Five Steps to Make Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaign Even More Attractive

With constant technological changes and updates, peer-to-peer fundraising has become an incredible blessing for many nonprofits and organizations. 

Why? Because it makes fundraising easier for individuals on your behalf. Your supporters can ask and receive donations from friends, family, neighbors, and more over the internet with ease.

Gone are the days of physical collection baskets or knocking on neighbors’ doors. It can be as simple as fundraising through social media or sending a link via text. 

Additionally, the sky's the limit with the number of people supporters can reach. If each supporter’s social network is in the hundreds or even thousands, you can magnify the news of your nonprofit’s P2P fundraiser across the country. 

The limitations of a solely physical, in-person world have become obsolete. Donors don’t even need to mail checks or send cash anymore. We have virtual wallets and can enter credit card numbers quicker than we can heat up our leftovers in the microwave. 

For all these reasons, peer-to-peer is an extremely attractive way to fundraise for your organization and supporters. Let’s dive in and see exactly how this all can work!

But Can Peer-to-Peer Be Even More Attractive?

With peer-to-peer fundraisers, you can enhance participation and achieve better results by taking additional actions. 

Instead of approaching P2P as “set it and forget it,” implementing active and ongoing management through communication, simplification, gamification, urgency, and incentives can make your campaign more attractive and successful.

The answer to the question is a resounding “yes!” The following five steps can make peer-to-peer even more attractive for your supporters.

Step #1. Communicate the Cause Effectively

The number one reason for your peer-to-peer fundraiser is your cause! Without a clearly communicated goal and mission, supporters will not feel motivated to ask their friends and family to donate funds on your behalf.

Consider the reason for the fundraiser, for example. Are you raising $100,000 to improve your building, or are you raising $100,000 to make room for life-saving medical services for underserved populations? Do you see the difference?

Also, who are you serving? While it’s easy to make the appeal about raising money for your organization, focus on the end beneficiary—the people (or animals) you will help, the problem you will solve, or the need you will meet.

To make it the most attractive P2P fundraiser, start by communicating your organization’s heart and the “why” behind the fundraiser. Everyone involved in P2P should understand and be able to clearly communicate your message to others as a form of word-of-mouth marketing.

Your supporters’ words to their friends and family are worth their weight in gold. Make sure they know your organization and mission inside and out. Here are tips for effective communication to accomplish this goal.

Three Tips for Effective Communication

1. Communicate it Through Every Channel

If you’re starting a P2P fundraising campaign, communicate it through every channel you can. Share about it on social media, emails, newsletters, mailers, and your websites. If you have the budget, even a billboard could be helpful!

You want every supporter to know about your P2P fundraiser and the mission incoming funds will help accomplish.

2. Try Multimedia to Convey Emotions

Words cannot express what a video can. Create a video introducing your nonprofit and sharing your heart. You can even include testimonials and personal stories to make it more impactful. The video doesn’t have to be TV quality but should be impactful.

Keep it short and make it shareable. You want P2P fundraisers to be able to share this video with their network to further your mission. 

3. Repetition! Repetition! Repetition!

An old advertising rule from the 1930s indicates an ad must be shown or repeated at least seven times before a potential customer takes action. Repetition can be the difference between supporters engaging in peer-to-peer fundraising or forgetting about your entire initiative.

We’ll repeat it again. You must repeat your message to spur more peer-to-peer fundraising volunteers into action. You must repeat. You must repeat. Get the idea?

Not to be repetitive, but you can do this by leveraging multiple communication channels. Find clever ways to repeat yourself without it being the same message. You can spread the word about your fundraiser in unique ways, but make sure the key details you want supporters to remember are repeated over and over.

Step #2. Make P2P Fundraising Easy with Technology

Make participation in your peer-to-peer fundraising as easy as humanly possible. Thankfully, technology has helped make everything easier.

As generations become more digitally native, the adoption of new technologies like peer-to-peer software has become more accessible.

To remove barriers for supporters to give or participate, use online software that’s easy to use and share. All giving platforms should be intuitive and user-friendly. All ages should be able to figure out your software because it’s simple, easy, and makes sense.

At FundEasy, we believe all peer-to-peer fundraising should be easy and seamless. We even include participant customization options to equip your supporters with all they need to be successful, including sending updates at the touch of a button.

Step #3. Add Gamification

The Oxford Languages dictionary definition for gamification is “the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g., point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.”

Gamification makes fundraising FUN. Everyone loves friendly competition. The thrill of winning doesn’t expire with age. Even grandma loves to win a game of Scrabble.

Here Are a Few Ways You Can Gamify Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising:

1. Display a Leaderboard

Make peer-to-peer fundraising competitive in real-time by displaying and updating the rankings regularly. Our Peer-to-Peer software displays a leaderboard, so every fundraiser or team knows where they stand.

If another team raises more funds than another, the upset will show up on our leaderboard. When the team who falls behind sees the change in their ranking, they will want their position back and fundraise even more to get ahead again. It’s a race to the finish as teams try to raise funds to secure first place.

Adding an incentive or prize for the winners can also make this more exciting (more on this shortly).

2. Track Progress with an Animated Fund-Meter

Add visibility to peer-to-peer fundraising with an animated fund meter! Like an old-school fundraising thermometer, it shows your collective fundraising progress to meet your goals.

What’s more motivating than a donor seeing their donation make a measurable impact toward a goal? They will see how their fundraising or giving moves the needle right away. It will make them feel part of something bigger, which is great.

Both our Peer-to-Peer and Crowdfunding software have an animated fund-meter capability.

3. Create Donation Matching Levels

Beating levels or accomplishing small goals add to the excitement! See if one of your most generous donors would be willing to match donations from peer-to-peer fundraising teams and communicate the levels.

For instance, for every $500 raised per team, a donor will match it. If the fundraising team knows they will level up for every $500, they will keep pushing to reach the next goal. 

Teammates can cheer each other on as they work toward the matching donation. Once they reach it, they will celebrate unlocking extra funds for your mission!

Step #3. Incentivize with a Prize

While giving to your nonprofit’s cause and supporting your mission is the ultimate prize, adding an extra incentive can make your P2P fundraising even more attractive.

Take an elementary school fundraiser, for example. Students are given the task of selling wrapping paper, cookies, magazines, and other items for the chance to earn prizes. The more they sell, the bigger the rewards. 

Sometimes schools even throw a remarkable rally to show off some incredible prizes kids can win. As the presenter shows remote control helicopters, the students “ooh” and “aah” and explains how they can win.

Once students leave the assembly, they feel pumped up and ready to sell the items to win the prizes on their minds, from glow-in-the-dark bracelets to boomerangs and gumball machines.

Here’s the deal. Some things never change. Adults also love competition and winning prizes, but the prizes mature. They want to win a spa coupon or a steak dinner for two. This is also why silent auctions are so successful, especially when the prizes are attractive.

Now, apply this to peer-to-peer fundraising. What if the top fundraising team wins an all-expenses paid escape room reservation or a private concert with a local artist? Make sure the ultimate prize is unique and will incentivize extra competitive energy and effort.

Step #4. Create a Sense of Urgency

Urgency can encourage action. Create a sense of urgency throughout your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign through these actions.

Send Frequent Updates

When launching your P2P campaigns, you want to continue communicating with fundraising supporters. Your urgent messages will motivate your supporters to raise more during specific periods.

Sending frequent updates like “There are only five days left!” can help remind your supporters that time is of the essence.

Make Your Goals Time-Oriented

If you’re kicking off a campaign, make sure it’s time-bound. The urgency dwindles if you continue to extend your campaign or if it doesn’t have a clear endpoint.

Goals should always be bound by time, leading to greater activity levels within that time frame. Communicate the deadline with all fundraisers and repeat it often.

Create “Flash” Incentives

Like a flash sale, which presents a limited-time offer, you should create flash incentives for your supporters. You can do this by first requesting matching from generous donors. Then, ask P2P participating donors to give during specific days or within certain hours for limited-time donation matching.

You’ve likely heard this tactic during radio pledge drives. “If you reach this goal during this next song, a donor will give a $10,000 bonus.” 

While you may not have song limitations, you can emphasize giving in the next hour or during a specific day to grant bonuses or matching.

Step #5. Pair it with a Fundraising Event

Walk-a-thons and bike-a-thons are excellent examples of peer-to-peer fundraising mixed with events. While friends and families can pledge to donate a certain amount for each lap or mile ahead of time, the results culminate during the event's excitement.

This can make peer-to-peer even more attractive as fundraisers, as supporters can cheer on their peers as they try to bike or dance for as long as possible.

A celebratory event at the end could also encourage participation. You could mark the end of your peer-to-peer campaign with a picnic in the park, with raffles, potato sack racing, and other fun fundraising activities.

Events that foster community and a sense of accomplishment can also play a role in the success of a peer-to-peer fundraiser the following year. It could be well worth the time investment.

What Are You Waiting for?

If you haven’t tried peer-to-peer fundraising, give it a try! One of the major benefits of peer-to-peer is the ability to engage with younger generations, including Millennials and Gen Z. If you’re looking to expand your donor base, P2P is a great way to start.

So, what are you waiting for? All you need is a fundraising goal, a starting donor base, and a software solution to make fundraising easy for all who want to participate. That’s where we come in.

FundEasy’s Peer-to-Peer Software

The solution for simple and easy P2P fundraising is our Peer-to-Peer software! Schedule a time to talk with sales and find out how Peer-to-Peer can work for your organization’s individual fundraising needs. 

Learn how to brand and customize websites, emails, and participant options. Put an animated fund meter and the leaderboard to good use and see your donations increase as your supporters raise funds on your mission’s behalf!

By combining FundEasy’s Peer-to-Peer fundraising software with our steps to make your P2P more attractive, you can reach and exceed your P2P fundraising goals. 

We’re cheering you on! Reach out to us today for more information.

If you'd like to learn more about our Peer-to-peer, Attendance, or Crowdfunding products, please reach out! We'd love to chat.

Also, if you haven't joined already, we have an exclusive Facebook Group just for our customers! If you are a current FundEasy Customer and would like to join, go here to learn more and request to be added!

Madison Hull

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This article was inspired by our customers and written to encourage your fundraising efforts. Although we work with nonprofits and events daily, our team members are not Event Consultants. We encourage you to consult with your event consultant, executive team, and/or affiliate organization before making any major changes to your events.