Online Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

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Peer-to-Peer-FundraisingGuest Post by Rob Wu

Fundraising is inherently social, but we don’t always treat it as such.

As nonprofit professionals, we spend a whole lot of time communicating without actual interaction. We send out fundraising emails, mail donation requests, and plan Facebook ad campaigns.  There’s a bunch of noise out there and our nonprofits are oftentimes just adding to it.

Of course, we’re reaching our donors, but there’s a difference between simple being heard and actually garnering a response. Ideally, we want our audience to do something with the information we give them—we want them to connect with our story and act on it.

Thankfully, there’s a tried-and-true way to get people to do just that: peer-to-peer fundraising. In a nutshell, peer-to-peer fundraising mobilizes your supporters to raise money for your cause by appealing to their own friends and family.  If you’re already using your own supporters to help spread the word about your cause, then you’re definitely on the right track. By engaging your donors, volunteers, and your online followers to get involved as online peer-to-peer fundraisers for your organization, you are combining recruiting new supporters and engaging current supporters into the same action.  Plus, you’re also raising money at the same time!

Online peer-to-peer fundraising works. If you’re interested into tapping into the potential of peer-to-peer fundraising, here’s everything you need to know to get started:

Peer-to-Peer Basics

Online peer-to-peer fundraising is a “people fundraising” technique that uses the power and influence of your own supporters to help raise money and recruit new friends to your cause.  It’s a fundraising trend growing in popularity among nonprofits and charities of every size, budget, and mission. In fact, over a third of all online donations are now a result of some form of peer-to-peer fundraising.

These are the basics of peer-to-peer fundraising:

Who: Your supporters act as fundraisers (“personal fundraisers”) for your organization.

Where: Personal fundraisers create websites that link to the main campaign website.

When: The average campaign lasts around 1 month.

How: Personal fundraisers share stories about why they’re involved in your cause to encourage their friends and family to donate.

Choosing the Right Fundraiser for Your Cause

There are a couple different ways that your supporters can help raise money for your organization.

  1. Traditional Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Your nonprofit manages the main fundraising website. Then, as supporters sign on to become personal fundraisers, they create their own individual website that feeds into the main site. Each fundraiser sets their own goal that rolls up into the main goal.
  2. Personal Challenge: These are generally ongoing campaigns hosted by a nonprofit. During these fundraisers, supporters fundraise for your cause via completing a personal challenge or in honor of a special day/event such as a birthday. We’ve seen it all… from beard-growing to individual marathon-running and everything in between.
  3. Group Activity: These campaigns are a combination of the other two fundraising methods. Supporters raise money to participate in a group event such as a 5k or a dance-a-thon.
Planning An Online Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser

Preparing to host an online fundraiser is similar to any other campaign:

Set Goals: After you choose the type of online peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that works for your organization, begin the planning process by setting both a financial and a donor-centric goal. For example, you’ll want to touch on both how much money you want to raise, total amount new donors, and how many supporters you want to become personal fundraisers.

Recruit Those Loyal To Your Cause: First, reach out to your most loyal supporters, such as your board members, longtime volunteers, and major donors via phone call, direct mail, a face-to-face meeting, or even email. Give them information on the campaign and how they can help.

Then, Recruit Everyone Else: Next, recruit your other donors, email subscribers, and social media followers.

Keep in mind, many of your supporters may not have the means to contribute out-of-pocket, but they have the time to devote to personal fundraising. Therefore, don’t limit your personal fundraiser pool to just those who give a lot. Everyone has potential to be an effective personal fundraiser!

Prepare: Create your website using an online fundraising platform. Don’t forget to add great visuals and strong stories that connect your audience emotionally to your work. To give your website an extra boost, add an impact meter that gives those viewing your fundraising website real-time updates about the exact impact of their donations.

Putting It All Together

You now have a fundraising website, a gaggle of personal fundraisers, and a set goal. It’s “go” time!  As you run your peer-to-peer fundraiser, keep these thoughts in mind:

Monitoring & Mentoring: It’s not enough to give your personal fundraisers some sample e-mails and tweets and leave them alone until the campaign’s end. Instead, continually monitor the campaign’s progress. Use your platform’s dashboard to check on the progress of your fundraisers. If you notice someone who isn’t meeting their goals, mentor them through the process.

Benchmarks: Set benchmarks to meet throughout the campaign. For example, if you plan to run your peer-to-peer fundraiser for 1 month, set mini goals throughout the month. When goals are met, there’s reason to celebrate. When they’re not, it’s time to troubleshoot.

Give Props: Remember, your personal fundraisers are going above and beyond to participate in your fundraiser.  Keep them inspired by articulating how important their work is. Inspiration= Motivation! When the campaign ends, be sure to personally thank everyone for their hard work.

Have a Plan for the Future: Once your campaign is over, the work isn’t done. Focus on the following:

  • Thank every donor
  • Create a plan to keep your personal fundraisers rallying for your cause.
  • Consider donor retention strategies for first-time donors
  • For major donors, think about incorporating a moves management plan

In raising money for our nonprofits, we oftentimes fail to capitalize on our biggest power as humans—our desire to connect socially. So instead of sending out a fundraising email every month, switch it up by hosting a peer-to-peer fundraiser. You’ll engage your supporters, get in front of a large (and potentially new) audience of supporters, and raise money at the same time.

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About the Author

Rob Wu is the CEO of CauseVox, an all-in-one online fundraising software for nonprofits and social good projects. Rob has raised over $200,000 for his own social good crowdfunding projects, and his work has been recognized by the Mayor of Austin and featured in the NYTimes, CNN, Christian Science Monitor, and WSJ.

Photo Credit: Jurgen Appelo