What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising and How Does It Work?

Finding new ways to engage donors can help boost your fundraising efforts. Peer-to-peer fundraising is a game changer when engaging new and existing donor bases. By tapping into social networks and personal connections, your nonprofit can access more potential supporters.

In this article, we explore what peer-to-peer fundraising is, what it can do for nonprofits, and how it works.

What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?

Peer-to-peer fundraising, or P2P, harnesses the power of community and relationships to propel fundraising efforts. Instead of relying solely on traditional fundraising methods like events or direct appeals, P2P empowers donors to raise money on your behalf by reaching out to their network of friends, family, and colleagues.

Here’s how it works: Your nonprofit sets up a fundraising campaign and recruits supporters who are passionate about the cause to become fundraisers. (GiveWP makes this super easy. We’ll dive more into that later.)

Fundraisers create personalized fundraising pages and use them to share their stories, explain why they’re raising money, and encourage others to donate. Through social media, email, word-of-mouth, and other channels, a small army of supporters helps generate donations. This approach leverages personal connections, making your nonprofit’s message more compelling and trustworthy to potential donors.

As donations come in, they’re attributed to individual fundraisers. Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns often have a built-in sense of urgency or competition, with fundraisers striving to reach fundraising goals or milestones.

Advantages of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

While P2P can help your nonprofit generate additional funds, the primary advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising is expanding your reach and deepening your connections with supporters in ways that traditional fundraising methods can’t match. There are many reasons to try P2P fundraising if it is new to your nonprofit organization.

Expand Your Reach

Peer-to-peer fundraising has a distinct ability to extend the reach of your organization beyond your immediate community. By enlisting the help of your donors and supporters as fundraisers, you tap into their networks, reaching people who may not have been aware of your cause.

This expanded reach increases your fundraising potential and helps to raise awareness and garner support from new audiences.

Build Stronger Relationships

Peer-to-peer fundraising also fosters a deeper level of engagement with existing supporters. By empowering them to become fundraisers, they have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully beyond a monetary contribution.

As a result, you’ll have stronger relationships built on shared goals and values, creating long-term advocates and volunteers for your organization.

Increase Online Exposure

This type of fundraising can help raise your online presence and awareness. As fundraisers share individual campaigns on social media, they help to raise awareness of your organization and drive traffic to your website. Increased online exposure can lead to new followers, donors, and supporters who may be inspired to get involved with your cause.

Diversify Your Donor Base

Peer-to-peer fundraising allows you to tap into a more diverse donor base. By reaching out to supporters from different backgrounds and communities, you can attract donors with unique perspectives and experiences. This diversity not only enriches your donor pool but also strengthens your organization by ensuring that your message resonates with a wide range of people.

In conclusion, peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful tool for nonprofits looking to raise funds, expand their reach, and cultivate stronger relationships with their supporters. By harnessing the collective power of your community, you can achieve greater impact and make a difference for your cause.

How Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Works

Peer-to-peer fundraising is easy to set up and can work for almost any type of nonprofit.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Set up a campaign and goals: Make sure you have a goal and measurable key performance indicators in mind. It can also be a good idea to set a distinct timeline with a start and stop for the campaign.
2. Choose a platform or build a page on your website: You want to create something that’s easy for supporters and donors to use. You’re also more likely to launch these campaigns if the P2P platform is easy for you to set up as well. The P2P add-on from GiveWP is easy to set up and includes plenty of gamification options to make it fun for supporters.
3. Recruit supporters: Reach out to your donor list and let them know about your campaign. Explain the benefit of participation and how it can help your mission. Ask them to share with their networks via email, social media, events, and even in person.
4. Fundraising efforts begin: Once the campaign launches, help your fundraisers make their pages, share stories, and highlight other information they may need. It can be helpful to create a page on your website with assets they can use, such as images, logos, or ideas for how to share with their networks. Then, fundraisers begin outreach to their friends, families, colleagues, and social networks.

After donations start rolling in, send supporters and donors appreciation notes and thank you messages. Keep promoting the campaign and be supportive of fundraisers as needed.

Internally, it is important to compare campaign results to your initial goal and KPIs to ensure that your campaign is on track and know where it needs a boost.

Get Started with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising with GiveWP

It’s easy to build a P2P campaign with GiveWP. The P2P add-on integrates with all of the powerful fundraising tools from GiveWP – from donation forms to the donor dashboard – right on your WordPress website.

It includes all the tools you need, including progress and goal bars for fundraisers, customizable donation pages, easy social sharing, various payment integrations, and more.

There’s no better time to launch your first P2P campaign. GiveWP users can get the add-on, or you can request a demo and learn more about this powerful donation suite today.