Part 1 · 2026 Color Run
A $15,000 goal, passed in 14 days.
Crystal Lake School PTO set a $15,000 fundraising goal for its 2026 Color Run. The PTO passed that goal in 14 days and finished at $27,662.77.
What they needed was a registration process that worked for a school, including families with more than one student, and a way for each student to raise money in their own name.
“EventEase stood out to us for its simplicity and ease of use. It felt very well suited to a school/PTO fundraiser, and the registration process was much more accommodating for families with multiple students.”
- Raised
- $27,662.77
- Registered participants
- 215
- Fundraising profiles
- 207
- Paid orders
- 735
- Original fundraising goal
- $15,000
- To pass the original goal
- 14 days
Families registered on the event website. More than one student in the same family could be registered together. Each participant could share a fundraising page, and gifts in that student’s name stayed with the PTO’s event.
The participant fundraising pages were shaped around this Color Run: a page to share, a goal, and a way for the PTO to see gifts in each student’s name. EventEase stayed available to help with setup and questions while the fundraiser ran. That is hands-on help for this event, not a claim about a support contract or round-the-clock coverage.
Part 2 · Yearbook
The same PTO sells yearbooks, and shout-outs priced by the word.
After the Color Run, Crystal Lake School PTO also uses EventEase for yearbook sales. Parents can order a yearbook and purchase a personalized shout-out for their child — a message that will appear in the yearbook.
The price depends on the length of the message. Before EventEase, volunteers counted the words by hand and checked whether the amount a parent submitted was correct.
Parents now write the message in the order. EventEase counts the words and calculates the price from the ranges the PTO set. The order also collects student and classroom information, takes payment, and can be exported for the people assembling the yearbook.
The Color Run totals above are the fundraiser. The yearbook is a separate set of orders. What changed for the volunteers is the counting: the word count and the matching price are calculated when the parent places the order.
Part 3 · The rest of the year
One PTO. More than one kind of event.
Crystal Lake’s year on EventEase is a fundraiser and a yearbook sale. Those are different jobs: student fundraising pages on one, word-count pricing on the other. The PTO did not have to find a separate tool for the second one.
That is the useful part for another school. Dances, family outings, spirit wear, and food-ticket sales can each be their own event, with registration and payment in the same place. Those activities are not all Crystal Lake’s, and this story is not a claim that one elementary PTO runs every kind of school event.