When it comes to peer-to-peer fundraising, there are more factors that are out of your hands than with other types of nonprofit fundraising. Fundraisers working on major gifts hand-hold their major donors. Corporate sponsorships are negotiable and have structured plans. But P2P fundraising embraces the type of chaos that only donor supporters can bring—and we love it. 

But we also want to maximize our funds and our impact... so how do we harness the havoc? Planning. 

What is a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign?

A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is a type of fundraising strategy where a organization recruits individuals to fundraise on their behalf. These individuals, or "peers," reach out to their personal networks of friends, family, and colleagues to solicit individual donations. This approach leverages the power of personal connections and social networks to mobilize support and raise funds.

If you're still asking, "What is P2P fundraising?" we've got all the answers you need.

6 steps to launching a successful P2P fundraising campaign

  1. Set revenue goals and lay a baseline
  2. Choose a type of P2P fundraiser
  3. Connect the fundraiser to your cause
  4. Recruit P2P event participants
  5. Promote your peer-to-peer campaign
  6. Build a cultivation plan for new donors

1. Set goals and lay a baseline

If you ask us, setting campaign goals and budget and then achieving said peer fundraising goals is almost as good a feeling as seeing the impact of the funds you raised. With that nerdy confession, our #1 piece of advice for launching a successful P2P fundraising campaign is to simultaneously choose actionable, achievable goals and lay a baseline of expectations.

When you have those both set, you can infuse your fundraising plan with the activities that you know will have the greatest effect on your campaign. Not only that, but you can go ahead and set up your smart dashboards and automated reports (Funraise's Fundraising Intelligence is the absolute best at this!)

2. Decide what type of fundraiser

There are many different P2P fundraiser campaign types; your challenge is deciding on one that will appeal to your peer-to-peer fundraisers, raise lots and lots o' money, and doesn't bust your budget. 

One thing to consider in making your choice is creating a campaign timeline. Especially if your fundraiser is low cost or requires partners/sponsors or is seasonal, timing may be of the essence. And when timing could kill your fundraiser, you're gonna save yourself a bundle of trouble if you lay out the steps in a handy timeline. 

3. Connect it to your mission

It seems so obvious, but we're gonna say it anyway: your P2P fundraising campaign should reflect your nonprofit mission and your organization's values. Not only is that great for awareness, but you'll appeal to peer fundraising participants and a donor base who are already sympathetic to your cause. 

4. Recruit fundraisers

The hardest step, in our opinion! But taking the steps above makes it much easier. In fact, it makes it natural for potential supporters to opt into fundraising—and even taps into the FOMO that some individual supporters may be feeling. 

It's similar to a fundraising ask; donors give because they were asked. Dedicated supporters fundraise because you ask them to. 

5. Market your P2P campaign

No matter how loudly you think you've shouted about your fundraiser, there are always going to be folks that were distracted or need a reminder or need to see other people opting in and having a great time. 

In some cases, the awesomeness of your campaign activity and supporters is all the promotion you'll need. But to go beyond your current supporters, you'll need a more structured marketing plan: email, text or phone calls, social media, ads, partners, and more. 

6. Build a cultivation plan for new donors

A great side benefit of peer-to-peer fundraisers is not just more donations (more $$), but also more donors. New donors. And what do we do with new donors? Cultivate like they're a garden and you're a celebrity gardening influencer. 

Types of peer-to-peer campaigns

P2P is its own type of campaign strategy, but within that bubble is a whole world of peer-to-peer fundraising ideas and examples specific to this unique strategy. Try a fun run, an annual giving day, an anything-a-thon, or a challenge. The best P2P campaign for you depends on your audience and the program or mission you're raising money for.

Endurance

Endurance fundraising events are peer-to-peer fundraising for runs, races, walks, swims, triathalons... heck, maybe you could even get some Tour de France riders to fundraise for you. (Talk about ultimate endurance!) Even better? With Funraise, you can require peer-participants to register for your upcoming event before creating a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign page.

One drawback: most endurance peer events require a big event production complete with location, swag, emcees, and so on.

Birthday

What could be a better birthday gift than helping your favorite nonprofit make impact? And with the assistance of good ol' social media platforms like Facebook knowing everyone's DoB, plus that network of supporters thing we mentioned, and you've got the makings of a great P2P initiative.

One drawback: this isn't a fast or timebound strategy, but ongoing. 

Giving days

Instead of (or in addition to) a bunch of birthday fundraisers, your nonprofit can assign one day as a day of giving. The advantage to this is the Giving Tuesday effect: all the individual donations are concentrated in one day, so fundraisers and donors don't have to think about it for more than 24 hours. 

One drawback: all the giving is concentrated in one day, so if people are out of town, are flakey, or just miss the boat, you may be out of luck.

DIY peer-to-peer

This is a P2P strategy we love! Set up a branded campaign site for peer-to-peer with evergreen content and all the resources that a successful peer-to-peer participant could want, and allow it to run on an ongoing basis. American Heart Association uses this tactic, and they ❤️ it! 

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What structure do you need to put in place for a successful P2P campaign

Choosing a peer-to-peer fundraising platform is a key part of building a structure for your P2P fundraising campaign plan, but it's not the only piece of the puzzle. Communications, resources, and branding play supporting roles as well, and when built properly, can form a strong foundation for a peer-to-peer program. For a comparison of peer-to-peer fundraising platforms, start and end with Funraise.

Collect fundraiser resources

Your fundraisers are passionate about your mission, not necessarily about writing a whole big story explaining why their friends, family, and colleagues should give. So... write it for them! And in that spirit, what else can you do to make fundraising easier on them? Set up branded templates, send milestone communications, and write social posts that they can use. 

And whaddaya know, it just so happens that we already started a packet for you! Take a look at The Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Toolkit for Your Supporters.

Set up encouraging automated emails

Depending on the length of your campaign, your supporters may get tired. They may lose their motivation. They may need you to pump them up! One easy way to do that is to create and schedule encouraging communications to go out at key points in your campaign, usually halfway, three-quarters of the way through, and with a day or a week left. 

Build a branded P2P campaign site

Making sure the branding on your peer-to-peer campaign site is on point will benefit your nonprofit in a few ways. First, it connects your campaign with your organization (obvious). Second, it legitimizes your fundraisers' efforts. Third, it satisfies any doubts your potential donors may have that you're going to do what you say. All throughout the process, they see the same branding and wording, which leads to a deeper, trusting relationship.

But who has the best, easiest, most user-friendly-est campaign site editor in all the land? Funraise, of course! Let us show you how Funraise prioritizes all things P2P. 

Launching a P2P campaign for community organizations

Member-based community organizations like YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Jewish Community Centers see significant success with P2P-fueled annual campaigns. Katie Hill, Financial Development and Community Relations Director with Gaston County Family YMCA, explains,

"Peer-to-peer has been a gamechanger! We meet our goal so quickly because we’re able to manage this event through a P2P page on Funraise. Setting the pages up is pretty intuitive. If you don’t know how to write code, you can still put this together and make it look nice."

Funraise + Daxko

And when combined with Daxko, you've got the Best Peer-to-Peer Fundraising and Member Management Solution for Community Organizations. Period.

But don't take our word for it. Katie has more to say: 

"From a development standpoint, we focus on relationships, relationships, relationships. And the best way for me to manage those relationships is to have the information that I need so that when I go into the conversation, ...I go in fully equipped to build a relationship and make an ask."

Funraise and Daxko combine to make a fundraising fusion that checks all the boxes. Talk to Funraise today!

Challenges That Can Affect P2P Campaign Success

As with anything in life, challenges come with peer-to-peer fundraisers. In order to maximize the efficacy of your campaign, put some precautions in place and offset P2P challenges with your own creative workarounds: seasonal factors, platform restrictions, fundraiser network limitations, and more.

Seasonal factors

Depending on your fundraising activity, timeline, and length, the season may be a factor in how successful your campaign is. A fun run in the dead heat of summer or an egg hunt in December is going to be an uphill climb. 

Platform limitations

If you're using a fundraising platform for nonprofits that doesn't prioritize peer-to-peer, you may bump up against unnecessary challenges and obstacles. Manual registration work for your supporters, difficulty with branding and customization, social media challenges, and a cumbersome donation process will slow P2P support to a halt. 

Here's where we pitch Funraise: Peer to peer fundraising is one of our core products, and with the best and most innovative fundraising features in the nonprofit world, you'll find simplification instead of problems.  

Extent of social sharing

When it comes to P2P, social media posts can be your best friend or... not. When your plan relies heavily on social media accounts, you need to make sure that your donation page templates integrate with Facebook and are shareable through all measures and methods.  

Fundraising goals

The key to goals is that they need to be actionable and achievable. If you set goals without underlying structure, not only is the achievability of that goal compromised but your entire year-plus fundraising goals are headed right out the window. 

Fundraiser network

This is one that's most likely out of your hands: fundraiser network. When your fundraisers don't have large networks, have no social media presence, or their friends and family aren't aligned with your mission, it's going to be really tough to rack up the ripple effect donation receipts.

P2P Campaign Planning FAQ (Thank you, AI!)

How to start a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign?

The first step to a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is writing a fundraising campaign plan. It doesn't have to be a big deal, just write down what you'd do to make it happen. Add in individual goals, look at your budget and resources, and trim your plan into something realistic. Then start with your step one. 

How do you write a fundraising campaign plan?

Writing a fundraising campaign plan isn't like writing an essay or a story. Writing a fundraising campaign plan simply means putting down on paper the steps you're going to take to make your online peer fundraiser happen. Include your goals and expectations, time frame or season, and the resources you need to make it happen!

What is another name for peer-to-peer fundraising?

Another name for peer-to-peer fundraising is social fundraising. Sometimes people call it crowdfunding, crowdraising, or network fundraising. This type of fundraising relies on the power of social proof and relationships to inspire others to give, making it a highly effective and engaging way to raise funds for important causes.

How to run a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign?

Running a successful online fundraising campaign requires planning and execution, but the best part about it is that you don't have to shoulder all of the fundraising work—your supporters will be spreading awareness and fundraising on your behalf. Set your goals, plan a P2P challenge, recruit fundraisers, and cheer them on!

What are the basic steps of a fundraising campaign?

Basically, running a fundraising campaign comes down to just a few things: set reasonable expectations, build an actionable structure, recruit resources, give yourself more time than you need to set it all up, engage donors, and thank supporters afterward. Don't forget to take advantage of smart reporting and dashboard capabilities!

Do you need to be good with technology to have a successful peer-to-peer campaign?

When it comes to planning a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, having a good understanding of technology can certainly be helpful, but it is not necessarily a requirement for success. There are many peer fundraising tools and platforms available that make it easy for even the least tech-savvy individuals to set up and manage a successful campaign.

How do peer-to-peer campaigns help attract younger donors?

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can be a great way to attract younger donors. Here are secrets to planning a successful peer-to-peer campaign that will appeal to millennial, Gen Z, and younger demographics: utilize social media challenges, make it fun and interactive, ensure your donation process is mobile optimized, an tell a compelling story.

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