Friends have come together to fund causes forever. It’s only been in recent years with the advent of software tools that the term “peer-to-peer” emerged. To effectively launch a peer-to-peer campaign, the first step is to recognize that some of your donors, board members and volunteers have been asking friends all along. The software is simply providing a tool that expands their activity to reach beyond the Rolodex/telephone and create social proof among their friends. Truth: Software cannot replace the importance of cultivating passionate donors and storytellers.

This is the reason we LOVE combining peer-to-peer software with events. Events have long served as a catalyst for core supporters to ask friends for support and an opportunity for the nonprofit to showcase it’s story, so why not leverage that with software? Be mindful, however, that the offline work of nonprofit directors and event coordinators is the key to success.

The following tips will help you get started:

1. Be Intentional:  Acknowledge the opportunity your event provides for your board/committee and passionate supporters to invite friends to participate. Be transparent in your approach to your closest supporters about a strategy for attracting new guests to your nonprofit via the event. In so doing, be sure to create a method for ensuring the collection of guest data. (Note: Many guests attend events without ever providing their information.) We believe that nonprofits reward what is measured, so in this case nonprofits should report on the number of new donors generated by the event.
2. Coach Your Team:  It’s one thing to ask your board/event committee to post on social media, send emails and invite friends but it is entirely different to give them the words.   Make it TOO EASY to decline. Provide your core group with example social media posts and example emails that they can simply forward to friends.  Call your most networked board members and provide direct advice to support their fundraising.  And, if one or more board members begins to have success - empower them tell their tips and how-to’s at the next meeting. Special Note:  Remind your fundraisers of the following statistics: An email sent from a friend to a friend yields a donation 1 out of 4 times. The same email sent by the nonprofit to a list of contacts yields a donation 1 of 1250 times. Despite the sharp improvement, we fail to recognize that the former is still only a 25% return.
3. Create Social Proof:  Spend your PR energy sharing the activity of others. Tag an active fundraiser on a social channel, highlight a daily winner, announce when you are excited to see a certain person launch their fundraising. When we see others participating in an activity, it creates social proof and draws others into the process.
4. Reward Networks / Empower the Donor:  Humans love to be part of a group and this is particularly true of millennial donors.  With peer-to-peer fundraising, it can be powerful to use group or team functionality.   But, it’s more than just allowing donors to self-select a team.  Take the team function further by making periodic awards to the winning team and highlight all of its members (you can do this with a fun graphic of their names, tagging or pictures).  Create a blog post about the Featured Team of the Week and find a cute way to tell their story -- are they work colleagues, camp friends, passionate about the same cause, fans of the same football team etc. Use the common thread to empower their tribe.
5. Say Thank You Effectively:  Saying Thank You cannot be overstated (but you know that). Consider this twist on the thank you: With an effective peer-to-peer fundraising tool, you have the donor’s information but you also know who invited them to give. Use that data field in your thank you to acknowledge the connection -- Dear Donor - We are so thankful for your gift of $100 and your connection to [name connection].  You are part of a smart, innovative and impactful network that is ensuring [insert mission]. The more creative and personal you can make this thank you - the better - but you need to be able to create notes in an efficient and automated manner.   

Bonus: Reward Consistency! As you launch annual peer-to-peer events, maintain a tally of a person’s cumulative impact on your organization and acknowledge it. Reward teams or individuals for their long term commitment by thanking them during an event. It's helpful to have a software, like Swell, that will help you keep track of all this information. This creates important social proof for new donors who want to be part of those honored.

Overall, it is important to take a long term approach to peer-to-peer events as both a donor acquisition AND cultivation opportunity. Nonprofit staff and volunteers learn more each year and your cumulative impact may take a while to be fully realized.

Want to learn more about how Swell can manage your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign?