5 Creative, Successful Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns

By Joe Boland

In this day and age, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who is unfamiliar with a peer-to-peer run/walk/ride event. Whether it's a 5K, 10K or ride to the beach, the majority of Americans either have participated in these types of fundraising events or know someone who has.

With so many run/walk/ride peer-to-peer fundraising events out there, it's easy to get lost in the oversaturated landscape. Unless your brand is already well-known, most donors and participants will remember the race and not the organization.

So how can nonprofits make their organizations stand out among the crowd? One way is to get creative in peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. Take, for instance, the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge: "The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on video, posting that video to social media, then nominating others to do the same, all in an effort to raise ALS awareness. Those who refuse to take the challenge are asked to make a donation to the ALS charity of their choice."

This creative peer-to-peer challenge has been a hit, both in advocacy and fundraising, as the videos have gone viral and the campaign has already brought in more than $1 million over the course of a weekend. This is exactly the type of creative approach that can help a nonprofit stand out, something other nonprofits have done with astounding results.

Online fundraising platform RallyBound recently unveiled the "Top 5 Wildest Nonprofit Fundraisers," highlighting five extremely creative — and successful — peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

The list includes the Cupid's Undie Run, the Valentine's Day weekend run in skivvies to benefit the Children's Tumor Foundation; Over the Edge, a repelling challenge event that benefits organizations such as Special Olympics, the American Cancer Society and the Boy Scouts of America; the Polar Bear Plunge benefiting Special Olympics; and Movember, which raises money for men's health organizations such as the Livestrong Foundation and Prostate Cancer Foundation.