What Is Peer to Peer Fundraising?

Peer-to-peer fundraising is when individuals organize personalized campaigns to collect donations from their peers. The supporters run these peer-to-peer campaigns through their individual donation pages. 

Peer-to-peer fundraisers can include asking for donations via crowdfunding, read-a-thons, and participating in community-driven events like team fun runs.

How Does Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Work?

A nonprofit has to use specialized peer-to-peer fundraising software to provide its supporters with the tools to raise funds on their own.

The nonprofit creates a campaign by inviting its supporters to customize their individual fundraising pages on the fundraising software. The supporters, with the power of their social networks, get the word out about the nonprofit’s campaign and raise money in return.

The raised funds go to the nonprofit since each individual's fundraising page is connected to the nonprofit's principal fundraising campaign page.

Types of Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Campaigns

Ongoing

Ongoing peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns don't have a time limit. These campaigns are mostly designed to raise a certain amount of money and those funds do not have to be raised by a certain deadline. 

An example of an ongoing campaign is a continually running peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that is solely dedicated to raising money for recurring expenses. 

Suppose you want your supporters to have the option to raise money on behalf of your nonprofit at any time. In that case, you might set up an ongoing campaign on your fundraising platform that allows them to create a personalized campaign whenever they want.

You can dedicate these raised funds to your annual raised funds. 

Timebound

Timebound peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are much more common and require the funds to be raised by a specific set deadline. 

These campaigns can raise money quickly because they create a sense of urgency in the supporters to reach their personal goals and to help the nonprofit reach its overall fundraising goal.

Timebound peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are mostly tied to events. For example, a nonprofit can launch a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign leading up to its annual walk-a-thon. 

This can help it spread the word about the event, while also increasing revenue for the campaign through peer-to-peer fundraising.

Giving Days

Giving days are ambitious and a great way to engage your supporters who love a challenge. 

Normally, the giving day requires a substantial amount of education and awareness beforehand so participants and supporters are ready and eager when the giving day comes. Giving days are quick and fast-paced ways to reach your fundraising goals.

What are the Benefits of Peer-To-Peer Fundraising?

There are several benefits of peer-to-peer fundraising for your nonprofit. If your nonprofit is in its planning phase for a peer-to-peer campaign, here are a few key benefits to keep in mind:

Attracts New Donors

A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign raises awareness and brings in tons of new supporters, volunteers as well and donors sharing their giving pages online.

Peer-to-peer campaigns increase your visibility, therefore your nonprofit will broaden its audience, draw in more donors, and expand its donor reach naturally.

Engages Existing Donors

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns boost your donors' engagement by providing a fun, and interactive way to get involved with your fundraising cause. 

Flexible and Customizable

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns come in all shapes and sizes thanks to their high level of flexibility, especially in today’s virtual world. 

Your nonprofit can easily customize your peer-to-peer campaign such as planning fundraisers that have different time frames, hybrid events, challenges, and live streams.

Builds Long-Term Donor Relationships 

Peer-to-peer fundraisers give individuals a more personalized involvement and the opportunity to share their passion with their family and friends. This can be highly motivating and establishes valuable, long-lasting relationships with the supporters.

5 Examples Of Peer-To-Peer Fundraising

5K race

A 5K is a good way to spark friendly competition among the supporters while also raising funds for your cause. 

Creating a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign can spread the word about the event and encourage your supporters and participants to launch their personal campaign pages ahead of time. 

This way, even those who can’t attend the race get a chance to donate and support your cause.

A-thons

Research and consider activities that your community of supporters enjoys the most or those that relate to your nonprofit’s cause. 

Read-a-thons are a great way to involve individuals of all ages. Run/walk/swim-a-thons can encourage reading more books or swimming more laps while also raising funds for your cause. 

You can also create different teams, set a goal, and encourage team fundraising to further boost engagement within the teams and make fundraising more fun for your donors and volunteers. 

Challenges

Challenges can be a fun way to encourage your fundraisers to participate virtually. Making your fundraiser a competition will get the people excited and increase engagement.  Get creative and come up with creative activities. 

These can include polar plunges, chili cookoffs, fitness challenges, and beard-growing contests which create light, fun, and friendly competitions.

A great example of this is the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Foundation which encouraged participants to post a video of themselves pouring ice water over their heads and passing the baton by “challenging” their friends to follow the ‘trend’. 

Symbolic Gestures

Symbolic gestures are also a great way to involve more and more people by asking them to change an aspect of their lifestyle symbolically. 

For example, Movember encouraged participants to grow out their mustaches for the month of November. The End It Movement encouraged supporters to mark a red X on their hands. 

Both these symbolic gestures raised awareness and are a great method for peer-to-peer fundraising.

Bake Sale

Bake sales have been a go-to fundraising event for as long as fundraisers have existed. However, your nonprofit can make its event stand out by having attendees “vote” on their favorite sweet treat by donating to the campaign of the baker who made it.

How to Set up a Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Campaign?

1. Planning 

First, determine your campaign’s goals and objectives. List down all the goals you want to accomplish with your campaign, this will help you decide the right type of peer-to-peer fundraiser for your cause. 

2. Selecting the Right Fundraising Platform

Picking a software platform that will best help your nonprofit reach its peer-to-peer campaign fundraising goals is important. Look for a platform that offers customizability, gamification tools, and other features/tools that can help you create an effective peer-to-peer campaign. 

3. Engaging Participants and Supporters

Attract supporters to fundraise on your behalf by presenting the campaign’s purpose and goals. Train them about how to launch their own campaign pages and engage the community. 

People tend to donate money to a person rather than an organization, meaning your supporter’s words and appeals will drive more support.

4. Execution  

It's time to launch the campaign and switch on the peer to peer feature option. Make sure to send invites to your supporters to join your campaign. 

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tips

Peer-to-peer fundraising can be quite challenging, especially if your nonprofit is new to it. That’s why there are some small keynotes to keep in mind to maximize your campaign and help you succeed.

Here are some important peer to peer fundraising tips for an effective campaign:

Appreciate Your Supporters 

Make sure to appreciate and thank your volunteers in your follow-up communications after the fundraiser. You can explain what impact they made through their dedicated support. 

Allow Customizability

Allow your supporters to personalize their campaign pages. Provide training materials such as video guides, for your supporters that instruct them on how to personalize their campaign page. 

Their message should also be personalized so that your campaign engages their network of followers with a story about their personal experiences with your cause.

Make Use of Fundraising Thermometers

Fundraising thermometers allow your donors to see exactly how much impact their donations have on your campaign goal. This also provides an incentive for donors to give. 

Make sure to choose an attractive thermometer and feature it on various campaign pages and your nonprofit’s website.

Use Leaderboards to Gamify the Campaign

Try turning your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign into a friendly competition by adding leaderboards. You can rank your leading fundraisers for everyone to see and celebrate your top earners. Make sure to award the winner with a prize after the campaign.

Use the Right Software

Using the right fundraising platform is important for ensuring you can apply these various peer-to-peer fundraising tips. 

Therefore, when looking for a fundraising platform, look for features that you want as a part of your peer-to-peer campaign, and then be sure the software you ultimately use has those features included.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising FAQ

How can you take part in peer-to-peer fundraising?

It is simple, just choose an organization supporting a cause that you are passionate about and engage in their peer-to-peer campaigns by creating and sharing your fundraising page with your friends and family. 

How can you make peer-to-peer fundraising more effective?

You can make your peer-to-peer fundraising effective by connecting with the supporters on a deeper level and making your fundraiser convenient for them. 

Be transparent about your campaign's goals and purpose and specify why your cause matters and what the impact will be if your campaign is successful. You can also use storytelling to attract more participants.

Most importantly, make sure to include a clear call to action.

What features should I look for in peer-to-peer fundraising software?

Here are some important features to look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising software:

• It should be mobile-optimized and must connect to Apple or Google Pay to help you drive the most donations and peer-to-peer signups from any device.
• It should have several communication tools and social sharing integrations.
• Allows gamification features.
• Allows customization and branding so your nonprofit can create your unique campaign.
• Allows donors, peer-to-peer participants, and admins to easily view data and analytics of the fundraising progress.
• Ability to sell tickets, if your peer-to-peer fundraiser needs it.

Conclusion

Peer-to-peer fundraising benefits nonprofits by expanding their donor reach past their own contact lists and into the participant's network. In short, nonprofits get exposure to people they may have never reached if not for peer-to-peer fundraisers. 

Not only that but it's also a great virtual campaign opportunity that engages supporters who can not attend your fundraising events in person. Moreover, peer-to-peer campaigns prove that community teamwork can make a great impact. 

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