5 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Obstacles (& How to Solve Them) - Joshua Meyer

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns (sometimes referred to as ‘P2P’ campaigns) and events can be highly effective fundraisers that help your nonprofit build supporter relationships and raise more funds. However, like any other nonprofit campaign, peer-to-peer fundraising strategies come with their own unique challenges.

In this post, we’ll highlight a few common P2P obstacles and provide strategies for tackling them effectively. We’ll cover the following roadblocks:

Your goal is unclear or unrealistic.
Supporters aren’t aware of the fundraising opportunity.
Potential participants feel too intimidated to join.
Your donation page is hard to use or not compelling enough.
You don’t have a clear strategy to follow up with supporters and donors after the campaign.

Don’t let these challenges deter you from starting your own peer-to-peer campaign. Think of them as opportunities to assess your nonprofit’s fundraising strengths and weaknesses. Once you know where you’re succeeding and where you need to adjust, you’ll be more likely to make changes that will help you raise more funds in the future.

1. Your goal is unclear or unrealistic.

Successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns start with a clear, achievable goal. One of the very first challenges you might face during the P2P planning process is knowing how to determine such a goal.

To help set your goal, think about establishing an objective that is:

Specific: Vague goals such as “we want to earn more through P2P fundraising” or “we want to recruit more participants” will be hard to measure and analyze. Instead, set specific goals, such as “we want to raise $5,000 through our next campaign” or “we want to recruit at least 50 peer-to-peer participants.”
Measurable: How will you measure progress toward your goal? Ensure your goal can be analyzed using quantitative metrics, such as dollars raised, the number of participants who met their personal goals, etc.
Attainable: Don’t set an unrealistic goal, especially if this is your first peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Review your past fundraising results to set a slightly higher goal than usual that your team and supporters can reasonably achieve.
Relevant: Your peer-to-peer fundraising goal should align with your nonprofit’s overall fundraising goals. Tying your goal to your organization’s work will help supporters see that their participation will directly impact your mission.
Time-based: Your campaign should have a start and end date. This helps your team and supporters stay on target. It also creates greater urgency surrounding your campaign, encouraging donors to give right away rather than waiting until later to make a donation.

Use these guidelines to create a reasonable goal for your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Once you’ve established your objective, you can spend the rest of your planning time determining the steps you need to take to achieve success.

2. Supporters aren’t aware of the fundraising opportunity.

Generating interest and awareness is a challenge for all types of virtual fundraising campaigns—including peer-to-peer fundraisers. Comprehensive marketing and communications strategies are key for getting the word out because you have to engage both potential volunteer fundraisers as well as donors.

To reach a broad audience, create a marketing strategy for promoting the campaign on your social media pages and via email. You can even use SEO strategies, such as creating website content targeted to high-traffic keywords, to promote your campaign.

In addition, consider targeting specific supporters. Reaching out to individuals who have already expressed interest in your nonprofit can help boost recruitment success. For example, you may want to reach out to:

Past peer-to-peer participants and donors
Volunteers
Donors to other types of campaigns
Board members

If these individuals aren’t interested in becoming volunteer peer-to-peer fundraisers, ask if they would be willing to make a donation to your campaign or share your fundraising page on social media.

By using both broad and targeted outreach efforts, you can reach a wider audience of potential participants and donors and improve your recruitment efforts.

3. Potential participants feel too intimidated to join.

For supporters who have never participated in a peer-to-peer campaign before, the idea of getting involved can be somewhat daunting. After all, most of your supporters probably aren’t nonprofit influencers or professionals who are well-versed in the ins and outs of how to achieve fundraising and marketing success.

To reassure new fundraisers that participating will be easier than they think, create a peer-to-peer fundraising guide to provide the tools and strategies they need to launch a successful fundraiser. The guide should include tips on how supporters can:

Set up their personal campaign page and choose the right goal. Provide tips for how participants should customize their campaign pages with information about their personal connection to your cause. Also, if you don’t have a set goal for fundraisers to reach, help participants determine the right goal for their personal campaign.
Create effective social media posts that drive donations. Offer marketing tips, such as which platforms to post on, when the best time to post is, and how to word email subject lines to increase the open rate. You can even create a recommended social media posting schedule that participants can follow to increase visibility for their fundraising page. If you can, write sample posts so that participants can copy those and get started promoting their campaigns right away.
Reach out to close family members and friends to ask them to give. Create fundraising scripts for phone calls or emails that participants can personalize when reaching out to close family members and friends.

Check in with fundraisers regularly to provide assistance as needed and help them promote their pages. This will give new fundraisers greater confidence and provide them with a positive experience that will encourage them to participate in future campaigns.

4. Your donation page is hard to use or not compelling enough.

Your peer-to-peer campaign will bring a lot of attention to your main donation form and your supporters’ personalized fundraising pages. These pages should compel potential donors to give and make it as easy as possible for them to make a gift online.

Follow these tips when creating your donation pages:

Make the page user-friendly and accessible. Keep your giving form as simple and easy to fill out as possible. Only ask for necessary information, such as donors’ names, contact details, and payment information. Also, make the form more inclusive by following accessibility best practices. For instance, include alternative text for images and sufficient color contrast between the text and background.
Include a brief description of your fundraiser’s purpose. Describe how donations impact your organization’s mission. Be specific—let donors know that a $25 donation helps you purchase a month of food for a shelter dog or that a $100 donation can fund summer camp fees for a local elementary school student.
Use compelling images that illustrate your mission. Choose one or two compelling images that showcase your nonprofit’s work. These can be images of volunteers, community members, and other individuals directly involved in your mission. Photos help donors see exactly how their contributions can make a difference.

After making these updates, your online donation process won’t just be optimized for peer-to-peer fundraising success; it’ll also work for future online giving campaigns.

5. You don’t have a clear strategy to follow up with supporters and donors after the campaign.

Post-campaign engagement is critical for retaining peer-to-peer fundraisers and donors as long-term supporters. That’s why you need a strategy for following up with participants and donors to thank them for their hard work and continue engaging with them.

Your post-campaign follow-up efforts should include the following types of outreach:

Highlighting supporters’ accomplishments on your marketing platforms. As stated in Bloomerang’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide, you should keep your post-campaign messages focused on celebrating participants’ and donors’ accomplishments. This helps supporters feel like equal partners in working toward your mission. Communicate your gratitude via social media, email, and on your website and update your audience on what their support will help your nonprofit achieve.
Sending a heartfelt thank you letter. Consider writing your thank you messages by hand to add a personal touch to your outreach efforts. Whether you send a handwritten letter, a typed letter, or an email, personalize the messages by addressing the supporters by name. Reference their specific accomplishments, like whether they exceeded their goal or engaged an impressive number of new supporters.
Offering additional ways to get involved. To encourage supporters to stay involved in the work you do, highlight other ways they can get involved. These might include upcoming educational events, volunteer opportunities, or advocacy initiatives.
Reminding donors about matching gifts. Matching gifts allow donors to make an even greater impact. In these initiatives, businesses match donations that their employees make to eligible nonprofits. Most companies match at a 1:1 ratio. However, according to Double the Donation’s matching gift guide, some businesses will give as much as $4 for every $1 donated! Use your follow-up communications to remind P2P donors to research their matching-gift eligibility and apply for a match.
Sending an unexpected gift. Recognize your most active peer-to-peer fundraisers or your campaign’s largest donors by sending them an unexpected gift. This might be a free t-shirt, mug, or tote bag branded with your nonprofit’s logo. Thank these supporters for their efforts to go above and beyond to support your campaign.

By stewarding your supporters after your P2P campaign ends, you can encourage them to participate in future campaigns and support your organization in multiple ways. Next time you have a supporter-led fundraising initiative on your calendar, you’ll be able to turn to these experienced volunteers for assistance.

Joshua Meyer, VP of Demand Generation for Bloomerang

Joshua Meyer brings more than 20 years of fundraising, volunteer management, and marketing experience to his current role as the VP of Demand Generation for Bloomerang. As a member of the Bloomerang marketing team, Josh manages the organization’s growth marketing efforts. Through his previous roles at the Human Rights Campaign and OneCause, he has a passion for helping to create positive change and helping nonprofits engage new donors and achieve their fundraising goals.