Peer-to-peer fundraising is a type of campaign that allows organizations to leverage the power of their supporters’ personal networks. Once you recruit your fundraising ambassadors, they’ll raise money on your behalf by reaching out to friends and family.
This type of fundraiser can generate significant revenue and expand your reach to new audiences. Use the tips in this guide to explore how you can harness the power of peer-to-peer fundraising and maximize your results.
1. Use the right peer-to-peer fundraising platform.
A strong peer-to-peer campaign starts with robust peer-to-peer fundraising software. The right platform will make it easy for ambassadors to participate, donors to contribute, and your team to track results.
CauseMatch stands out with features like:
- Customizable campaign pages. Your fundraising ambassadors can easily create and customize their own campaign pages to collect donations from family and friends. CauseMatch even gives ambassadors unique, trackable links that allow them to measure their impact using this format: causematch.com//ORG/NAME.
- Manager dashboard. The CauseMatch dashboard allows your team to manage ambassadors, identify churned donors from previous campaigns, and automate messages to donors with abandoned gifts. With add-on features, you can segment and message donors and ambassadors from the dashboard as well.
- Coaching. A unique draw of CauseMatch is that the platform offers coaching and guidance from fundraising experts. CauseMatch coaches can work with your fundraising ambassadors to prepare them for the campaign and maximize the amount they raise.
Before selecting a peer-to-peer fundraising platform, test out your options with demos, compare pricing between solutions, and ask your top providers what makes their offerings stand out. Then, work with your team to select the best software for your organization and campaign.
2. Develop clear campaign messaging.
Once you have a peer-to-peer solution in place, it’s time to recruit ambassadors and encourage them to start soliciting donors. In both cases, clear communication is key. Convince people to join your campaign and get excited about the impact they’ll make by:
- Promoting your fundraising goal. Your overarching fundraising goal should tell ambassadors and donors exactly what you’re raising money for and how much you hope to raise to motivate participation. For example, your goal may be “to raise $30,000 to fund breast cancer research” or “double last year’s fundraising total to rebuild homes destroyed in recent wildfires.”
- Leveraging storytelling. Evoke emotions that inspire giving by telling stories about your donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries. With their permission, interview different stakeholders, identify key quotes, and collect photos to create unique stories you can feature across marketing channels, including social media, newsletters, and direct mail.
- Encouraging ambassadors to share their own stories. Have ambassadors personalize their campaign pages with their own connections to your cause. By describing what your organization means to them and including relevant photos and videos, ambassadors can make their pages more engaging and inspire their peers to donate.
To ensure ambassadors communicate your mission clearly and correctly, provide templates and a campaign style guide they can use for cohesive messaging that reflects your organization’s branding.
3. Incite friendly competition.
Incentivize campaign participation by inspiring friendly competition among both donors and ambassadors. As participants go head-to-head to raise the most funds for your mission, spark engagement by:
- Setting milestone goals. Develop fundraising goals for ambassadors to reach and associated rewards for each one. For example, you may give a t-shirt to ambassadors who raise $500, a gift card to those who raise $1,000, and access to an exclusive event to those who raise over $5,000.
- Creating an ambassador leaderboard. Gamify the fundraising experience with a leaderboard that allows ambassadors to visualize how they stack up to each other. Consider messaging ambassadors daily with an update on the top three fundraisers to inspire them to strive for more.
- Publicizing donations. To give your donors a competitive boost, publicize recent donations on your campaign pages. For instance, you might have a running list with statements like “Julie just donated $20!” That way, donors can see how much their peers have contributed and potentially feel inspired to give more.
You can also induce a sense of urgency with tools like fundraising thermometers that measure goal progress and countdown timers that let all participants know how much time they have left before the campaign ends.
4. Pair your fundraiser with products.
By pairing your peer-to-peer fundraiser with a product fundraiser, you can raise even more for your cause. Include a link to your fundraising store on campaign pages or offer products in exchange for certain donation amounts.
Popular product fundraising options include:
- Food. Snacks and food items are fun for the whole family. Offer classic snacks like popcorn and pretzels, or sell cookie dough to provide a food item that lends itself to an engaging activity.
- Discount opportunities. Who doesn’t love to save money? Try selling discount cards that offer coupons for local businesses. As ABC Fundraising’s discount card fundraiser guide explains, “Discount card fundraisers are excellent ways for merchants, restaurants, and stores in your community to support your group and in turn for the community members to support those businesses that support you.”
- Household items. Consider selling items that any family would be happy to have more of, such as flower bulbs, candles, or travel mugs. These practical products will entice donors to contribute.
Alternatively, you may select a product that clearly aligns with your organization’s mission to boost brand awareness. For example, an animal rescue organization may sell pet-related items like collars, leashes, pet toys, and water bowls.
5. Simplify the donation process.
Increase conversions and enhance the user experience with a streamlined donation page. Double the Donation’s donation page guide recommends taking these steps to simplify the donation process:
- Use a PCI-compliant payment processor. PCI compliance ensures your payment processor is secure so you can protect sensitive payment information and prevent fraud.
- Add suggested giving amounts. Encourage donors to give in higher amounts and make it easier for them to decide how much to contribute with suggested giving amounts, such as $20, $40, and $75.
- Enable recurring giving. Allow donors to easily set up recurring gifts for your campaign in a few clicks with a checkbox or button.
- Encourage matching gifts. Add a matching gift search tool to your donation page so donors can determine their eligibility and send matching gift requests to their employers.
Make the donation process even easier by ensuring your donation page is mobile-friendly and follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). For example, you should include alternative text for all images and closed captions for all videos on the page so everyone can experience and interact with this content.
Round out your peer-to-peer campaign by following up with ambassadors and donors. Thank them for their support, and demonstrate their impact by letting them know your final fundraising total and how you intend to use those funds. Once you’ve leveraged campaign funding, provide an update on how participants’ contributions made a real difference.
Debbie Salat
Debbie Salat is the director of fundraising activities and product development at ABC Fundraising®. Debbie joined ABC Fundraising® in 2010 and has helped launch over 6,500 fundraising campaigns for schools, churches, youth sports teams, and nonprofit organizations all across the USA. With over 20 years of fundraising experience, Debbie knows the path to success for fundraisers, which she shares with groups on a daily basis so they can achieve their fundraising goals.
