How to Help Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers Raise More

When you run peer-to-peer fundraising events or campaigns, you know how critical participants are to your success. They register for your events. They help to get the word out about your event or campaign and your organization’s mission. They fundraise on behalf of your organization. Some of them even form fundraising teams.  

But there’s more to peer-to-peer fundraising success than just recruiting participants. Once they’re signed up, it’s important to give your participants fundraising tools, tips and encouragement throughout the peer-to-peer fundraising event or campaign. Doing so will engage them, help them raise more and give them a rewarding experience that keeps them coming back to fundraise year after year.

Here are some proven ways to support and coach your peer-to-peer fundraisers.

Communicate Through Multiple Channels

It’s vitally important to communicate with your peer-to-peer participants to keep them informed and motivated. So, plan to communicate regularly using a variety of channels. 

For example:

• Email. Send regular emails to encourage and inform fundraisers. 
• Social media. Post images and stories about your campaign and mission to keep your campaign vibrant.
• Phone. Give top fundraisers a call to see how things are going and thank them for their work.
• Texts. Send messages of encouragement and updates, and even virtual high-fives to fundraisers as they reach milestones. 

Share Inspiring Stories

In your communications, keep participants engaged and inspired by sharing personal stories. For example, share an article or video highlighting a top fundraiser that includes why the fundraiser is supporting your campaign and what fundraising techniques are working for them. Or, share an inspirational story about someone who has benefitted from your organization’s mission.

Optimize Your Participant Portal

Your participant portal is the web page where peer-to-peer participants manage their fundraising and find resources to help them support your campaign or event. Most peer-to-peer fundraising software products offer some form of participant portal functionality.

Make sure you’ve optimized your participant portal to help participants recruit team members, ask for donations from their social network, track progress toward their fundraising goal and access other resources that help them fundraise. For example:

• Provide email templates participants can use to solicit donations from friends and family. Include a tips page with suggestions for improving their peer-to-peer fundraising experience and raising more money. 
• Offer a frequently-asked-questions page to help participants find answers and feel more confident in fundraising on their own. 
• Use the news alert section, if your peer-to-peer fundraising software offers it, to provide fresh, ongoing updates and encouragement to participants.

Make Room for Fun

Even when your organization’s mission is serious, there are still ways to add fun to your campaign to keep fundraisers involved and motivated. For example, create campaign-specific fundraising thermometers and social media badges that fundraisers can use to show off their progress. Offer incentive/appreciation gifts such as T-shirts, hats or stickers for fundraisers who reach specific milestones. Enter top fundraisers into a drawing for a prize.

Listen

It’s important to get feedback from your peer-to-peer fundraisers once your campaign ends. But be sure to listen to them during the campaign, too. Use short online surveys throughout your campaign so that fundraisers can give you feedback. You might also hold in-person or virtual get-togethers to get feedback from fundraisers and let them share lessons learned with each other. Also, make sure contact information is easy to find on your website and in communications you send so that people can reach you.

Your peer-to-peer fundraising success depends on participant involvement. Give your participants the tools, resources, inspiration and encouragement they need to succeed, and watch your peer-to-peer fundraising soar.  

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.