Peer-to-peer fundraising for nonprofits is a powerful fundraising strategy for any cause. This specific form of crowdfunding is basically a multi-tiered approach to crowdfunding. This simply means that your supporters can create personal fundraising pages on your behalf.
Peer-to-peer fundraising benefits nonprofits by expanding their reach past their own contact lists and into the networks of others. It is beneficial in terms of feeding revenue back into your organization or at large, to a particular campaign that you’re running.
Let’s dive into the elements that make peer-to-peer fundraising for nonprofits unique and how it could help you.
Multiplies your reach
Instead of embarking on direct mass appeal, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns build up slowly but surely and strongly by engaging and activating fundraisers. These fundraisers then perform outreach to their own networks in order to gain support. That being said, the ideal way to go about this is that you can increase the overall chances of success by initially reaching out to a core group of evangelists and supporters. They can begin fundraising and start to build momentum, this will create social proof for your cause.
Better personal buy-in
The ability to individualize the cause is a major component of peer-to-peer fundraising. It enables the person to explain why the campaign matters to them. Supporters are able to connect and express their own values, opinion, identity and beliefs in reference to your mission; it adds a personal touch to fundraising for nonprofits. The personal fundraising pages that have been set up become a tool or a vehicle for them to carry out storytelling, in their own words and style. As a result, onlookers and supporters are more self-assured in giving their support and are willing to accept the message and reshare the same.
The trust factor
Peer-to-peer fundraising also generates, increases and strengthens the trust between your nonprofit organization and new potential supporters. Learning about your noble cause through the page of a familiar person means a lot to the recipient of information. Generally, people are more likely to support and donate to a campaign that their friend or family feels so strongly about. The bottomline is that when you allow others to fundraise on your behalf, there is a high chance that it will result in growing your supporter base and expand the reach of your campaign.
Exploration of different methods
There are different kinds of peer-to-peer fundraising. A traditional online method is when the campaign is created by the organization and supporters join in, such campaigns run for a specific amount of time. In DIY fundraising, the owner of the campaign shifts from the nonprofit to the individual; the person can decide to create a fundraiser for a specific cause on occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays. Thirdly, team fundraising is mainly for events, individual fundraisers come together to work and achieve a certain goal. Peer-to-peer fundraising enables people to explore these different methods and see what works best for the cause that they’re supporting.
Conclusion
As a nonprofit organization, it is highly important to give full support to your individual fundraisers. You are the coach and the individuals are your players that are attempting to score for you. You can help them score well by providing them with tools and resources in terms of a toolkit that may include brand guidelines, images, logos and fundraising tips, among others. Celebrate every win, compliment your supporters on the target that they have helped you achieve. Make sure that you keep in touch with your fundraisers and keep them updated about new campaigns. It is also highly recommended that you send them thank you notes.
Peer-to-peer fundraising for nonprofits builds on already existing relationships, that is the reason why it is gaining popularity among nonprofits and individual fundraisers. This kind of fundraising would improve your brand presence and level up the recognition of your nonprofit. It definitely helps you raise more, but with lesser effort.
