Peer to Peer

We spent several days last month at Susan G. Komen’s national peer-to-peer meeting in Dallas. Komen was started by Nancy Brinker in 1982. Like many nonprofits (and people) who are entering middle age, it’s a good time to take stock of one’s successes and shortcomings to better chart a course for the future. If I had to sum up the focus of the three days of meetings in one word, it would be “volunteerism.” To recapture the power of volunteerism that was responsible for the organization’s best days...

One of the things that our data on peer-to-peer programs tells us clearly is that getting peer-to-peer early registration from participants results in greater fundraising. But why? How does it actually work? Not the way you’d think...

Most nonprofits will plan one or two big fundraising auctions per year, leading to high expectations. Organizations need to find a multitude of ways to increase revenue streams to avoid leaving much-needed money on the table. The following are some tips to help development teams create financially successful events...

If you run a peer-to-peer event, you’ve heard or thought this: “If we just charge $35 to every person who shows up at our event, we’d make a lot of money.” The problem with this thinking is that it’s a price tag, and after people pay the price, they’re a lot less likely to fundraise. That’s not just what we think; it’s what the data tells us...

How do you do financial reporting for your peer-to-peer event? Often when collaborating on strategy for events, we get into bookkeeping territory. A typical question sounds like this, “When determining costs of grassroots events, like a walk or a 5K, do you include staff, event costs, or both?”...

Does your organization suffer from the “middle child syndrome?” Middle children often feel that they are neglected—that it doesn’t matter what they do, they are never going to be great. They sometimes can’t figure out how to be extraordinary. They can’t break out of the middle child syndrome...

As any good businessperson knows it is easier to get a current customer to buy more than it is to acquire a new customer. The analogy in the nonprofit sector is to increase affinity. Affinity can start as volunteerism then culminate as donations, or in peer-to-peer, as fundraising activity...

One of the main tools that we use to motivate people is recognition. Recognition can be delivered in many forms, so deploying recognition for maximum effect takes planning and strategy. One component is almost always the use of email. Recognizing people personally with email is inexpensive, and its effects are measurable...

When you run a nonprofit, fundraising events are the face you show to the world. Not only do they provide vital funds, but fundraisers also put a nonprofit's mission and purpose on a stage for your community to discover and explore...

At Turnkey, we place a premium on analyzing every campaign to provide our clients with the best estimate possible of their ROI. While reviewing the reports, occasionally someone asks why we report average fundraising of all peer-to-peer participants rather than reporting only the average of peer-to-peer fundraisers...