Mastering online fundraising is one of the most important (yet difficult) challenges faced by nonprofits. Many organizations struggle to decide what projects to fundraise for online, what their digital fundraisers should look like, and how to conduct these web-driven campaigns successfully.

Has your nonprofit tried peer-to-peer fundraising yet? Peer-to-peer fundraising empowers your nonprofit to use online fundraising techniques to their highest potential.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is an online fundraising method where nonprofits like yours call on their supporters to create fundraising pages on your behalf.

Then, the supporters share their personalized fundraising pages with friends, family, and colleagues online to raise money for your cause.

This particular fundraising method is a great strategy for nonprofits that struggle with exciting their communities and reaching fundraising goals.

Because peer-to-peer fundraising is convenient, adaptable, and socially-driven, your supporters will love to get involved with your next P2P campaign.

Try these 5 strategies to host a creative and successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign:

Create a fundraising goal. Create your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign page. Improve your peer-to-peer fundraising page with a fundraising thermometer. Promote your fundraiser on social media. Stay organized.

With these effective strategies, your nonprofit will host a successful peer-to-peer fundraiser and take some of the struggles out of raising money.

1. Create a fundraising goal

Your fundraising goal is the backbone of your peer-to-peer fundraiser. The goal drives donations and impacts your strategy.

Be strategic in how high you set your fundraising goal. If you set your goal too high, it will be unattainable. However, if you set it too low, you risk leaving money on the table. Your fundraising goal needs to be just right.

To attain this goal, create a plan with strategies surrounding your peer-to-peer fundraiser. This plan will clarify your goal, set up a campaign timeline, and solidify the details of the campaign.

While you are planning, ask yourself:

How will you anchor your fundraiser? By holding an anchor event, you can get people excited about your campaign and inspire them to donate. Examples of anchor events may include a 5K, a charity concert, or other community events.

By holding an anchor event, you can get people excited about your campaign and inspire them to donate. Examples of anchor events may include a 5K, a charity concert, or other community events. What platform should you use? Different platforms offer various payment options and accessibility standards for campaigns. By choosing the right platform, you are paving the way for easy giving to your campaign.

Different platforms offer various payment options and accessibility standards for campaigns. By choosing the right platform, you are paving the way for easy giving to your campaign. How can you incorporate your mission? By incorporating your mission into your campaign page you don’t only get people excited to donate, but you also get them excited to see the impact your nonprofit can make in the world.

After answering these questions you will be ready to create your campaign timeline and plan out how you’ll achieve your peer-to-peer fundraising goal.

Include in your timeline when you will start marketing your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, any check-in points you need to reach your goal, and the details of your P2P anchor event.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaign plans create simple solutions for the complex issues involved with fundraising.

2. Create your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign page

Your campaign page is a great place to include your mission statement or story.

Include your mission so that people know exactly what cause they are donating to. Your mission is compelling in itself, so let the world see it!

In addition to your overall mission, include on your campaign page exactly what project this campaign is funding.

Connect your campaign and the project you are working on back to your nonprofit’s overall mission. Your campaign page should directly show people how their donation will make a difference.

When you are creating your campaign page for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, it is important to use persuasive strategies in your design and to include your nonprofit’s brandingcolors, and logos.

These methods will encourage your donors to give to your organization as well as inspire supporters to make their own fundraising pages on your behalf.

When you’re creating your campaign page, remember to:

Write a compelling heading. When you write your heading, remember to put everything in the context of who is benefiting from donations. This establishes a human connection to the gift.

When you write your heading, remember to put everything in the context of who is benefiting from donations. This establishes a human connection to the gift. Speak with urgency. Campaigns are temporary. Remind your readers of the necessity to be timely. However, don’t guilt them. Focus on what will be accomplished at the end of the temporary campaign.

Campaigns are temporary. Remind your readers of the necessity to be timely. However, don’t guilt them. Focus on what will be accomplished at the end of the temporary campaign. Use effective imagery. Images are used to add to the written content on campaign pages, not to draw attention away from the text. Be sure your images are compelling and relate well to the content within your campaign page.

To read more about how to write a campaign page, check out Donately’s list of campaign page best practices.

3. Improve your peer-to-peer fundraising page with a fundraising thermometer

Your peer-to-peer fundraiser could be getting more donations! Adding gamification techniques such as fundraising thermometers appeals to people’s competitive nature and their desire to be a part of an active, engaged community.

Fundraising thermometers work because they show individuals’ impact on the fundraiser as a whole. People are visual creatures. When they see a thermometer which has almost reached the goal, they are more likely to contribute to see the impact they can make towards achieving this goal.

Including gamification tools such as fundraising thermometers to your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign pages will encourage donors to support their friends and family.

Here are some places you should display your peer-to-peer fundraising thermometer:

On your main campaign page. Post your fundraising thermometer directly on your campaign page so that people who donate directly to you will see the progress.

Post your fundraising thermometer directly on your campaign page so that people who donate directly to you will see the progress. On your website. Visitors on your website will see your P2P fundraiser’s progress and want to contribute to the cause.

Visitors on your website will see your P2P fundraiser’s progress and want to contribute to the cause. On your social media accounts. Keep your followers updated with how your fundraiser is going. Provide a link with the thermometer to the campaign page for easy donating!

Keep your followers updated with how your fundraiser is going. Provide a link with the thermometer to the campaign page for easy donating! On personal fundraising pages. Encourage your supporters to include the fundraising thermometer on their personal fundraising pages to spread the imagery further.

Fundraising thermometers and other gamification techniques are used in conjunction with your imagery and language to help boost donations from online supporters.

4. Promote your fundraiser on social media

One key resource for peer-to-peer fundraising is social media. Your social media pages and those social media pages of your supporters can help amplify the reach of your peer-to-peer fundraising donation pages.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is designed for online networking, from your campaign page to your volunteers’ fundraising pages.

Social media can help network for multiple different stages in your peer-to-peer fundraising process. It can be used to:

Recruit volunteers to create fundraising pages. Use your existing social network on social media pages to ask people to create fundraising pages for your campaign. This social network is full of people who already support you, so put them to good use!

Use your existing social network on social media pages to ask people to create fundraising pages for your campaign. This social network is full of people who already support you, so put them to good use! Direct people to your main campaign page. Your goal with peer-to-peer fundraising is to give people multiple places to donate, and this includes your central giving page. Direct people to this page as well as the personal fundraising pages of your supporters.

Your goal with peer-to-peer fundraising is to give people multiple places to donate, and this includes your central giving page. Direct people to this page as well as the personal fundraising pages of your supporters. Expand your social network. Encouraging people to post fundraising pages promotes your campaign as well as your nonprofit. This is a networking opportunity to market your nonprofit through your existing network.

Encouraging people to post fundraising pages promotes your campaign as well as your nonprofit. This is a networking opportunity to market your nonprofit through your existing network. Show progress of your fundraiser and projects. Tell people how the peer-to-peer fundraiser is going through social media posts. Or, use a blog or other media account to give updates on the project you’re funding through the peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.

Social media can be used as a promotion technique for nonprofits.

Promoting your peer-to-peer fundraising through social media is important. Don’t forget that this is also an opportunity to market your nonprofit as a whole as well.

Social media is a great platform for storytelling. Encourage your supporters to tell their own story!

When you encourage your supporters to create fundraising pages and share them on social media, also encourage them to tell a story about what your nonprofit means to them. This will intrigue their followers to follow you as well.

5. Stay organized

Staying organized is a good way to make sure that your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is a success. You should keep your finances, your members, and your supporters organized as best as possible.

A few methods of organization include:

Hire a fundraising consultant. This consultant will help you find, work with, and retain donors for your current and future fundraising endeavors. For more information, check out Averill Fundraising Solutions’ guide on hiring a fundraising consultant.

This consultant will help you find, work with, and retain donors for your current and future fundraising endeavors. For more information, check out Averill Fundraising Solutions’ guide on hiring a fundraising consultant. Keep accurate financial records. Accurate record keeping is important for more than just fundraising. It helps with the overall success of your nonprofit. Find a method that works for you, like comprehensive nonprofit fundraising software.

Accurate record keeping is important for more than just fundraising. It helps with the overall success of your nonprofit. Find a method that works for you, like comprehensive nonprofit fundraising software. Employ a member management tool. Member management software helps to keep your supporters, staff, and members organized. It helps you organize contact information, interaction history, and other useful resources to encourage future interactions.

Record everything over the course of your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign! .

Keep track of who created fundraising pages for you, who donated, how much money was raised, and how far your fundraiser spread online.

When you have all this information, you will be better able to reach out to past supporters and donors in your next campaign.

Getting behind in record keeping is one of the most difficult things to recover from as an organization.

In order to keep your nonprofit organized, and encourage current and future fundraising success, make sure you update records straight away.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to raise money while spreading the reach of your cause online. Take full advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising by employing these 5 strategies to your next campaign.

About the author

Andrew is the head of marketing and customer success for Donately. After getting involved with nonprofits at a young age, he discovered a passion for helping the organizations that are making the world a better place. Knowing how vital online fundraising has become, his goal is to help nonprofits raise more money online each year! In his spare time, you will find him cooking up dinner, playing with his dog or cheering on Boston sports teams.

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Share your thoughts about launching a nonprofit peer-to-peer fundraiser in the comment section below. I’m really looking forward to reading your comments ;).