By Lisa Toner
Like many arts organizations, my state chapter, the Suzuki Association of Washington State (SAWS), experienced a bit of a pandemic slump. As we came out of it, we found ourselves with a fun problem: we had built up some extra cash. Not wanting the money to sit idle, my colleague Sharon Wherland suggested expanding our scholarship program. We had always given away a few scholarships for summer institutes. Sharon created an instrument expense assistance grant program to help families repair, purchase, or rent instruments. The next year, we added a scholarship to offset the costs of lesson tuition. This scholarship felt particularly meaningful to me, as teachers often give a discount to families in need, at their own expense. The lesson tuition scholarships helped everyone!
Our scholarship programs quickly became popular, and giving away thousands of dollars helped re-energize SAWS. Teachers who had not previously been engaged in SAWS took interest in the new program by encouraging their students to apply for it, or by volunteering to review submissions. We attracted enough volunteers to review applicants without anyone having to review their own student. In the meantime, our usual programs and expenses resumed. I realized that if we wanted to sustain our scholarship program at this level, we needed to fundraise.
Thankfully, inspiration came in the form of a jog-a-thon. When my daughter began kindergarten, I joined the PTA, which was full of savvy parents with backgrounds in law, accounting, business, marketing, tech, teaching, and more. I signed up to help out at the PTA’s jog-a-thon because I love running and I could bring my toddler to the event. When I attended a planning meeting, I learned about the fundraising platform 99pledges, which is popular among PTAs in our city. When the jog-a-thon launched, we received a link in our email to create my daughter’s fundraising page. I spent a minute filling out the information and then simply texted the link to several family group chat threads, where it was easy for family members to donate. On the day of the event, students ran some laps around the playground, ate popsicles, had a great time . . . and we raised more than $25,000 for the school!
Having just witnessed the power of the jog-a-thon, I decided to create a similar event for SAWS. As of this writing, the United States economy and country are in a lot of turmoil and transition. When I planned my fundraiser, I became curious about the state of giving in our country. I learned that total charitable giving in the U.S. reached a new record of $557.16 billion in 2023, which was 1.9% more dollars than the prior year. Unfortunately, inflation was so high that the value of the donations actually shrank by 2.1%. Individual donors are the largest share of total donations at 67%. Foundations comprised 19% of the total giving. Corporate giving was 7%, and bequests, or giving from a will or trust, are usually 8–10% of giving in the U.S. Giving to religious organizations has dropped, but giving to the arts, education, and health increased, showing a shift in values of donors. Although I had some doubts about putting on a fundraiser, I felt confident in our cause and hoped we could find some generous donors. Below are the five steps I took to put on our successful fundraiser.
1. Plan Ahead and Get Organized
I began planning months in advance. I had done a studio-wide practice challenge for my students every year for the past decade, and had experimented with a variety of formats and rules. For the SAWS fundraiser, I planned a twenty-one-day challenge to take place on March 3–23, 2025. In our state, this is during the rainy season, which is a good time to be indoors practicing. It also avoided long weekends, our SAWS festival and graduation program, and school breaks.
Rules for practice challenges can be tricky, and always spark a lot of conversations and debate. The structure was simple: practice as much as possible for twenty-one days. A practice session should last about fifteen minutes. Lessons, group classes, and ensemble rehearsals did not count as a practice. We asked participants to track their practices on an app of their choice or on the printable calendar I provided. Participants had the option to simply check off the days they practiced, or, if they wanted to, track their minutes to compete for some “most minutes” prizes by age category. Submitting results at the end was optional—only if they wanted to be on our wall of fame or be eligible for a prize! The setup I chose seemed to strike a good balance of rigor and flexibility. I encouraged colleagues to add their own goals and prizes if they wanted.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is easier than ever thanks to a variety of user-friendly apps. There are many options out there, but I chose 99Pledges because I had already used it as an event organizer, a parent, and a donor. The 99Pledges user interface is simple, and the staff was responsive and helpful. It is free for nonprofits to use, other than a $0.49+3.5% fee charged by credit card companies. Additionally, donors have the option to tip 99Pledges at checkout. I set up an account well before I launched the fundraiser. I spent plenty of time clicking around to learn about how it worked, and emailed and called their staff several times to make sure I was ready. They encouraged me that we would earn over $10,000 easily, which was a surprise since I was only hoping for a few thousand dollars.
The final organizing steps were to write everything up: I wrote short, clear paragraphs explaining the rules of the practice challenge, how to fundraise, where the money would go, and prizes. I created two online forms: one for teachers to register their students, and one for participants to report their results at the end. Once everything was in place, it was time to encourage my community to participate!
2. Market the Fundraiser to Teachers
I began announcing the fundraiser to our membership several months in advance. During board meetings and monthly member meetups, I asked colleagues for feedback and ideas to make the fundraiser relevant and useful. A month in advance, I emailed our membership several times asking colleagues to begin signing their students up. All I needed from them was a list of their students’ names with parent email(s). Since this was a new activity, I sent multiple reminders to encourage people to try it.
3. Onboard Participants and Launch the Event
I suggested that teachers announce the challenge to their students and give them a week to opt out before submitting their roster to me. I provided an email template for them to send to their students in order to announce the fundraiser. Some teachers preferred to have students opt in, and others enrolled their entire studio. Either works, and it’s good to give teachers freedom. I collected the student names and parent emails and got those uploaded to 99pledges by sending them a simple .csv file. I was able to add participants late, too. Each participant had the opportunity to make their own fundraising page, which only took a few minutes. Out of 108 teachers, 20 signed some or all of their students up to participate, for a total of 291 students. A few days before the challenge began, I wrote a welcome email to all the parents and teachers with some instructions. I invited questions and feedback. Only one family wrote back and asked to be removed due to a vacation. That felt promising!
4. Practice and Watch the Money Roll In!
I enrolled my students in the challenge, asked them how their practice was going, and also signed my daughter up. I sent a few emails of encouragement during the challenge, and 99pledges sent a few automated reminders. The money kept rolling in. The teachers whose students fundraised the most reported that they handed out calendars in person at group class and talked about the fundraiser regularly, rather than just sending a few emails. Personal invitation is the most powerful! Another useful tip is to leave the fundraiser platform open for an extra week after the practicing concludes. We got several thousand more dollars at the end. In total, 37% of students participated and we raised $15,193.65!
5. Collect Practice Results, Deposit the Funds, and Say Thank You
99pledges provides the email addresses of all donors, and also automatically sends receipts to each donor. I sent a thank-you email to all our donors. In addition, I told students they were required to send a thank-you note or video to their sponsors. In early April, we announced the winners and gave out prizes to some very deserving students. We gave prizes for the most minutes by age group, the top fundraiser, and a raffle for anyone who completed all twenty-one days.
Reflections from Participants
From Parents:

“Going from our usual five to seven practices per week was a challenge for our family. However, we noticed a marked uptick in our daughter’s progress. Some of our relatives sponsored us, and had never actually seen her play. It was fun to share some videos with them. Very motivating!”

“The Suzuki Practice-A-Thon conditioned the children’s mentality and physical abilities to persevere in daily practice habits, resulting in improved memory and techniques. The extra practice times were open toward drill spots or more enjoyable play, enhancing their satisfaction with accomplishments and self-confidence. Suzuki has been such an incredible music journey, and we cannot imagine starting our children without it! Thank you!”