Why Strategy Matters in Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

It’s November, and we’re entering the season of giving, where peer-to-peer fundraising has the potential be a huge player. Your nonprofit team has been brainstorming and planning the best strategies for year-end giving, ensuring you’re stewarding the right donors, continuing to engage your loyal donors and bringing the most donations this holiday season. And if your nonprofit hasn’t been developing a strategy to create the most optimal results… then what has it been doing all year?

Among the fundraising outreach that is going on during this crucial time of year, peer-to-peer fundraising reigns among the top few; simply because people feel more charitable during the holidays, wanting to give back to their communities, so many take it upon themselves to fundraise on behalf of their favorite nonprofit.

When thinking about peer-to-peer fundraising, like any other fundraising initiative, nonprofits should be thinking strategy. Creating a robust strategy to ensure you’re driving results for your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is absolutely vital for fundraising success.

Strategy Ensures Peer-to-Peer Success

Here’s a thought: stop winging your fundraising campaigns. Having a brilliant idea and then letting the tides flow where they may makes the plan… not so brilliant. Having a brilliant idea and then supplementing that idea by executing a brilliant strategy? Now that’s genius!

In the recently released “2018 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study,” brought to you by NonProfit PRO, NAPCO Research and FrontStream, a staggering 55 percent of nonprofits do not devise a robust strategic plan for their peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives.

Why aren’t nonprofits planning a strategy for their fundraising initiatives? I suspect that, because nonprofits are so limited in their resources, they don’t have the manpower or time to sit down with their team and discuss an elaborate plan. Truthfully, the thought of making time in everyone's schedule and actually taking the time to discuss a strategy sounds more tedious that it has to be. Nonprofits have to commit and make strategy a priority because, honestly, your campaign’s success isn’t going to appear by you crossing your fingers and wishing for the best.

Every step has to be meticulously calculating, ensuring that each step taken has a purpose that leads to fundraising success.

Some Quick Tips for Peer-to-Peer Strategy

Sure, if nonprofits had the manpower and time, they could sit down for hours at a time sculpting the perfect strategy for each fundraising campaign. Most nonprofits don’t have that luxury—but it also doesn’t have to be time-consuming, especially if you can’t afford the time.

A fundraising strategy acts as a guide for the nonprofit, so begin by creating realistic goals for the fiscal year and under each goal, explain plans on how your nonprofit will get there. So, how will you begin? I advise you to have in-person meetings with your nonprofit leadership team and board of directors once every quarter—that’s four times a year (definitely doable!). This meeting serves as your nonprofit’s performance review, helping everyone involved understand where the nonprofit stands.

It’s up to you to take the first step to take your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts from mediocre to booming, so what are you waiting for?

If you want to learn more about peer-to-peer fundraising, download your free copy of the “2018 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study” and be sure to attend this year’s P2P 201: Redefining Peer-to-Peer Conference.