“Peer-to-peer fundraising” is a time period that will get thrown round quite a bit, however you’d be stunned how many individuals solely have a obscure thought of what it’s and the way it works! We’ve zeroed in on the 4 most essential elements you should know.
The Definition of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Generally peer-to-peer and crowdfunding are used interchangeably, however that’s not fairly proper. Peer-to-peer fundraising is a selected sort of crowdfunding that empowers a company’s supporters to fundraise on their behalf, soliciting donations from their social networks. Generally it’s known as P2P, social fundraising, or group fundraising.
Crowdfunding campaigns contain a fundraiser (a nonprofit group or a person) immediately soliciting donations from donors. A crowdfunding marketing campaign could have one central web page that the organizer shares to gather donations.
A peer-to-peer marketing campaign, nonetheless, has a number of pages run by totally different folks accumulating donations. Consequently, all the cash goes to the identical place and also you’re rising your donor base.
The Advantages of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Whereas a peer-to-peer marketing campaign could seem extra complicated (and it’s), there are particular advantages to utilizing peer-to-peer campaigns that you simply don’t get with direct crowdfunding.
Donor Acquisition
Peer-to-peer campaigns can assist develop your donor base through the use of current supporters to usher in new supporters. Your nonprofit can’t solicit one in every of your supporters’ members of the family to assist your trigger. However your supporters can definitely speak to their very own members of the family and mates about your nonprofit and encourage them to donate to a web page they’ve arrange in your behalf. You can name it the Faberge Methodology of Donor Acquisition.
Peer-to-peer campaigns assist you to attain new audiences that you simply wouldn’t have entry to in any other case. Finally, this makes peer-to-peer fundraising good for nonprofits trying to develop.
Testimonials
It’s no secret that testimonials are a robust fundraising software. Your nonprofit might have unimaginable applications and companies which are important to your neighborhood. But, no quantity of numbers and charts will be capable to have the impression of actual folks sharing how your nonprofit has made a distinction of their lives. With peer-to-peer fundraising, testimonials are in-built. This implies your supporters will use their fundraiser pages to inform about their private connection to your nonprofit.
Gamification
Peer-to-peer campaigns add a little bit of pleasant competitors and a sense of success to the fundraising course of. Ideally, we’d all spend time elevating cash for causes which are essential to us. However the reality is, most of us are busy and produce other issues to be doing in our spare time. Nevertheless, including the potential of profitable bragging rights for being the highest fundraiser or getting a cool prize is commonly sufficient to get folks to throw themselves into nonprofit fundraising with gusto.
Should you’re undecided what “gamification” means, consider Fitbit. They took one thing many individuals don’t get enthusiastic about (strolling) and added the flexibility to earn badges. For some purpose, that alone was sufficient to encourage the chronically-sedentary lots to go for every day walks. Humorist David Sedaris has a hysterical essay concerning the lengths he went to (together with wandering his neighborhood choosing up rubbish) simply to earn awards from Fitbit. So, gamification proves we don’t develop out of working for gold stars after elementary college. Peer-to-peer fundraising capitalizes on this. It motivates common folks to step out and begin fundraising for causes that matter to them by making it enjoyable and interesting, identical to Fitbit has achieved with strolling.
Grassroots and boots
Peer-to-peer fundraising helps nonprofits construct grassroots assist and places extra boots on the bottom. Contemplating which you could add to your workforce with out including to the payroll; that is fairly highly effective. By way of peer-to-peer campaigns you’re in a position to broaden your attain and construct assist to your trigger in your neighborhood.
Forms of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns
We don’t wish to blow your minds with an excessive amount of info, however there are literally totally different varieties of peer-to-peer campaigns.
Occasion-based
These are peer-to-peer campaigns constructed round an occasion hosted by your nonprofit. Some examples can be charity walks, marathons, galas, style exhibits, and so forth. Go Endurance’s Ironman 70.3 Michigan marketing campaign makes use of the IRONMAN 70.3 MICHIGAN racing occasion as a possibility to lift funds, deliver consciousness, and be energetic locally. This an excellent instance of an event-based peer-to-peer marketing campaign.
Rolling
Rolling campaigns exist outdoors of your group’s deliberate fundraising occasions. These usually focus on a supporter’s life occasion, comparable to a birthday or a marriage. Over the previous a number of years Terrance and Kyle have raised over $125,000 via rolling peer-to-peer fundraisers for the Georgia State College Basis. As with their marketing campaign, My Birthday Fundraiser: Beginning a New Chapter, they have fun their birthday asking for donations towards scholarships in lieu of presents or a celebration.
These sorts of campaigns are magical once they occur! All of the nonprofit has to do is settle for the funds and begin stewarding the brand new donors. Offering sources and assist for rolling campaigns like Terrance and Kyle’s can maintain them coming again to fundraise to your nonprofit yr after yr.
Time-sensitive
A majority of these peer-to-peer campaigns are clearly tied to a timeline. Examples can be end-of-year fundraising, funding a selected mission, or emergency appeals. The Kilgoris Challenge hosts an annual Again-to-Faculty Problem to fund their work of teaching and feeding 1,775 school-age youngsters inside a Maasai neighborhood in rural Kenya. Not solely have they continued to extend their targets the previous few years, they regularly surpass them!
Giving days
Giving days are 24-hour giving marathons like #GivingTuesday. Be taught extra about giving days on Mightycause!
As you’ll be able to see, there are many methods to run a peer-to-peer marketing campaign! The totally different sorts of campaigns we’ve seen at Mightycause are as numerous because the nonprofits that use our platform.
How Peer-to-Peer Campaigns Work
There are 4 phases of a peer-to-peer marketing campaign for a nonprofit:
Planning
That is essentially the most crucial section of a peer-to-peer marketing campaign for nonprofits. You’ll be doing numerous the planning you usually do with a fundraising marketing campaign (arising with messaging, timelines, and technique). Nevertheless, you’ll even be doing additional work to set your supporters up for fulfillment as they fundraise to your nonprofit. You’ll wish to put together sources for them like e mail templates, social media posts, a template fundraiser web page, pattern emails, outreach ideas, and extra. As well as, it’s possible you’ll even wish to put all of this collectively into one toolkit that they obtain after signing as much as take part. You’ll additionally wish to give you incentives and a method to maintain everybody motivated all through the marketing campaign.
Recruiting fundraisers
When you’ve bought all of your geese in a row, you can begin recruiting your fundraisers. Who they’re is as much as you, however mostly, volunteers, board members, and social media followers ought to be among the many folks you ask. Should you’ve by no means achieved peer-to-peer fundraising earlier than it’s possible you’ll wish to determine potential ambassadors and attain out to them immediately. Being private and inspiring them to become involved, as a substitute of simply placing out an open name via e mail or social media, could make an enormous distinction.
One other essential part of recruitment is making it clear precisely what you’re asking folks to do. Ensure that the individuals who signal as much as fundraise for you perceive peer-to-peer fundraising, your expectations of them, and what they’re signing on to do.
Supporting fundraisers
Equally essential is staying involved together with your fundraisers all through the marketing campaign. Monitor their progress and have fun fundraising milestones with them. Additionally make certain to be a useful resource to your fundraisers, assist and encourage them. Chances are you’ll must nudge just a few fundraisers to publish their pages or increase funds. (Mightycause’s group administration instruments make this simpler than ever.) Mightycause supplies tech assist to your nonprofit, fundraisers, and donors however your nonprofit must present ethical assist!
Stewarding
Your nonprofit will most likely get tons of people that made donations as a result of a good friend or member of the family requested them to donate. Your fundraisers did their job. Now it’s your duty to get donors engaged in your nonprofit.
Put together a method to observe up with the donors you’ve acquired and maintain them fascinated with your trigger. Emails are nice, and extra private gestures like handwritten thank-you playing cards may also go a good distance! Keep in mind, you’ll additionally wish to proceed cultivating your relationships together with your fundraisers in order that they are going to come again to fundraise for you sooner or later.
Don’t wait to develop your donor base, enhance your donation circulate, and have interaction your neighborhood. Begin planning your peer-to-peer marketing campaign now.
To study extra about peer-to-peer fundraising, obtain our Occasion Fundraising Handbook. Whether or not you host an annual fundraising occasion, otherwise you’re trying to host your first peer-to-peer occasion, Mightycause’s Occasion Fundraising Handbook has all the things you should plan your occasion!