#GivingTuesday – what for many will be the launch of the December giving season – is now just 7 weeks away. Gulp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your year-end campaigns are just about ready to go, but making the most of December is probably in the back of your mind all the time. Perhaps you’re asking yourself if there is anything else you can put into motion today that can move the needle at year end.

Yes! Try a peer fundraising campaign.

The Power of Peer Fundraising

Social, Personal, P2P or team fundraising are all names for the same concept: harnessing the power of your supporters and their networks to scale your impact.

At their best, peer fundraising campaigns center around a passionate desire to make an impact on a problem or cause, and then “recruit” supporters based on a shared interest in the cause or in honor of the friendship with the original project sponsor.

Once in a while, peer fundraising campaigns catch fire. That was the case this summer with the Ice Bucket challenge. It started when 29 year-old Pete Frates, stricken with ALS, sought to bring attention to the disease, and to inspire others to support research toward a cure. He challenged friends to dump ice on their heads, and Pete’s network sparked into action. His friends took the challenge and in weeks it was everywhere on social media.

From June to August, more than 3 million donors gave more than $100 million dollars to the ALS Association.

Your superheroes – no cape required.

Campaigns like the Ice Bucket challenge are the exception for sure, but their lessons are transferable to every peer fundraising initiative. They’re effective because supporters, who often reside in the background of your fundraising, move front and center, and become the heroes of the story. We want to root for their success.

And when combined with a few key elements, peer fundraising leverages your team’s limited resources, spreads your story, and attracts new supporters.

What does It take? Sponsors with genuine passion for your cause, plus…

· A little creativity

· An authentic need

· A personal appeal

· Social sharing

Make it easy for peer fundraisers

Empower your supporters to get going, now.

1. Suggest a theme and goal for your supporters. Use your #GivingTuesday campaign to frame a peer-to-peer campaign that is appealing and easy to launch for your supporters. If you’re still lacking a focus for year-end, here is a post that can help you plan a great campaign. Then break your campaign into a target for your peer fundraisers in $500-$1000 range.

2. Make it fun! Encourage your peer fundraisers to focus on opportunity, not obligation, in their outreach to friends and family. Give them tools to keep the excitement high with regular email updates tracking the progress of the campaign.

3. Focus on impact. Be sure that fundraisers and their supporters understand how their dollars will impact those you serve, specifically.

4. Keep it short: a month or less. Use the excitement of #GivingTuesday to keep momentum high and the time commitment low for your peer fundraisers. A timeframe of about a month is just about right. Encourage your fundraisers to launch on November 1st, build excitement toward Thanksgiving and end on December 2.

 

Make P2P work for you: three paths to success.

1. For small or leanly staffed organizations: Start where you are.

The simplest way to start a peer fundraising campaign is to focus on the tools you already have. You have your inspiring mission, more than a few enthusiastic supporters (think staff, board, volunteers, clients), and services that need support. Define a campaign, enlist peer fundraisers, educate them on the basics above, and let them run with it.

Then, optimize your online giving page with proven software, like DonateNow. With DonateNow, your site will be branded, mobile-ready, and easy for your donors to navigate.

Then simply provide your fundraisers with sample emails, or let them create their own, and drive people to your main online giving page. Ask them to acknowledge the fundraiser they’re supporting in your dedication field.

This is not the most sophisticated method, but a functional, quick-to-launch approach.

And organizations using DonateNow for #GivingTuesday will automatically receive matching funds!

2. For organizations with more staff capacity: take advantage of a P2P platform.

Nonprofits can set up a campaign by creating a “team” page on a peer-to-peer giving platform. Check out our partner site, CrowdRise, the best P2P site out there!

With CrowdRise, you can create a page with your colors and logo and enable your peer fundraisers to set up sub-pages for their individual campaigns. They’ll be able to set an individual goal, see their progress, donor scrolls, and where they stand relative to other fundraisers. Here’s an example.

You can create challenges and competitions among team members that add an extra fun element to the campaign. And you’ll see the overall results of everyone’s fundraising with clean, comprehensive reports.

You can then manage the messaging, the updates, and progress of the campaign. This approach is a great way to give your staff greater control of the whole initiative while also making it easy for your fundraisers to get their pages set up and launched.

CrowdRise will also be holding its Epic Annual Holiday Challenge, including a major campaign on #GivingTuesday, to be revealed soon!

3. For larger organizations or those planning to use peer fundraising as an ongoing strategy: have your own P2P site.

Some organizations are naturally suited to peer and project-based fundraising. These include animal support, disaster relief, schools, health care, disease, and many others. Organizations like these can equip themselves to host peer fundraising and crowdfunding campaigns all year round with GiveCorps, our private label peer fundraising platform.

With GiveCorps, not only can you run a great #GivingTuesday P2P campaign, but you can do race fundraising, birthday fundraisers, crowdfunding campaigns, project based fundraising, and annual giving campaigns.

A GiveCorps site is yours, closely mirroring the look and feel of your main website. Take a look at how the Community Coalition for Haiti uses GiveCorps for personal and project-based fundraisers.