Top Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Platforms for Nonprofits [Updated]

Peer-to-peer fundraising is one of the best ways to recruit new donors because it allows you to leverage your supporters’ personal networks to increase the reach of your campaign. By recruiting supporters to fundraise on your behalf, you might be surprised to find out just how many of them are willing to fundraise for your organization! However, even the most seasoned fundraisers can’t pull off a successful peer-to-peer fundraiser without a little help. That’s why many organizations invest in peer-to-peer fundraising platforms to help them facilitate their fundraising campaigns. 

• What is the difference between peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding?
• Why should my nonprofit use peer-to-peer fundraising?
• What is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform?
• What should I look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising platform?   
• Top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms 

What is the difference between peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding? 

Both peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding leverage the power of networking and personal connections, but there are some key differences between these two fundraising methods that make them distinct from each other!  

Crowdfunding is a method aimed at collecting many smaller donations from a larger donor base. This fundraising method relies on word-of-mouth and social sharing from your donor base to find donors and collect donations. A crowdfunding campaign is also set up by an organization or even individuals to help fund things like medical expenses, and all donations are made to a centralized donation page.  

While peer-to-peer fundraising is also focused on collecting many donations from donors, you’ll recruit dedicated peer-to-peer participants who volunteer to fundraise on your organization’s behalf. Your fundraisers are actively involved in spreading the word for your organization and collecting donations from their networks of family and friends. Usually, they’ll collect donations via a personal fundraising page or team up to fundraise together. Peer-to-peer campaigns are also sometimes paired with some sort of event like a fun run, 5K, or a-thon event like a bowl-a-thon or dance-a-thon.  

It might take some research to figure out which fundraising method is best for your organization, but both methods are great for spreading the word about your organization’s work and getting your supporters involved!  

Why should my nonprofit use peer-to-peer fundraising? 

A peer-to-peer campaign might feel daunting to plan if you’ve never done it before, but it can have many benefits for your organization. One of the factors to consider when hosting a peer-to-peer fundraiser is the demographic make-up of your supporters. While baby boomers are less interested in peer-to-peer fundraising, other generations love the idea. In fact, 84% of Generation Z is open to becoming a fundraiser on behalf of your organization!    

When volunteer fundraisers reach out to their friends and family members, they’re building on established relationships. Donors are more likely to give when they know the person who’s doing the asking, which is why it’s one of the most effective ways to gain new donors. According to data pulled from the Qgiv platform, peer-to-peer campaigns recruit around 300 new donors for nonprofits. The social aspect of peer-to-peer fundraisers makes it a powerful way to boost visibility in your community and raise money for your cause! 

What is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform? 

A peer-to-peer fundraising platform is a platform that helps you run your peer-to-peer campaign by allowing your participants to create their own custom fundraising page to raise donations for your cause. While not always the case, many peer-to-peer platforms are part of a larger suite of tools on a fundraising platform to help you cover all your fundraising needs in one place. 

What should I look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising platform? 

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to raise money and build your donor base, but the type of platform you use also has a major impact on your campaign’s performance and your ability to retain those new donors and fundraisers from year to year. 

When running a peer-to-peer campaign, choosing the right platform is essential. Here are a few features to look for in your peer-to-peer fundraising software.  

• Branded event pages. Creating a dynamic website for your peer-to-peer campaign is integral to your fundraiser’s success. Your website will serve as the hub of your campaign! It’s where all of your participants will head first when they have questions or need information about your campaign. Your website should accurately reflect your organization’s brand and mission, so being able to personalize your website is important!  
• Individual and team fundraising pages. Your peer-to-peer participants should be able to collect and keep track of donations from their friends and family on their own individual fundraising pages. On their own pages, they can share why they’re fundraising for your organization and provide vital information about your organization with their networks. The ability to create team fundraising pages adds an extra element of engagement and fun to your peer-to-peer campaign. Participants can create and join teams to compete against other fundraisers to see who can raise the most money. Any donations made to individual fundraising pages will also go towards the team goal!  
• Gamification tools. Gamifying your peer-to-peer campaign is a great way to make your fundraiser more engaging for your participants. Offer badges as rewards for your participants to display on their individual fundraising pages when they reach certain milestones on their way towards their goal. Leaderboards are also a great tool that adds a bit of friendly competitive spirit to your campaign. They allow your participants to keep track of how much everyone has raised and how much they’ll need to raise to reach the top!  
• Fundraising thermometers. Adding thermometers to your peer-to-peer website and individual fundraising pages provides participants and donors with a visual representation of your fundraising progress throughout your campaign. When donors can see how close you or your participants are to reaching their goals, they’ll be more likely to donate to help fill the thermometer up!  
• Social sharing tools. It’s not always easy for peer-to-peer participants to make donation appeals to their networks, which is why social sharing tools are an important part of any peer-to-peer platform. With just a couple of clicks, your fundraisers should be able to share your campaign and their personal fundraising pages with their friends and family on multiple social media platforms and via email. You can even create customized email and social media templates to make it that much easier for your participants to spread the word about their fundraising efforts and your organization’s mission.  

Top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms 

The best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms make fundraising easier for both your organization and your peer-to-peer participants! To help you get more out of your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts, here’s a list of our top software picks for nonprofits: 

1. Qgiv | Best peer-to-peer fundraising platform
2. Bloomerang | Volunteer management system
3. Double the Donation | Matching gift software 
4. Mailchimp | Multi-channel marketing software 
5. Constant Contact | Email marketing software 
6. Buffer | Social media management software 
7. Charity Miles | Virtual walkathon app 
8. Zoom | Video conferencing software 
9. Smartwaiver | Event waiver software 
10. Bonfire | T-shirt fundraising software 
11. Grassroots Unwired | Peer-to-peer canvassing software 
12. Facebook Fundraisers | Social media crowdfunding software 

Qgiv | Best peer-to-peer fundraising platform 

Built entirely with you and your participants in mind, Qgiv’s comprehensive peer-to-peer fundraising platform empowers organizations to raise more with custom fundraising pages. Peer-to-peer pages can be customized by your nonprofit, as well as by each of your volunteers. Participants can customize their pages, share their stories, and upload photos and videos. This way, each individual’s network of family and friends can see exactly why your campaign matters to your volunteer.  

Let’s take a look at some of Qgiv’s unique benefits:  

• Game elements keep your participants engaged. Fun features, such as leaderboards, fundraising thermometers, and fundraising badges, help gamify the fundraising experience. This encourages active engagement because it facilitates a friendly, competitive environment.  
• Social integrations help spread awareness. Qgiv offers social integrations to help your participants raise money online. Qgiv also offers access to written templates for social posts and lets supporters easily share their pages across multiple platforms.   
• Selling merchandise is easy. Qgiv’s platform offers a storefront feature that can track your inventory. This is a handy way to raise even more money and give your participants and donors a way to show off their enthusiasm for your cause.  
• Event management tools keep you on track. You can manage your fundraising participants and their teams, track progress, monitor fundraising activities, and send emails to targeted groups of participants all in one centralized location.  
• Text fundraising options help raise more. Qgiv-built peer-to-peer pages are made to be mobile-friendly and offer a text fundraising feature for their peer-to-peer platform.  
• Custom emails keep donors engaged. Keep your donors motivated with automated custom emails! Before your event, build encouraging emails targeted at different supporter segments.   

What we love about Qgiv 

Qgiv’s platform is perfect for nonprofits of all sizes hosting a peer-to-peer event or campaign. This platform’s custom walkthroughs train supporters to create a unique, beautiful page that tells their personal story and connection to your organization. This user-friendly service also includes drag-and-drop design tools, which eliminates the need for knowledge of CSS or HTML.  

Pricing 

Qgiv’s peer-to-peer platform pricing starts at $259 per month or $687 per quarter.  

Bloomerang | Volunteer management system

With Bloomerang, a powerful volunteer and donor management system, you can start to get to know your volunteers and donors more to communicate more effectively.  

Using an interactive dashboard, you can review your donor retention rate and volunteer data to help improve your campaign. You can also use this dashboard to track your current campaign’s success and easily build a to-do list to better manage your project and various tasks.  

What we love about Bloomerang 

If your nonprofit is conducting multiple fundraising campaigns or has a significant variety of donation streams, using Bloomerang can help differentiate donations and other transactions based on date, amount, campaign, fund, and more.  

Additionally, if you want to further engage donors and volunteers past your peer-to-peer campaign, you can track your campaign transactions in Bloomerang to gain a comprehensive view of your donor and volunteer engagements. This way, you can analyze, segment, and communicate with constituents to turn them into lifelong supporters.  

Pricing 

Bloomerang’s pricing is designed to be affordable for nonprofits of any size. Learn more about their pricing page or request a demo to see their tools in action. 

Double the Donation | Matching gift software 

Double the Donation is a matching gift software that helps organizations find money they never even knew was available to them. Using their matching gifts database, your donors can search their company’s name to find out if they offer any corporate giving programs. If the program exists, Double the Donation provides the parameters your donor would need to meet to qualify for the corporate giving program.  

What we love about Double the Donation 

This platform can be used in conjunction with your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts to increase the donation amounts given by your supporters. Volunteers can embed Double the Donation’s searchable matching gifts database directly into their peer-to-peer fundraising page, and you can ask volunteers to advertise it themselves.  

If your nonprofit is on the larger side, a matching gift automation tool like Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro might be more helpful. Market matching gifts on your peer-to-peer fundraising pages and automatically reach out to those who qualify! Once someone donates to your cause 360MatchPro will automatically determine if they’re using a corporate email address from a matching gift-eligible company.  

Additionally, Double the Donation has an integration with Qgiv hat can help streamline the entire peer-to-peer campaign process.   

Pricing 

Double the Donation’s pricing starts at $$999 per year. 

Mailchimp | Multi-channel marketing software  

Mailchimp is a comprehensive marketing platform that can help you with everything from website builds to multi-channel marketing. This software’s focus on data helps you turn audience insights into personalized marketing that resonates with your supporters.  

MailChimp helps you:  

• Collect and analyze audience data into one place so you can create the content your supporters will love.  
• Organize assets in a central location so you can show off your business in the best light across different channels.  
• Create integrated campaigns across all channels using segmentation so you can ensure you’re sending the right message to the right recipients at the right time.  
• Analyze engagement so you can be more successful at reaching supporters with each campaign 

What we love about Mailchimp 

Mailchimp helps you turn data about your peer-to-peer contacts into action. You can learn what your audience likes and create a conversation with them from an all-in-one platform. Promote your auction through email, social media, landing pages, postcards, and more.  

Pricing 

Mailchimp offers a free starter tier and a variety of packages for different growth stages. 

Constant Contact | Email marketing software  

Constant Contact is a more email-focused solution with hundreds of mobile-optimized and customizable email templates to help your nonprofit stand out from the crowd. You can easily edit and customize each one and use it for whatever you want, whenever you want.   

Constant Contact’s top features include:  

• Email marketing  
• Email templates  
• Marketing automation  
• ECommerce  
• Website builder  
• Google ads  
• Facebook and Instagram ads 

What we love about Constant Contact  

If you’re looking for a tool to help you organize your peer-to-peer marketing efforts in one place, Constant Contact offers a suite of tools to help you make a more efficient email marketing campaign.  

Pricing 

Constant Contact pricing plans start at $12 per month. 

Buffer | Social media management software 

Buffer offers an integrated social media management system designed to simplify your social media marketing campaigns. This platform allows you to strategically plan your peer-to-peer marketing campaign, all within a unified platform. You can easily schedule content across multiple platforms, manage access to social accounts on a centralized dashboard, and cultivate a compelling social media presence for your nonprofit. Your team can also create a content calendar using content suggestions and engagement insights for more effective campaigns. 

What we love about Buffer 

Buffer is highly collaborative in nature, enabling your marketing team to collectively refine your peer-to-peer marketing plans before publication. This collaborative approach ensures that your posts meet the highest quality standards and align with your mission. 

Pricing 

Buffer offers a range of plans, starting with a free option and scaling up to $120 per month. 

Charity Miles | Virtual walkathon app 

Charity Miles is an app for virtual walkathons designed to inspire users to transform their physical activities into donations. This platform operates by allowing users to choose a charity from their list and start fundraising by walking for donations, determined by the distance covered. Participants can monitor their activity through the app, which computes and translates their physical efforts into charitable contributions.  

What we love about Charity Miles 

Charity Miles offers a simple option for virtual walkathons that allows users to make a positive impact while pursuing their fitness objectives. The app keeps users engaged by providing a platform for global communication to support nonprofits through their everyday activities. 

Pricing 

Contact Charity Miles to learn more about getting started.  

Zoom | Video conferencing software 

Zoom is a widely utilized video conferencing and communication platform, offering versatility for both peer-to-peer campaign planning and a way to communicate during a virtual peer-to-peer event. With its accessibility, this platform enables remote connections with your team and your participants.  

Top tools from Zoom include: 

• Breakout rooms 
• Screen sharing 
• Meeting recording 
• Virtual backgrounds 
• Chat and collaboration tools 

What we love about Zoom 

Zoom provides robust security features, keeping you and your supporters’ meetings safe and private. Additionally, the option to record Zoom sessions allows your participants to revisit your virtual peer-to-peer event and share their highlights with their personal networks.  

Pricing 

Zoom provides a free basic plan but also offers other plans for additional features. 

 

Smartwaiver | Peer-to-peer event waiver software 

Smartwaiver provides you with a convenient digital waiver management solution for your peer-to-peer events. This software offers an intuitive interface for crafting customized digital waivers, enabling participants to electronically sign waivers before they start participating in your peer-to-peer event.  

Key features of Smartwaiver include: 

• Conditional logic for waivers 
• Photo capture for enhanced identification 
• Reporting tools for easy data management 

What we love about Smartwaiver 

Smartwaiver offers an offline mode to users, providing flexibility in collecting waivers even if there’s no internet on-site during your peer-to-peer event. By adopting Smartwaiver, you gain access to an efficient and secure digital waiver solution that takes the pressure off of your administration teams with simplified waiver management. 

Pricing 

Smartwaiver’s pricing plans start at $19 per month.  

Bonfire | T-shirt fundraising software 

Bonfire is an online fundraising software that provides users the ability to design, sell, and distribute custom apparel and merchandise for charitable contributions, making the merchandise creation process more accessible for fundraisers. Users can design products using Bonfire’s design tools, set prices, and launch campaigns with minimal effort.  

What we love about Bonfire 

Bonfire provides an easy solution for fundraising with merchandise. This software handles production, order fulfillment, and customer service, allowing fundraisers to focus on raising money. 

Pricing 

For Bonfire’s pricing details, use their pricing calculator. 

Grassroots Unwired | Peer-to-peer canvassing software 

Grassroots Unwired provides solutions for effective campaign outreach. This platform helps organizations streamline their canvassing efforts, advocacy campaigns, and community engagement.  

Grassroots Unwired offers power canvassing tools including: 

• P2P texting app 
• Canvasser and campaign tracking 
• Turf management 
• Real-time reporting 
• Robust data collection and analytics 

What we love about Grassroots Unwired 

With mobile-friendly solutions, Grassroots Unwired offers tools for data collection, multi-channel communication, and analytics. This platform helps you with efficient peer-to-peer text fundraising and campaign tracking. 

Pricing 

Contact Grassroots Unwired for pricing details. 

Facebook Fundraisers | Social media crowdfunding software 

Social media is a great tool for raising awareness about your mission, and Facebook Fundraisers provides a solution directly through their platform. Facebook Fundraisers allows users to raise funds for their cause directly on Facebook’s platform. You can encourage peer-to-peer participants to create personalized fundraisers for charitable missions to mobilize support from friends, family, and the broader Facebook community.  

Facebook Fundraisers key features include: 

• Easy setup 
• Personalized fundraiser pages 
• Social sharing 
• Donation tracking 
• Birthday fundraisers 
• Matching donations 

What we love about Facebook Fundraisers 

This platform simplifies the process of fundraising by offering a user-friendly interface and leveraging social media for maximum impact. Facebook Fundraisers also provides tools for tracking donations in real-time to monitor the campaign’s progress. 

Pricing 

Facebook Fundraisers is free to use except for third-party payment processing fees. 

Getting started with Qgiv  

Plan your next campaign using Qgiv’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools! Here’s a few key steps to get you started: 

1. Set up your campaign. Create your peer-to-peer campaign through your Qgiv account, set your fundraising goal, and customize your campaign page to reflect your mission. 

2. Promote your campaign. Using Qgiv’s social sharing tools, market your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to recruit participants. Leverage social media and email campaigns to maximize visibility and encourage supporters to join in. 

3. Monitor your campaign. Track your peer-to-peer fundraiser’s progress using Qgiv’s tracking and reporting tools. Manage donor and participant information, track contributions, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your fundraising efforts. 

4. Support your participants. Offer guidance and support to your peer-to-peer participants to help them raise more. Ensure they understand how to set up their individual fundraising pages and effectively promote the cause. 

5. Celebrate with your donors. Once your campaign concludes, celebrate your supporters’ success in fundraising and express gratitude for their contributions. Share impact stories to keep your donors motivated for your future fundraising endeavors. 

Peer-to-peer ideas  

If you’re looking for your next peer-to-peer campaign idea, check out these top peer-to-peer activities: 

• Virtual challenges. Encourage your participants to go virtual so they raise money for your cause no matter where they are. These online challenges can include virtual walks, social media challenges, or ambassador campaigns. Participants can set personal goals and seek sponsorships from their friends and family based on their achievements. 
• DIY fundraising events. Empower your supporters to organize their own do-it-yourself (DIY) fundraising events. These events could range from cooking classes to talent shows. Participants can even use their birthday or other celebration as their event! 
• “Athon” fundraisers. “Athon” peer-to-peer events are fundraisers that encourage your participants to meet their goals through walking, biking, running, dancing, reading, and more! Many “athon” fundraisers offer donation options for every milestone reached or as a single donation.  
• Themed campaigns. Create themed fundraising campaigns that align with current trends or events. For example, you can tie your campaign to a holiday, awareness month, or a significant event in your local community. These themes help get your participants and donors excited for fundraising. 
• Matching gift challenges. Implement a matching gift challenge where a generous donor or sponsor pledges to match donations up to a certain amount. This creates more motivation among participants to maximize their fundraising efforts, knowing that their contributions will be effectively doubled. 

Final thoughts 

Peer-to-peer fundraising can help you expand your donor base and raise more money for your mission, and the right peer-to-peer fundraising software will make your campaign even easier! Consider your nonprofit’s needs and choose the software solutions that work best for your organization and peer-to-peer participants. 

Additional resources 

• Peer-to-Peer Fundraising | The Ultimate Guide [Updated]. Before you pick your platform, make sure you know everything about peer-to-peer fundraising and how it works with this ultimate guide! 
• Peer-to-Peer Ultimate Guide eBook. Learn how to recruit peer-to-peer participants and effectively advertise your campaign with our Peer-to-Peer Ultimate Guide eBook 
• Peer-to-Peer Event Success Toolkit. Check out our Peer-to-Peer Event Success Toolkit to help you plan, host, and wrap up your next peer-to-peer event! 
• 10 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tips to Help You Raise More.  Use these tips to get the most out of your peer-to-peer campaign and motivate your volunteers to fundraise harder.