If you’re not familiar, let’s recap:
What is Peer to Peer fundraising?
It’s when individuals - typically your organization's followers - organize personal campaigns to collect donations from their friends, families, coworkers, and others in their networks.
If you’ve ever seen a friend on social media post about how they’re raising money for a nonprofit, chances are they were participating in a Peer to Peer fundraising campaign.
Peer to Peer fundraisers can look like a lot of things.
For example:
- When you see Walk or Bike-A-Thon’s where participants join a team and raise money to participate
- Board members forming teams of their friends and competing to raise the most for your nonprofit’s year-end campaign
- Your friend promising to shave their head if they raise $1,000 for their favorite nonprofit
- Birthday fundraisers, like this very successful campaign by Charity:Water, which inspired thousands to raise money for their mission on their birthdays:
But here’s what you don’t see by looking at those campaigns:
The work that went on behind the scenes to prepare all those people to be successful fundraisers.
Fact: Fundraising is intimidating to a lot of people.
To make Peer to Peer fundraising successful, you have to make sure your supporters feel confident. 💪 And to make them feel confident, you’ve got to equip them with the right tools to be successful.
Here are 4 ways to do that:
1: Plan several months in advance.
Peer to Peer fundraising doesn’t just happen like magic - it takes preparation and strategy. Start by writing out a peer to peer fundraising campaign plan that includes these 5 elements:
- Your goals (how much do you hope to raise, and by what date?)
- Your number of participants (how many supporters do you need to recruit to help fundraise in order to meet your goal - and how much should each aim to raise?)
- Who among your supporters might already be willing to serve as a fundraiser in your peer to peer campaign? Make a list, with a goal of writing down the names of at least three or four times the number of people you actually need to be successful, because several candidates will say No.
- What technology will you use to facilitate donations?
- What are the key messages for your campaign (what is your organization’s mission? How will funds raised help? Why is it important to give?)
2: Help your supporters write their “Why Story”.
Sometimes people get nervous about asking others for money - but once they remember why they care so much about your cause, it becomes easier!
Once you’ve recruited your group of supporters who will fundraise as part of your campaign, you can get them in a great fundraising mindset by asking them to reflect on and write out their “Why Story”, which answers the questions:
- WHY and how did they get involved in your cause?
- What is their personal connection to your cause? Perhaps a loved one was impacted by the issue your organization tackles; perhaps their personal values - for example, fairness or kindness - are embodied in your mission.
Their personalized Why Story will become part of that individual’s core message when asking their friends and family for donations, inspiring others to give!
3: Equip your Supporters with a Toolkit.
You want to make fundraising as easy as possible for your supporters. By creating a Fundraising Campaign Toolkit, you can equip them with everything they need for messaging and promoting the campaign up front.
Your Toolkit should include:
- Example email language requesting donations that they can personalize
- Example social media posts for each of the major platforms your supporters may be on (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
- Graphics and images supporters can download and share as part of their social media posts or emails
- A fundraising webpage template (which is usually part of the peer to peer fundraising technology you’d have selected), with placeholders for their Why Story, photos, how funds raised will help, and any other information each page should convey.
4: Make your supporters feel like part of a community.
Give the supporters fundraising for you a sense that they’re all in it together with you, working towards the same goal.
You can do that by:
- Bringing your fundraisers together virtually or in person to get to know each other and ask any questions they have about the campaign.
- Update everyone on fundraising progress and milestones met throughout the campaign.
- Thank fundraisers and celebrate success at the end of the campaign: Bring everyone back together for a “wrap up party”, send them all a cool tee-shirt to remember the effort, and more!
Have you ever run a successful Peer to Peer fundraising campaign?
What did I miss? Hit reply and let me know!
