Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is quickly becoming a go-to strategy for nonprofits to reach their fundraising goals. The Global NGO Technology Report states 33% of nonprofits are using a P2P platform to raise funds for their organizations. But it’s not just nonprofits finding success with peer-to-peer initiatives.
Individuals from all backgrounds leverage P2P platforms to encourage giving to their favorite causes. YouGov found that peer-to-peer fundraising is currently the number one tactic that prompts donors to give to a cause. The reason the P2P medium is so successful is that people love to support causes endorsed by their friends and family.
If your association wants to break into peer-to-peer fundraising, follow these tips to get started.
What is peer-to-peer fundraising?
P2P fundraising is a flexible campaign method your association can apply to any event, program, or cause. Peer-to-peer relies on members and organization stakeholders to raise funds and spread awareness. Many organizations choose to leverage P2P fundraising to encourage donations before a major event.
With innovative P2P solutions, your association can optimize the fundraising process, letting sponsors create personalized pages to collect donations from family and friends. Sponsors fundraise by sharing their links on social media or through emails. Peer-to-peer encourages flexibility, allowing your association to apply the method to various campaigns.
How peer-to-peer fundraising can elevate your association
Peer-to-peer fundraising has the potential to become a powerful tool for any association. Here’s how to get started:
1. Engage your influential advocates. Deepen your relationships with member advocates through P2P fundraising. Did you know that members who are already involved in your association as ambassadors, volunteers, or board members may be looking for even more opportunities to give back? Peer-to-peer fundraising makes it simple to further member involvement without a large time commitment.
P2P solutions make fundraising campaigns easy to set up and let members customize a page quickly. Another perk of peer-to-peer fundraising? Your members can get involved without contributing financially by promoting your cause on social media or directly with family and friends.
2. Connect with new donors. Because peer-to-peer is social, it lets you reach more people than other campaign efforts. The basis of how P2P fundraising works is donors and sponsors share a campaign within their networks, quickly disseminating the information to a larger group of people.
Social media further elevates the range of your association’s campaigns and lets you reach new constituents within your industry. A new donor may learn about your association through a friend and become interested in your organization as a result. Your association can foster donors into prospects and eventually nurture donors into new members.
3. Boost your social media presence. P2P fundraising is a fantastic method to increase your association’s brand awareness on social media. Because most individuals share peer-to-peer campaigns on personal Facebook or Instagram accounts, their followers are more likely to research your organization, search through your thought leadership content, or see your upcoming webinars or events. Others might even follow your account.
To further boost brand awareness, ensure your P2P solution offers standardized branding elements so any of your sponsors will use your logo, colors, and font. Even if a donor only gives through a sponsor’s page, they will become more familiar with your association’s brand if you have these standardized elements in place.
4. Create fun, engaging fundraising campaigns. Pair peer-to-peer fundraising efforts with virtual and in-person events to maximize member engagement. The flexibility of the P2P platform lets members set goals for how much they want to pledge to an annual event, boosting engagement and encouraging activity in the program. Peer-to-peer campaigns pair fantastically with awareness months that encourage fundraising for research. Your members can even get creative with the P2P platform, turning their birthdays into donation drives where instead of gifts they accept funds for a specific cause.
Peer-to-peer also helps raise awareness for your upcoming association events. For example, if your association’s annual event hosts a charitable 5k, you can generate hype and involvement with the P2P platform, by having members sponsor event participants with donations. Accepting donations early in advance of an event helps to promote your cause and encourages non-members to learn more about your organization.
5. Empower your member donors. Donations can sometimes feel impersonal—after entering your credit card information you might get a “thank you,” but it’s difficult to fully see your financial impact on an organization. With peer-to-peer fundraising, people feel more connected when collecting donations or contributing to a cause. At the end of a campaign, members can see the overall fundraising progress and how their actions contributed.
Empower your member donors by utilizing P2P solutions with temperature bars to show progress towards individual and association-level goals. Utilizing this feature will motivate members to keep sharing your campaign. To keep donors engaged, consider using a competition board to highlight top earners and show appreciation for everyone contributing to the campaign.
