Peer-to-peer fundraising, or social fundraising, is one of the best ways to raise money for your school, organization, or club. It taps into each member’s network, spreads the news about your work, and provides an exciting opportunity for donors to engage with your organization.
Host your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign on BetterWorld’s platform, and you’ll have all the tools necessary to run an easy and effective fundraiser. Our simple dashboard can track your fundraising efforts, guide you through creating beautifully-designed personal donation websites, and help you connect with donors to thank them for participating. Sign up for free at BetterWorld today!
How Does Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Work?
Whether you’re participating in team fundraising or raising money for a nonprofit organization, there are a ton of different ways to run a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Almost anything can be turned into a p2p – meaning your opportunities are endless!
However, the core of your effort is direct access to donors through your members, which increases the pool of potential donors and spreads your organization's message to new networks and audiences.
Before you start telling the world about your peer-to-peer fundraiser, there are several steps you'll want to go through to ensure the success of your campaign.
Set Your Fundraising Goal
Raising money is the goal of any fundraiser -- the question is, how many donations do you need for the campaign to be considered a success? Before moving forward with other parts of the campaign, sit down with your team to set a specific fundraising goal.
You should also decide who will benefit from your fundraising effort, as this will help you tell your story and explain the fundraiser's purpose. Donors feel more connected to your organization when they know its story, and the more connected they are, the more likely they'll be to donate to your peer-to-peer fundraiser.
Choose Your Platform
A quality peer-to-peer fundraising platform should offer the tools you need to host an easy and successful campaign, including a user-friendly interface, social media integrations, and low administrative and processing costs. Some platforms, like BetterWorld, don’t charge any administrative fees. The best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms can make or break your campaign, so choose wisely!
Obtain Prizes
One way to make your peer-to-peer or social fundraising campaign even more successful is to offer prizes to your participants and donors! This approach will excite donors and inspire your members to share the campaign on social media. To create two donation streams, consider adding an online raffle or giveaway option to your peer-to-peer campaign.
Sourcing prizes is easier than you might think. Many local businesses will be happy to donate physical products or gift cards to use as prizes. In addition, seeking help from your community will often yield extra support for your organization's peer-to-peer fundraising. After all, the entire appeal of p2p fundraising is leaning on your community!
Create Your Participants’ Websites
To facilitate the donation process, offer each member access to a fundraising page they can personalize with their own story outlining how they connect to your organization. Once their website is ready, your peer-to-peer fundraising platform should make it easy to share on social media so friends and family worldwide can donate.
Encourage your participants to update their website as they progress towards their goal. When donors see the amount rising, they may be even more excited to participate in the campaign.
Why Peer-to-Peer Fundraising is So Successful
In this day and age of booked and busy lives, packing a room for a physical fundraising event takes a lot of work. That's where p2p fundraising comes in.
With the help of a peer-to-peer fundraising platform, you can reach potential donors worldwide through social media and email marketing campaigns. At any point in time, they can read about your campaign, learn more about your organization, and participate in your fundraising campaign.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is successful because you meet donors where they are, encouraging them to learn about your organization and donate on their own time. It's a symbiotic relationship – your organization receives donations and exposure, and your audience gets to participate when it's convenient for them. With peer-to-peer fundraising, everyone wins!
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Ideas
The best part about peer-to-peer fundraising is that you can host various types of campaigns. It’s totally customizable to your organization’s goals! Here are examples of successful p2p fundraising campaigns run through the BetterWorld platform.
Fun Run
A fun run is one of the most successful peer-to-peer fundraiser events. Popular in elementary schools, this engaging activity gets your students physically involved in fundraising efforts. Each donor can pledge a per-lap amount, such as $1 per lap, or make a flat donation. The students then participate in a fun run and count the number of laps they complete.
At the end of the fundraiser, your donors pay for the number of laps completed. With the right peer-to-peer fundraising software, the platform will automatically notify the donors of their pledge amount and collect donations. You get to raise money for your organization while participating in a healthy activity. It’s a win-win!
Fund-a-Need
A fund-a-need campaign works similarly to a crowdfunding campaign, where all donors are directed to the same page. However, with peer-to-peer fundraising, each participant has a website, allowing them to personalize their fundraising and add a more personal touch to their efforts. Donors who feel like they're part of something are more likely to support your efforts with much-needed donations.
Read-a-Thon
Read-a-thons have been going for decades, and for a good reason -- they combine academics with fundraising to encourage students to embrace both.
This type of peer-to-peer fundraising effort works similarly to the fun run in that each donor pledges a certain amount per page or book. To make things easier, donors can also contribute a flat donation. Once the student completes the fundraiser, the donor pays the final amount.
Other a-thons
Looking for sports team fundraising opportunities? Instead of a read-a-thon, change it to a swim, throw, or dance-a-thon – whatever relates to your team’s sport! In the past, we’ve seen basketball teams host dunk-a-thons, swim teams host lap-a-thons, and cheer teams host stunt-a-thons. For every completed action, their donors submitted a small amount of money. A team fundraising idea is always a fun way to raise cash while introducing your donors to your sport!
Cooking Competitions
If you have some foodies in your organization, take advantage of their talents! Hosting a cooking competition, like a chili cookoff or an apple pie bakeoff, is a fun way to tie your members’ talents into your fundraising efforts.
All donation efforts are streamlined and collected through individual fundraising pages. Donors can also track who is in the lead and who needs a little funding bump. If a participant wants to win the competition, they must share their page and collect the most donations!
Online Auction
Online auctions are always a big hit with donors and participants alike, and hosting auctions through a peer-to-peer fundraising framework makes them even easier to produce!
Encourage more donations by using video integrations on donation pages. When your audience is engaged with a pre-taped or live-streamed video, they spend more time on the donation page getting to know your organization, which connects them with your organization and encourages them to donate more. Online fundraising platforms, such as BetterWorld, also have tools that allow you to send text message notifications to bidders when they’re outbid or when an auction is about to close.
In-person auctions are always a fun experience, but virtual auctions are exploding in popularity. People love the opportunity to browse auction items and bid on their own time. To encourage more people to bid on items, you can keep the auction open for days rather than just a single day.
Why Choose BetterWorld’s Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software
Online Store
Set up an online store to sell your branded gear to help your team achieve its fundraising goals.
Ticketed Events
BetterWorld’s platform can streamline your ticketing process without taking a chunk of your profits.
Raffles & Giveaways
Raffles and giveaways do incredibly well as part of a social fundraising campaign.
Monthly Giving
BetterWorld provides the tools you need to solicit monthly donations.
Personalized and Shareable Donation Pages
What is a peer-to-peer fundraiser without a personalized online donation page? Share information about your cause and update your donors on your progress.
Online Auctions
Easily organize and host online auctions through our fundraising platform. Our streamlined user experience makes bidding a breeze.
Free to Use
You have our word. If you are a nonprofit or school, BetterWorld will always remain 100% free, bar some minimal credit card fees, which most donors choose to cover!
Beautifully Designed
We are only as successful as your social fundraising campaign! That’s why we’ve worked hard to design gorgeous templates optimized for mobile or desktop viewing. You’ll be proud to share your BetterWorld site!
Easy-to-Use
We have designed a P2P fundraising platform that is easy to use so you can get right to raising your much-needed funds!
Seamlessly Interconnected
Social fundraising works best when your campaign is easily shareable. Our platform connects with all major social media platforms.
Genius Automations
Our automations save you time on administrative tasks like following up with donors and collecting payments.With BetterWorld’s innovative software, the following are always included:
Access to all tools you need to start fundraising in minutes.
Fully secure and encrypted fundraising site with built-in payment collection.
Trusted partner. We will never sell data obtained through your fundraising event.
Information exportation. Your donors are your donors! Take your data wherever you go.
A space dedicated to your peer-to-peer fundraising event. No advertisements ever!
A completely free platform — no surprise fees here!
Host Your Next Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser with BetterWorld
Whether you’re looking for a team fundraiser or individual fundraising ideas, BetterWorld has everything you need to succeed on its simple, easy-to-use dashboard. Our expertly-designed platform allows any organization to easily reach its fundraising goals and bring in the donations required to succeed.
Fundraising doesn’t have to be frustrating. Reach out to our friendly team to request your free platform demonstration and see how BetterWorld can be a productive fundraising partner!
