Jan 29 2025
Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising approaches are highly effective ways for nonprofits to engage with donors in 2025. P2P fundraising is a strategy in which supporters ask their networks to donate funds. Nonprofit organizations can leverage peer-to-peer fundraising by recruiting volunteers from their support bases and asking them to start personalized fundraising campaign pages.
Donors today have a different relationship to giving and are being marketed all the time by both for-profits and nonprofits. P2P strategies need to be more savvy than ever, using storytelling tactics, social media, and other innovative ways to engage donors. Nonprofits looking to maximize funds this year should be equipped with the following five effective peer-to-peer fundraising strategies.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can be leveraged with social media. Research indicates that incentivizing peer-to-peer fundraising via social media can increase donations. By creating personal fundraising pages for participants to share on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, nonprofits can access networks they can’t normally reach.
Nonprofits can design premade posts, graphics, and messaging by using an intelligent fundraising platform like Kindsight. This platform is purpose-built for nonprofit fundraising and works with generative AI tools that help build campaigns and design meaningful outreach content. Participants can further personalize their campaign with their story or connection to the cause.
Nonprofits should also embed shareable social media tools within their specific fundraising page. Fundraisers or donors can then use this to share the campaign directly on various social media channels, raising awareness over their networks. It also helps to create a unique hashtag for the campaign to bring cohesion to all of the individual posts.
Social media posts have the power to motivate others to lend a hand, a.k.a funds when they feel personally connected with the individual posting the campaign. Leveraging P2P fundraising with social media allows nonprofits and fundraisers to connect with a broader audience. It encourages a viral campaign that people are more enticed to share. The wider pool of individuals who are targeted through social sharing media can monetize into long-term donors.
2025 is the year of gamification, an approach that brings gaming-like experiences to digital spaces. Gamification effectively improves peer-to-peer engagement by encouraging healthy competition among fundraisers and donors alike. It can also motivate fundraisers to achieve their goals by recognizing their fundraising efforts with rewards such as points, badges, medals, and even digital currencies.
Nonprofits can set up milestones and challenges for fundraisers to share with their supporters. Schedule posts in advance using a fundraising tool to post directly to social media pages.
Challenge individuals to take the initiative and set goals to reach a certain donation amount or recruit a specific number of donors.
Nonprofits can offer top fundraisers an award, such as badges or virtual medals. They can also challenge them to reach an acceptable donation amount or recruit a certain number of new donors. Offering an award, such as badges or medals, for top fundraisers adds more thrill to a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
People enjoy competition and the fun of winning prizes. In fact, gamification increases the number of dopamine levels in the brain during the challenge of a game and achieving a goal. This can help fundraisers encourage engagement among donors and increase donations.
Over 60% of donations occur online, and having mobile-friendly fundraising platforms makes it easier than ever for donors to contribute to causes they care about. In 2025, donors will be using their smartphones to quickly access fundraising pages and donation forms. Peer-to-peer campaigns should be optimized for mobile use to allow easy donation and information sharing.
Nonprofits should ensure that the peer-to-peer fundraising platforms they use are mobile-optimized, with easy navigation and fast loading time. Make sure all your fundraising pages are responsive and that all your donation forms work well on mobile devices. Generate plenty of social media post templates so fundraisers can spread the campaign with their peers.
Nonprofits should consider making peer-to-peer campaign pages customizable. This enables users to upload their own custom color schemes and logos while still maintaining overall brand consistency. Offering customization options will empower individuals to share your nonprofit’s mission while taking personal ownership of the cause.
Mobile optimization allows fundraisers and donors to access campaigns anytime, anywhere. Mobile-optimized platforms also lead to smoother transactions and better conversion rates. Having peer-to-peer campaigns integrated to work with mobile devices may also inspire a sense of urgency, as donors are able to donate on the go.
Matching gift programs are effective in increasing the impact of peer-to-peer fundraising. Matching gifts occur when an individual makes a donation to a non-profit organization, and their employer or another individual or organization matches their donation in an equal or greater amount. Matching donations can leverage peer-to-peer campaigns by providing an incentive for donors to give more.
Nonprofits can offer links that direct donors to fundraisers to find matching gift opportunities at their companies. Nonprofits can also provide email templates, text messages, or social media posts that help fundraisers locate matching opportunities quickly.
Nonprofits should include matching gift features in peer-to-peer fundraising platforms, such as adding a matching gift tool. These tools can automate matching gifts by integrating their current fundraising tools with other fundraising software. This can educate fundraisers about a matching program and provide them with easy access to details about it.
Most people are willing to contribute more when they are told their donation will be matched. Matching gifts motivates donors to increase their contributions, which can result in doubling or tripling the donation amount. Consequently, peer-to-peer campaigns offering matching gift incentives are among the best ways to encourage supporters to give generously.
Peer-to-peer fundraising attracts brand-new donors to non-profit organizations. So, while your P2P efforts will attract a larger audience, it will be up to you to retain them in the long term. Fostering long-term relationships requires a nuanced, personalized approach that depends on more data, insights, and outreach.
The first step in retaining a donor is sending that person a thank you email. Each donor should receive a humanized and personalized thank you note and an explanation of the impact of their donation. In addition to sending a thank you email, you could also send a follow-up text message.
Nonprofits can use intelligent fundraising platforms to create content and provide real-time analytics that proactively serve up insights and automatically assign tasks to move quickly on opportunities. This can be done by tracking how each donor interacts with peer-to-peer campaigns at touchpoints such as emails, social media posts, or other online mediums.
A major objective of mapping your donor journey is understanding the donor's experience at each stage and making adjustments to increase their likelihood of sticking with you. Learning what donors find meaningful and of value can help your nonprofit tailor content accordingly.
When organizations tap into the right insights, they are able to create profound connections with their donor base. This can involve personalizing text, e-mails, and thank you letters that will appeal to each unique donor.
Peer-to-peer fundraising strategies such as social media sharing, gamification, and gift matching will stretch beyond the typical reach of a nonprofit’s audience. Formatting P2P campaigns to reach donors on their mobile devices will also help you reach a greater pool of donors, maximizing funds.
Donor recruitment is not enough in peer-to-peer fundraising. It’s also important to establish long-term relationships through personalized communication. Nonprofits can create curated communication for donors by using insights that process data to improve the donor experience.
The right technologies, such as intelligent fundraising platforms, will nurture P2P donor engagement and track preferences to tailor future communication accordingly.
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