
Bowlathon Fundraiser Guide: How to Raise Big for Your Cause
Everybody loves bowling, whether they’re bowling in the 200’s or below 100, bowling is a sport that all can enjoy. A Bowl a Thon is a bowling fundraiser opportunity that can turn your organization’s needs into a fun and exciting event for adults and kids alike. It’s easy to participate, requires no special equipment, and creates a lively environment where families, teams, and supporters can rally together. Plus, it’s one of the few fundraisers where the fun truly is the fundraiser—every frame bowled brings you closer to your goal.

Bowl a thons are a great fit for not just bowling team fundraisers, but also school clubs, sports programs, church groups, band boosters, PTAs, nonprofits, and even youth organizations like Scouts or 4-H.
What is a Bowl A Thon?
A bowl a thon is a pledge based fundraiser built around friendly bowling competition. One of just many great bowling fundraiser ideas out there. Take a group fundraiser, in this case let’s say it’s a bowling team called Willowford. Now Willowford is simply a representative case of one of the many real fundraisers we’ve supported. The Willowford High School Bowling team is a small city team with a lot of distance between them and their fellow competitors. They want to raise funds for their school team to buy everything from polos to bags, and primarily to offset travel expenses incurred each season.
Willowford has tried everything from game nights to restaurant fundraisers with minimal returns. This year, they’re opting to run a bowl a thon.
How Willowford Created an Elite Bowl a Thon
The members of the team will take to the lanes on a Sunday afternoon for the fundraiser where they’ll be taking up four lanes. The good news? There’s 20 other lanes at their local bowling alley to invite their friends and family to join in on the bowling fundraiser.
Willowford’s team took pledges from relatives and friends weeks in advance before the bowl a thon thanks to some great insight from their coaching staff. Market your fundraiser early. The best way to run a fundraiser is to get the word out about it fast.
There are several ways to take pledges for a bowl a thon. You can take pledges based on how many strikes you get over a few games, how many pins you knock down, or even something quirky like spares or splits.
In this case, Willowford opted for how many pins they would knock down over the course of four games. With a max of 1200 pins (300/game), it’s important to scale your fundraiser based on averages and maximums. If Willowford averages about 200 pins per bowler, it’s safe to assume an average of 800 pins are going to be knocked down. A five cent pledge per pin, would raise $40 for your fundraiser. 10 cents, $80. 15 cents, $120, and so on. It’s important to run these numbers so that if a relative is eager to donate $1 a pin, they know what they’re getting into (although you’d definitely be happy about it!)
Quick Bowlathon Math: What Could You Raise?
Average pins per bowler (4 games): ~800 pins
✅ $0.05/pin = $40
✅ $0.10/pin = $80
✅ $0.15/pin = $120
✅ $1.00/pin = $800
Tip: Always give donors a sense of how far their pledge can go—and how much it might total!
Bowl A Thon - The Non-Participants: Encouraging Additional Participation

What sets a bowl a thon apart from other fundraiser types such as hit a thons or lift a thons, is there’s a tremendous opportunity to get others involved. Those friends and family members that might watch a hit a thon, well it’d be hard to watch a bowl a thon, given the intimate nature of many bowling alleys. You have the lanes? Let those non-participants bowl and contribute to the fundraiser in their own way.
Let’s say lane rentals are $20 an hour. Often if you book ahead of time, bowling alleys are more than willing to give a price break to organizations. Now, maybe you’re at $15 an hour at 24 lanes. So a total of $360 for 24 lanes, and then you want to do a two hour fundraiser, so multiply that times two and you have a total of $720 to run your bowl a thon.
Take those 20 lanes your team isn’t on and have groups of up to six sign up to fill those lanes at $60 a team, that’s just $10 each.
Boom. Your bowling team is getting $45 of additional funds raised on top of the bowl a thon pledged funds themselves.
Willowford didn’t want to stop there though. Willowford Lanes, where they were hosting their fundraiser, was so thrilled with getting so many people into the bowling alley on a quiet Sunday in May, they were willing to donate 10% of proceeds from concessions back to the team.
This particular fundraiser partnership is often called a restaurant fundraiser and it’s a brilliant way to raise money for your program if you can pair it with other bowling fundraising types like crowdfunding or pick a date calendars.
How much could you fundraise? Let’s do some calculations!
Timeline - Let’s Run a Bowl a Thon
Eight Weeks Away - Form a committee. Maybe it’s your parent rep and coach. Maybe it’s just your coaching staff. Don’t stress. A well run bowl a thon can be accomplished with even a small team.
It’s important to reiterate that any team or organization can run a bowl a thon. Willowford already booked a quick demonstration on Teamfi’s digital bowl a thon software months before after hearing how easy it was, and was ready to execute the fundraiser.
Seven Weeks Away - Book the bowling alley. This is the most important step, without a bowling alley there’s no bowl a thon. Find a local bowling alley and work on pricing with them. When you do a fundraiser during a bowling alley’s down season, often in summer, you can score tremendous rates.
The AMF, a well known bowling company, has a lot of options for running fundraisers at their bowling alleys.
Six Weeks Away - Launch your registration and personal pledge pages or give out your pledge sheets to your fundraiser participants
There are two great ways to run a bowl a thon, our Teamfi digital bowl a thon fundraiser, or a pen and paper bowl a thon template.
When you run a bowl a thon through our Teamfi software, your program keeps over 96% of what you raise. The only cost goes to our secure third party payment processor, Stripe, that keeps your transactions secure.
Post about your fundraiser on your organization’s social media pages. Don’t have a social media page? Start one! Facebook particularly is a great place to post about your organization. Winning programs are getting more out of their fundraisers with less work.
Five Weeks Away - Now that your fundraiser is out there, if you’re using Teamfi’s digital bowl a thon fundraiser, you can monitor your pledge progress by checking one of nearly a dozen metrics.

For pen and paper bowl a thon templates, reach out to your fundraiser participants and see how they’re doing.
Four Weeks Away - Push. Push. Push. Get friends and family involved, as well as the rest of your community to fill the lanes for your team! Whether you’re charging $60 a lane, $50, or $100, that choice is your call. Filling the rest of the alley is a great way to raise more money.
Three Weeks Away - Now that your participants are getting pledges and you’re getting lanes filled, push for event sponsors. A single event sponsor at just a small amount—like $100—can cover costs like signage, trophies, or pizza for participants.
Local businesses love supporting community events through sponsorships, especially ones that bring families through their doors. It’s a great way to give back and empower those who have given to you. If the bowling alley gave you a good deal, consider giving them a sponsorship for free as an act of good faith. While you’re at it, start collecting prizes for a raffle or silent auction—these can add a big boost to your fundraising total.
Two Weeks Away – Finalize logistics and boost event visibility.
Confirm lane assignments with the bowling alley and double-check what’s needed: pens, pledge sheets (if you’re using paper), banners, raffle items, and prize tables. Set up a fun, high-energy playlist to play over the alley speakers. Keep the excitement alive online with daily countdown posts or even something simple like “Meet the Bowlers” features.
One Week Away – Remind your participants and prep the space.
Send out a reminder email or group message to all participants with key event info: date, time, venue, parking instructions, and what to expect. Include a checklist of things to bring. Prepare your materials—check-in sheets, printed scorecards, name tags, and a list of raffle prizes. Have your MC or event host ready to lead announcements, giveaways, and thank sponsors during the event.
Event Day – Arrive early and create an unforgettable experience.
Get to the bowling alley at least two hours early. Set up your welcome table, sponsor banners, and playlist. Kick things off with a brief welcome and reminder of your cause. Recognize sponsors, and hype up top pledge takers.
Bowl A Thon Timeline Summary
Eight Weeks Away – Form your Bowlathon participant list
✅ Keep it small but efficient—coach + parent rep is often plenty. If you’re using Teamfi, now is a great chance to learn the platform.
Seven Weeks Away – Book the bowling alley
✅ No alley, no bowlathon. Lock it in early to secure your date and deal.
Six Weeks Away – Launch registration and pledges
✅ Use Teamfi or paper sheets—just get your participants fundraising.
Five Weeks Away – Monitor progress
✅ Track pledges digitally or check in with teams manually.
Four Weeks Away – Fill the lanes
✅ Invite community teams to bowl and boost your revenue per lane.
Three Weeks Away – Secure sponsors
✅ A few sponsors can more than double your fundraiser's total.
Two Weeks Away – Finalize logistics
✅ Confirm lanes, prep signs, build your hype playlist, and post daily.
One Week Away – Send reminders and prep materials
✅ Emails, scorecards, raffle lists—get everything ready to go.
Event Day – Arrive early and run the show
✅ Welcome guests, pump up the energy, and celebrate your cause.
After the Bowlathon – Say thanks and collect
✅ Thank sponsors and donors, share impact, and wrap up final totals.
After the Bowl a Thon
Celebrate your success and close the loop, collecting funds from your bowl a thon pledgers.
Send out thank-you emails within 48 hours to everyone who pledged, participated, or volunteered. Post event highlights, total funds raised, and reiterate how the bowl a thon is helping your program.
Fostering good relationships, especially with your donors, and sponsors, is critical to building out your next fundraiser. Research from Xavier and Clemson University, shows that “event marketing, in conjunction with consumers who are enthusiastic, active, and knowledgeable about the sponsor and event, serves as a valuable lever to engage the consumer.” Your sponsors will not only feel good about their sponsorship, but will also see the benefit when done right.
If you used Teamfi’s digital bowl a thon fundraising software, enter your scores to collect your final total. If you used a pen and paper template, have your participants present their final totals and collect pledges.
With the right preparation, a bowlathon is more than just a great example of many bowling fundraiser ideas—it’s a fun, memorable event that builds community and leaves a lasting impact.
Want to learn more about fundraising? Here’s a free ebook on fundraising based on a survey of over 100 coaches.
Ready to Roll? Let’s Do a Bowl a Thon!
Launching a bowl a thon takes planning, but the payoff is tangible: funds raised, community outreach, and a memorable night or afternoon in the books. When every pin knocked down sends another dollar to your mission, fundraising stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like fun.
If you’re looking for a cost-free way to handle registrations, pledges, and receipts, digital fundraising platforms such as Teamfi can set you up in minutes—no hidden fees, no subscription cost or monthly bills. Schedule 10 minutes with us today, and your program could be rolling in dough before you know it.
Want to learn more? Hear from real coaches who have fundraised thousands of dollars with us by checking out our testimonials.
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