player team with solid outreach can expect $8,000-$13,000. Programs with 50-60+ athletes regularly clear $15,000-$20,000. The biggest factor is how many sponsors each athlete recruits — programs where every athlete gets 8+ sponsors raise 2-3x more than programs where kids only ask 3-4 family members.
What lifts should a liftathon include?
Bench press is the most popular because everyone understands it and it is easy to spot safely. Many programs add squat and deadlift for a full powerlifting-style event. Bench-only with two stations runs 2-3 hours and cuts your day in half; all three lifts with station rotations takes 3-4 hours for 30-40 athletes. Four bench stations can move a 40-person team through in under 90 minutes.
Is a lift-a-thon safe for middle school athletes?
Yes, with the right guardrails. Middle school athletes should not max out. Use a moderate weight (60-70% of estimated max) and count reps. Require trained spotters at every station, enforce posted form standards, and have a certified coach or athletic trainer supervising. Signed parent waivers are mandatory. Run that way, a middle school lift-a-thon is a safe rep challenge, not a max-out meet.
Should sponsors pledge per rep or per pound?
Both work, and offering both raises the most. Per-rep pledges fit rep challenges and keep things fair across strength levels. Per-pound pledges fit max-out meets and produce the dramatic numbers that get shared on social media — just keep the suggested rate at $0.10-0.50 per pound so a sponsor never gets a $200 surprise when a strong kid squats 405. Flat donations cover the grandparents who do not want to do math.
How much does PledgeAthon cost?
Zero platform fees. The only cost is standard Stripe processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction. Cash and check donations have no fees at all. No monthly charges, no contracts, no setup fees. Plus, TipShare puts money back in your pocket — we return 10% of donor tip proceeds (after standard payment processing) to your organization. It's the opposite of a platform fee.
Does a lift-a-thon work as a wrestling fundraiser, or only for football?
It works anywhere athletes already lift. Football programs run the biggest ones because of roster size, but a 28-athlete wrestling team averaging $329 per athlete brought in $9,200 in under three hours, and an 18-member powerlifting club averaged $444 each. CrossFit gyms, track throwers, rugby clubs, and church youth strength groups use the same pledge-and-lift model. Wrestling teams in particular like the rep-challenge format because it keeps a 106-pounder and a heavyweight on equal footing.
Run your lift-a-thon with zero platform fees
Free to set up. Per-rep and per-pound pledge tracking built in. Every athlete gets their own donation page. Ready in 60 seconds.
No credit card required. No contracts.