overlay People handing coins to each other

Four Innovative Strategies for Peer-to-Peer Campaigns

Peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) is an important tool for nonprofits and their supporters. For individuals, it’s a way to generate support from their community for the causes they care about. For organizations, it’s an opportunity to engage existing networks and reach new donors. Whether your P2P fundraising is centered around a walk/run events or DIY (where users can generate support around a personal milestone or remembrance of a loved one) there are ways you can use technology to make it more successful. Here are our top four recommendations:

Coach Your Team

Coaching emails are a tool to help guide participants and encourage them to stay active in a P2P campaign. We suggest that nonprofits write and load coaching messages when their initial P2P site content is being created. Then they just need to be scheduled and sent to participants. Using Blackbaud’s Luminate Online TeamRaiser platform can enhance this process even more, because of its ability to create conditional content. This allows organizations to target different groups within their campaign, using content tailored specifically to their level of engagement, without having to create multiple messages. The tool simply plugs in specific text based on criteria that administrators set. The coaching email can offer tips for getting started to those who haven’t set up their personal fundraising pages yet or suggestions for how to engage new audiences to those who are approaching their goal.

Bottom line: You want to meet your fundraisers where they are, but you also want to minimize your workload. Conditional content in coaching emails helps you achieve both of these goals.

Deep Data Dive

Your P2P fundraiser might end after an event or a special occasion, but your interaction with it shouldn’t stop there. Analyzing results and reporting on outcomes should be a built-in part of every P2P strategy. Make a note of when (and how early) individuals register and how they approach their goal as the event or occasion gets closer. What were the most and least successful days and what can you do to sustain the good and improve the bad? Not sure what the data is telling you? Go straight to the source by sending a survey to participants and fundraisers soon after an event has ended. Take the time to ask what worked and what didn’t from the people who know best.

Bottom line: Getting firsthand feedback from your fundraisers is a surefire way to make sure your campaigns get better over time.

You’ve Got Game

Gamification is a fancy word for a simple concept: publicly rewarding the progress your participants make to encourage friendly competition. It’s a worthwhile strategy to consider for your P2P campaign. Using TeamRaiser, it’s possible to create custom badges that appear on fundraising pages when certain milestones are reached. Organizations can even take this a step further and build in incentives, such as small prizes or social media shout outs, when participants pass a specific fundraising amount. Even something as simple as listing the top performing individuals or teams on an event landing page can help motivate your participants and create a fun and competitive atmosphere that benefits your cause.

Bottom line: Whether your fundraisers are individuals or teams, having a little friendly competition can be a difference-maker to your overall goal.

Make It Shine

When it comes to design, you want your P2P landing page to be user-friendly and to match your organization’s overall branding. Even if your P2P platform is hosted separately from your main site, your visual presentation should carry over the main elements of your website. Your event may have its own logo, but small details like having the same menu structure or colors as your main website help make sure visitors know who they’re fundraising for or where their money is going. Additionally, your landing page should have a clear and direct call to action, be mobile responsive, and have social media tags coded into it. Using and sharing your site should not be a barrier to your campaign’s success.

Bottom line: The message matters, but don’t overlook the package that it comes in.

If you’re gearing up for your fall P2P events, choosing even one of these strategies to incorporate this year could move you forward. Like what you read but not sure where to start? That’s where we come in. From custom designs, to email strategy, and beyond, Firefly Partners can be your one-stop shop for peer-to-peer success. Contact us today.

Subscribe to Our Blog

Post a Comment

Stay Connected