[Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from "The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising," the 131-page report from DirectMarketingIQ. It includes nine chapters, from leading fundraisers, on channel selection, messaging, direct mail, e-mail, mobile, social media, multichannel renewal, multichannel testing and more. It also features eight multichannel case studies on successful campaigns.]
The idea behind peer-to-peer fundraising goes beyond just an organization raising money; it includes involving volunteer fundraisers who can raise money on the organization’s behalf. Peer-to-peer fundraising solely relies on supporters who are willing to reach out to their own networks of acquaintances to recruit donations in support of a given cause.
Originally, peer-to-peer fundraising took the form of friends and family making “pledges” to support a person’s participation in a charitable campaign or event. The fundraiser would go door to door, send out fundraising letters, or call friends and family to ask them to pledge donations in support of her participation. The pledged amount was collected later (in the form of cash or check) by the fundraiser and mailed to the organization. With the increasing popularity of credit card payments and the rise of new technology, however, more and more organizations are growing to encompass new forms and channels of fundraising in peer-to-peer campaigns.
As donors continue to adopt the practice of making online gifts with credit cards, peer-to-peer fundraising is largely shifting into the online arena. Rather than go door to door, fundraisers can set up “personal fundraising pages” on the organization’s website (or a third-party fundraising website), where they can tell their stories and explain why they are fundraising on behalf of the organization. The fundraiser can share the URL of her personal fundraising page with friends and family, who then visit the page and make donations in just a few clicks. The integration of e-mail and social media to online fundraising makes peer-to-peer outreach infinitely more scalable for volunteer fundraisers; they can reach hundreds or even thousands of potential donors quickly and easily.

Matthew Mielcarek serves as senior vice president of analytics and insights strategy at Pursuant. In his role, he works hand in hand with C-level nonprofit executives to unlock latent value in constituent and transaction data. He also engages with fundraisers to validate current strategies and identify untapped opportunities for growth.
Matthew has deep integrated strategy and campaigning expertise, working for traditional and online advertising agencies since 1995. With experience leading more than 100 nonprofit client engagements, he has addressed challenges faced by the smallest regional organizations to the largest multi-chapter, multi-affiliate organizations across 15 nonprofit verticals. Matthew has a degree in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. Early in his career, he worked at GSD&M Advertising Kantar Millward Brown, a market research firm.