Peer-to-peer fundraising is a proven way to leverage the power of your ardent supporters to boost donations to your fundraising campaign and increase your outreach. Keep reading for insights into everything peer-to-peer!
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a savvy fundraising method that encourages your current supporters to participate in your organization’s fundraising efforts, scaling your impact.
However, a successful P2P fundraising campaign requires careful planning and the right peer-to-peer fundraising software to enable success.
In this article, we’ll share peer-to-peer fundraising tips, best practices, and top peer-to-peer platforms to boost support for your mission. Let’s dive in!
Peer-to-peer fundraising encourages your supporters – including donors, volunteers, board members, friends, and family – to actively participate in fundraising efforts.
Instead of simply donating, a peer-to-peer participant becomes an active fundraiser for your organization. It multiplies your awareness and support, boosts engagement, and enriches your donor base.
In the age of social media, peer-to-peer fundraising takes consistency, trust, and follow-through to be successful. After we explain the ins and outs of P2P fundraising work, we’ll discuss some tips and ideas to help your organization grow!
Crowdfunding empowers a large crowd of people to come together and donate money within a specific timeframe to help meet the overall fundraising goal of an individual or organization.
Peer-to-peer fundraising differs from crowdfunding in a few ways. The main difference is P2P fundraising is a larger-scale version of crowdsourcing. It is a mass of many peer campaigns connected to your original fundraising campaign. This helps spread the word to a wider range of people and raises money from untapped sources. It can increase donor/volunteer engagement, reach further networks, and achieve higher goals.
Bonus resource: Check out our blog post where we closely compare the two fundraising methods.
The biggest benefit of peer-to-peer or team fundraising is the level of impact it can have. Peer-to-peer fundraising can:
Peer-to-peer fundraising mostly relies on strong relationships and passion. Just add in an easy-to-use, affordable fundraising platform like Donorbox and you’ll be ready to hit the ground running in no time! All it takes is the toggling of a switch to enable peer-to-peer fundraising and invite your friends and family, volunteers, and donors right from the tool.
Ongoing/rolling peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are self-motivated by fundraisers, giving the participants the power to choose what best works for them. Some fundraisers benefit by having the opportunity to drive their own train and appreciate the flexibility of timing. But the major fallback of this option is a potential loss of steam.
A peer-to-peer campaign like the one below has a button at the top to encourage visitors to fundraise for the cause by creating their own fundraising pages. This can be a good way to push the idea forward to your supporters.
Create a Peer-to-Peer Campaign with Donorbox
Time-specific peer-to-peer fundraising efforts are usually spread over the course of a few weeks or even months. Creating a powerful beginning by drumming up excitement, then having a midway check-in with fundraisers will help keep them engaged. Planning an end event is a thrilling way to finish the race and give your cause some urgency!
This campaign creates a sense of urgency among fundraisers and donors with an end date to their original peer-to-peer campaign.
Giving days are ambitious but can be great for organizations that love a challenge!
Typically, the giving day will require a substantial amount of education and awareness beforehand so participants are ready and eager when the day comes. Giving days are quick, fast-paced ways to reach your fundraising goals.
Tune in as Jena Lynch, Nonprofit Advocate at Donorbox, discusses the ways to create a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign with Chris Hammond and Brittany LaGanke from Corporate Giving Connection.
Bonus resource: Learn how to set up a peer-to-peer campaign on Donorbox in this step-by-step guide.
Now, let’s have a look at the four-step process to establishing a successful peer-to-peer campaign.
What is your event? Who is taking the lead? By ironing out all of your details, you’ll manage stress levels internally and ensure a trusting relationship with your fundraisers.
Pro tip: While planning your event, be mindful of the other ways you’ll be fundraising throughout the year. Thinking ahead can help you inform potential donor fundraisers, choose the best volunteer fundraisers, encourage participation from others in your network, and build excitement.
Selecting a peer-to-peer fundraising platform gives you the flexibility to be creative with your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts. With no contracts or startup fees, Donorbox offers great support for short-term and long-term campaigns!
Here’s an example of a peer fundraising campaign for your reference.
Schedule time to inform participants, allow for questions, and reinforce your mission. Compile and distribute the tools your fundraisers will need to accomplish the goals. Take time to train your fundraising participants on the peer fundraising platform you’ve chosen to reduce the chances of confusion later on.
The resources you provide could be anything from a simple email template for them to customize to a package of materials to host their own event. Be sure you and your team have thought through the task you are empowering your fundraisers to complete so you are equipped to assist them along the way!
With fun events or active challenges on the horizon, sometimes the true purpose can get lost.
Remind everyone involved what they are working towards. Reiterate your organization’s story and include it on all materials – handouts, speeches, and especially landing/donation pages!
Let’s analyze the three best peer-to-peer fundraising software platforms.
Donorbox’s peer-to-peer fundraising feature is simple to use, packed with storytelling potential, and maximizes your campaign efforts with great add-ons.
Key fundraising features:
Pricing: Donorbox is free to start with and there are no monthly fees. We charge a nominal platform fee of 2.95% on your parent campaigns and 3.95% on your child campaigns. Stripe and PayPal’s payment processing fees (2.2% + 30¢) will also apply. But you have an option to ask your donors to cover these fees.
Learn more about our peer-to-peer pricing here.
GoFundMe is a popular online fundraising tool used to raise money for personal projects, trips, or a more specific goal in a smaller, more crowdfunding-like method.
Key fundraising features:
Pricing: Free plans charge a 2.9% processing fee plus 30 cents per transaction. View pricing details here.
OneCause is an event fundraising platform offering mobile bidding and auctions, text-to-give, and peer-to-peer fundraising.
Key fundraising features:
Pricing: OneCause provides custom pricing for each organization based on their needs. View plans for online fundraising.
Discover more peer-to-peer fundraising platforms in this blog post.
While unique, out-of-the-box events may be fun, be mindful when selecting a campaign. If the peer-to-peer fundraising campaign story connects fundraisers and donors with your organization, your message will ring louder and stick longer.
These days, many people are engulfed in busyness. Activities that people want to participate in that give them a rest from “being busy” or provide a sense of purpose are the most successful.
Creating labor-intensive processes or strenuous activities are less likely to be followed through as they create more stress on your participants’ already stressful lives.
Pro tip: Excite your team of fundraisers by dividing them all into smaller teams. Give them each a name to make it more fun. This will help them feel more involved, engage with each other, and create strategies for meeting their fundraising goals. Whichever team raises the most money for your nonprofit, reward them with some benefit or gift. With this concept of team fundraising, every time you’ll offer a more engaging peer-to-peer experience for your donor and volunteer fundraisers.
Easy-to-build, straightforward landing pages or text campaigns make peer-to-peer fundraising easy! People learning about the organization are more likely to follow through and join the efforts if the donation and sharing process is a breeze.
Once you’ve selected a peer-to-peer campaign or project, you’ll want an easy, on-brand donation form for fundraisers and donors to participate.
Pro tip: Allowing fundraisers to participate virtually can be a convenient way to allow them to share via social media! Read more about running a successful online fundraising campaign here.
Learn from your past efforts and the efforts of your peers. Successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are built on peer feedback. Listen to your participants and ask them how their experience has been with the chosen peer fundraising platform. This will help you make better decisions.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can be a game-changer for your nonprofit fundraising efforts, more so with the right and effective ideas that can charge up your campaigns like never before. Let’s look at the six best ideas for peer-to-peer fundraising events.
Consider activities that your network enjoys or that relate to your organization. Read-a-thons are a great way to involve all ages. Run/walk/swim-a-thons help promote healthy habits. This method can also create friendly competition between each fundraiser to encourage reading more books or swimming more laps.
Read-a-thons create friendly competition among fundraisers. Establish different reading teams, set a reading goal for each, and encourage team fundraising to boost engagement and make fundraising more fun for your donors and volunteers. Get creative with the themes, too!
Challenges can be a fun way to encourage fundraisers to participate virtually.
For example, the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Foundation encouraged participants to post a video of themselves pouring ice water over their heads and passing the baton by “challenging” their friends to follow suit. The Extra Life campaign encourages video gamers to play games for a cause!
Symbolic gestures are a good way to involve people by asking them to change an aspect of their lifestyle in a symbolic way.
Movember encourages participants to grow out their mustaches for the month of November. The End It Movement encourages participants to mark a red X on their hands. Both of these gestures raise awareness and open the door for conversation in addition to fundraising.
Empower your top donors, supporters, or clients to represent your organization while giving them the power to tell their story. This strengthens your relationship with them and ensures they’ll continue to be a part of your mission in the future.
Pro tip: Be sure you are thorough and communicative about the guidelines so they have some instruction to help your organization maintain consistency while allowing them to include their uniqueness.
Event management peer-to-peer fundraisers are a great way for people who love to participate in more hands-on ways. Create a handbook that includes activities and talking points to guide the fundraising host. Or consider a box of materials to give the fundraiser to provide swag items, decorative banners, or information materials to provide for the attendees.
A good example is the American Red Cross Blood Drive Scholarship. Each participant receives a handbook educating on how to host a blood drive with helpful tools and tips for success.
By giving the fundraiser helpful materials, you are making the process less intimidating and more impactful.
Like a-thons, creating an event on a specific day managed by your organization helps fundraisers participate with less effort.
A good example of this is the AIDS Vaccine 200 which encourages participants to raise money for their individual cycling rides without the hassle of hosting an event of their own.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to engage your network of supporters, acquire new donors, boost donations, and raise awareness.
Get started with your peer-to-peer fundraising donation platform in just 15 minutes – no set-up fees, no monthly fees, and no contract! Sign up now.
Check out our Nonprofit Blog for additional fundraising tips and resources. Sign up for our newsletter to receive a curated list of fundraising insights sent straight to your inbox every month!
Here are answers to some commonly asked questions on peer-to-peer fundraising.
One way to encourage participation in peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns is to create friendly competition between the fundraisers.
Friendly competition is a great, encouraging way to push goals to the limit. By incentivizing the competition, you are likely to receive more engagement. The incentives can be social media shoutouts, gifts, or other forms of public recognition!
We may be biased, but Donorbox has it all! It lets you create customized donation pages with powerful donation forms and more features for your fundraisers. With low fees, no contracts, and customizable options, Donorbox is a perfect fit for all your peer-to-peer fundraising ideas.
Heather is a writer, business owner, and nonprofit professional. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) with more than a decade of experience leading fundraising efforts and creating communication materials for arts, education, and social services nonprofits.
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Heather Karellas