How a five-year 5K race series funded a free splash pad at Falconhurst Park in Asheville, North Carolina
A composite case study of a volunteer-run charity 5K series that compounded modest annual surpluses into a fully-funded $720,000 community splash pad.
Summary
A volunteer-run charity 5K race in west Asheville started in 2020 with a modest goal of supporting after-school programming and pivoted in 2022 to a five-year capital campaign for a neighborhood splash pad. The series compounded sponsorship, registration fees, and post-race-festival revenue into roughly $720,000 across five annual races, fully funding the Falconhurst Park splash pad without municipal capital outlay. The pad opened in summer 2026 with first-season attendance near 32,000 visits, and the race series continues as a fund for ongoing operations.
Key metrics
Background: a neighborhood race finds a bigger purpose
The Falconhurst 5K began in October 2020 as a small pandemic-era outdoor event organized by a group of neighborhood parents in west Asheville. The first race had 280 runners, raised approximately $9,000, and supported after-school enrichment at the local elementary school. By 2022 the race had grown to roughly 1,100 participants and was generating annual surpluses of $35,000 to $50,000. The organizing committee — entirely volunteer, structured as a project under the local parks-and-recreation foundation as fiscal sponsor — debated whether to keep distributing surpluses to small annual grants or to commit to a multi-year capital project. Falconhurst Park, the race start-finish line, had no spray feature and no public pool within two miles. After a community survey that drew 340 responses, the committee voted in February 2023 to redirect race proceeds toward a five-year splash-pad capital campaign with a target of $700,000 by the end of 2025.
Race economics: how a community 5K compounds into capital
Most charity 5Ks net far less than participants assume because race-day costs absorb a significant share of registration revenue. The Falconhurst series ran on a deliberately tight cost structure that protected net margins. Registration fees were set at $35 (early-bird) to $50 (race-day), with kids-fun-run tiers at $10. Roughly 60% of gross revenue came from registration and the rest from sponsorship — a tier structure that included a $5,000 title sponsor (filled in years two through five by a regional outdoor-apparel retailer), three $2,500 supporting sponsors, and a long tail of $250 to $1,000 small-business sponsors. Race-day costs averaged roughly 22% of gross revenue, comprising timing services, medical-tent staffing, road-permit fees, t-shirts and bibs, and post-race festival logistics. The volunteer-only labor model — no paid race director — kept overhead lean. Across five years the series grossed roughly $920,000 and netted roughly $720,000, with the surplus deposited quarterly into a restricted capital account held by the fiscal sponsor.
Fiscal-sponsor governance and the discipline of restricted funds
Operating under a fiscal sponsor — in this case the local parks-and-recreation foundation — gave the volunteer race committee three meaningful advantages. First, donor and sponsor contributions were tax-deductible without the committee having to file for independent 501(c)(3) status. Second, the foundation's existing audit and financial-controls infrastructure absorbed the race series without significant marginal cost. Third, the restricted-funds discipline meant the splash-pad capital account could not be raided for operating shortfalls in other foundation programs, even during the 2024 funding-environment tightening that stressed several other foundation initiatives. The fiscal-sponsor agreement charged a 7% administrative fee on race net revenue, which the committee considered fair given the back-office services provided. The committee also published an annual race-finance summary on its public website, which became a fundraising asset in its own right — sponsors were noticeably more willing to renew when they could see exactly where prior-year dollars had gone.
Site selection and the city-foundation operating handshake
Falconhurst Park was the obvious site because the race already started and finished there, but the actual capital project required a formal handshake between the foundation and the city's parks department. The city would not accept a donated splash pad without a written operating agreement covering long-term maintenance, water-and-sewer costs, and replacement reserves. After roughly nine months of negotiation, the parties signed a 25-year operating agreement under which the foundation funded construction and an initial $200,000 operating reserve, while the city assumed ongoing operations through its parks-department budget. The agreement included a clause requiring the foundation to fund any major mechanical replacement (filtration skid, surface re-coat) up through year fifteen, after which the city assumes full responsibility. This bifurcated structure protected the city's general fund from a sudden new operating obligation while ensuring the foundation's capital investment received durable institutional stewardship.
Design choices oriented around a running and family demographic
The race committee had unusually direct insight into the user base because race participants effectively self-selected as the active-family demographic the splash pad would serve. The design firm, working from race-survey data, prioritized features that supported strollers, post-event hangout, and adult-friendly seating in addition to standard splash-pad features for ages 2 through 12. The 2,800-square-foot pad included 14 features arranged in a horseshoe to maximize sightlines from the perimeter. A 1,400-square-foot shaded perimeter included six benches, two stroller-parking strips, and a small grassy lawn suitable for casual gatherings. The pad's mechanical building doubled as a small concession structure with a single roll-up window — modest by design, intended for occasional weekend use rather than full-time food service. The site retained the existing race start-finish gateway, which became a permanent feature reading 'Falconhurst 5K Splash Pad' in lettering integrated into the entry arch.
Construction timing and the year-five capstone race
Construction began in October 2025 immediately after the year-five race, which the committee had marketed as the 'capstone' event. Capstone-year participation hit roughly 2,400 runners, the largest in the series' history, partly because the committee had explicitly framed the year as a closing chapter. Site work and slab pour ran through January 2026, with feature installation and mechanical commissioning through April. The pad opened on the first Saturday of June 2026 with a hybrid event combining a 'reunion fun-run' for prior-year participants and a public ribbon-cutting. Roughly 800 people attended. The committee announced that race proceeds going forward would seed an ongoing operating reserve and that the race itself would continue at a smaller scale as a community tradition rather than a capital-fundraising event.
First-season operations and the operating-reserve cushion
The pad's first-season attendance reached approximately 32,000 visits across a 100-day operating season, modestly below initial projections likely because the surrounding neighborhood is denser in the summer-camp age cohort than the broader Asheville average. Operating costs landed near $48,000, comfortably within the city's parks-department budget allocation and noticeably under the $200,000 operating-reserve buffer the foundation had pre-funded. The reserve will likely cover roughly four years of operating contingency, providing a meaningful cushion in the event of unexpected mechanical repairs or a difficult budget year. The city's parks director cited the reserve structure as a key reason the city was willing to take on the operating obligation in the first place — a donated capital project without operating support is often a poisoned chalice for municipal parks departments, and the foundation's pre-funding broke that pattern decisively.
Lessons for other charity-race-funded capital projects
The Falconhurst model demonstrates that volunteer-run charity races can compound into meaningful capital projects, but only under several disciplined conditions. First, race-day costs must be ruthlessly contained — a race that spends 40% of gross revenue on logistics will struggle to fund a $700,000 capital project in any reasonable timeframe. Second, the multi-year commitment must be communicated clearly to sponsors and participants, who often respond more generously to a defined campaign than to open-ended annual giving. Third, fiscal-sponsor relationships are nearly always preferable to standalone 501(c)(3) formation for projects of this size — the administrative-fee tradeoff is materially better than the cost and time of independent nonprofit operations. Fourth, the operating-reserve structure protects both the donor's intent and the city's general fund. Fifth, the race itself becomes part of the community fabric, and continuing it post-construction at a smaller scale preserves the social-cohesion outcome alongside the physical asset.
Voices from the project
“Year one we thought we were funding a few after-school snacks. Year five we cut the ribbon on something the whole neighborhood will use for thirty summers.”
“We renewed our title sponsorship every year because the annual finance summary made it obvious where the money was going. That kind of clarity is rare in community fundraising.”
“A donated splash pad without an operating reserve is a problem disguised as a gift. The reserve is what made me say yes.”
Lessons learned
- Keep race-day costs under 25% of gross revenue to preserve net margins for capital compounding.
- Use a fiscal sponsor with restricted-funds discipline rather than standalone 501(c)(3) formation for projects in this size range.
- Pre-fund an operating reserve as part of the capital ask — cities are far more willing to accept donated assets when operations are protected.
- Communicate the multi-year campaign timeline explicitly to sponsors and participants.
- Publish annual finance summaries — sponsors renew based on visibility into where prior-year dollars went.
- Continue the race at a smaller scale post-construction to preserve community-cohesion outcomes alongside the physical asset.
- Use race-survey data to inform design — the participant base is often a strong proxy for the future user base.
FAQ
How much can a community 5K realistically raise over five years?
A well-run series with disciplined cost control, growing participation, and consistent sponsorship can net $500,000 to $900,000 over five years. Falconhurst hit $720,000.
What is a fiscal sponsor and why use one?
A fiscal sponsor is an existing 501(c)(3) that holds funds and provides governance for projects without their own nonprofit status. The Falconhurst race used the local parks foundation, paying a 7% administrative fee in exchange for back-office services and tax-deductibility for donors.
Why is an operating reserve so important for donated capital projects?
Cities frequently decline donated facilities because the operating obligation outlasts the gift. Pre-funding 3-5 years of operating reserve reframes the project from a fiscal liability into a genuine community asset for the receiving agency.
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