Vertical Raise puts a coach behind the donate button

Before the money, there is homework. A 2023 HMS Band Booster fundraising brief asks families for 20 quality email addresses, 10 text invitations, and one Facebook post. Students create a profile, upload a picture, and invite their parents into the process. The campaign’s first assignment is wonderfully ordinary: make a list of people who care.

That list explains Vertical Raise better than a photograph of an oversized check. The company organizes school fundraising around relationships that already exist. A grandparent lives elsewhere. A family friend never sees the school newsletter. A participant’s page gives those people somewhere to help; email, text, and social sharing carry the invitation.

Twenty names before a dollar

Vertical Raise, founded in 2018 and led by founder and CEO Paul Landers, sells a practical sequence. A fundraising coach helps build the group’s page. Participants create personal pages. An invite wizard and Parent Share extend the campaign through family networks. The organizer watches participation and money through a dashboard.

The interesting detail is what gets counted before the total grows: emails sent and social shares. Those measures give a coach something to act on. A quiet campaign might have an unconvincing appeal, or it might simply have participants who never sent their invitations. A donation total alone cannot distinguish the two.

There are reminders, participation reports, and subgroup tracking, too. These are small administrative conveniences with a clear purpose: keep a fundraiser moving while its organizer has another job. The software turns a vague request to “spread the word” into visible tasks.

The person beside the platform

Lots of services can put a donation form online. Vertical Raise’s pitch includes someone who helps people use it. Local representatives prepare launches, work with program leaders, and help troubleshoot campaigns. The company occupies the space between a fundraising tool and an outsourced campaign service.

Its recruiting language makes the distinction unusually vivid. A representative should enjoy meeting people, have a competitive streak, and care about the community. Athletics or coaching experience is preferred. The careers page even rejects the “keyboard cowboy.” For a software business, that is a revealing character sketch.

This is also a business built around repeat relationships. Territory managers are offered protected territories and residual business. They prospect among athletic directors and coaches, then help launch the campaigns they sell. The person making the promise has a continuing reason to care about the result.

“Schools and teams need fundraising that’s simple, secure, and proven.”

Paul Landers · CEO · April 2026

What comes back to the school

Convenience has a price. Vertical Raise says the group’s return depends on the fundraiser, the service level, and any prize program. A donation campaign has different economics from a box of popcorn. A fully guided launch buys different help from a self-managed campaign.

For a concrete example, Granite School District’s 2026-2027 approved-vendor list gives schools 85% of online donations through Vertical Raise, 75% of discount-card revenue, and 50% of popcorn sales. These are district-listed terms. They should not be mistaken for a price promise to every school.

There is another distinction at checkout. Vertical Raise’s terms say optional platform tips and transaction-fee contributions stay with the company. A supporter’s total payment and the school’s proceeds are different figures. Organizers should understand both before asking families to share a link.

Consider an illustrative $10,000 donation campaign at an 85% return: the school receives $8,500. That arithmetic is simple. The harder question is whether the service produces enough additional giving, or saves enough staff time, to justify the difference. Compare net proceeds and hours of work together.

A buyer can ask each provider the same questions: who leads the launch, who follows up, and what happens after participants register? Snap! Raise is another school fundraising option. Granite’s list also includes 99Pledges and SuccessFund. Their presence makes the market’s choice clear: schools can buy different combinations of software, service, and responsibility.

Popcorn takes the same route

The invitation machinery supports several offers. Direct donations ask supporters to give. Vertical Discounts sells access to local and national deals through an app. PopParadise sells gourmet popcorn. Spirit shops let supporters buy customized apparel, with a portion of sales returning to the group.

Popcorn supplies a pleasing operational detail: orders ship directly to supporters. Students do not need to store bags or organize deliveries. The familiar product fundraiser survives, with less physical handling. Digital discounts similarly move the coupon book onto a phone, although usefulness depends on the offers a supporter actually wants.

The company has expanded through existing fundraising relationships, too. Funding Zone joined in April 2025; XLR8 Fundraising followed in May. In early 2026, Football Ontario and Football Alberta announced partnerships. Local introductions remain valuable even when the campaign itself travels online.

Football Alberta’s announcement makes the variation tangible: its discount-app offer returns 70% of proceeds to teams and describes a short team meeting followed by automated outreach. The sequence is familiar; the local arrangement differs. Choosing a campaign means checking the offer in front of you.

The view from the athletic office

One successful team campaign creates a second problem: an administrator may need to oversee several. Funds Manager Pro offers reporting across teams and schools, payout monitoring, and revenue forecasting. Its customer is the person who needs to see beyond a single coach’s dashboard.

The two audiences ask different questions. A coach wants to know who still needs to send invitations. An athletic director wants to know which programs are raising money and when deposits arrive. Serving both gives Vertical Raise a place in the work surrounding a campaign, as well as the campaign itself. For a school choosing a provider, that broader administrative view belongs in the evaluation.

That helps explain the strategic fit with Arbiter, which acquired Vertical Raise on April 1, 2026. Arbiter already supplies registration, payments, scheduling, and other school operations tools. The announcement kept Landers leading the fundraising business. Fundraising now sits within a broader school software company.

The useful lesson for another organizer is specific: give every participant a clear invitation task, arrange follow-up, and measure the work before judging the result. This approach depends on willing participants and reachable supporters. A thin contact list or an exhausted donor community limits what automation can accomplish. The donate button still needs someone with a reason to click.