5 Ways to Promote Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Program

You’ve set up your organization’s Channel profile on SparkRaise and you’re open for peer-to-peer fundraising business, but your campaign page is looking a little empty. How can you get the word out there and encourage your supporters to start a fundraiser?

1. Make a personal connection

Before you jump straight into your Facebook strategy or drafting your next EDM, consider reaching out to your supporters directly. Make a short list of 10-20 of your top supporters – the key is to identify people who engage frequently and in meaningful ways with your organization (not necessarily those who give the biggest donations). Give them a call or send them a personal email to share with them about why P2P is so important to your organization, your goals for the campaign, and how they can help you by being one of your first fundraisers. Most people will be delighted that you consider them part of your nonprofit’s ‘inner circle’ and happy to help (as long as you make it easy!).

2. Add a page on your website

In the age of social media, it’s easy to forget the importance of your website. Your website is an online hub for all of your communications – it’s the one place where people can get a whole picture of why you exist, what you do, the impact that you have, and ways to get involved in your work – don’t forget to include a clear call-to-fundraise! Use this opportunity to acknowledge some of your organization’s fundraisers, share resources that fundraisers may find useful (downloadable flyers/templates, instructions on how to start a fundraiser, etc.), and of course, link to your SparkRaise campaign page.

3. Launch an email series

Your peer-to-peer campaign email series is like any other campaign email series – it should have a start, middle, and end. Kick-off your campaign with an email that makes a strong case for fundraising on behalf of your organization – highlight the story of one of your clients and share the impact that your organization can have with additional resources. Depending on the length of your campaign, you may be able to fit in one or two emails during the campaign that focus on offering incentives (e.g. matched gifts) or convey a sense of urgency (e.g. countdown to the end of the campaign). Each email should include clear calls-to-action to start a fundraising page. When your campaign is over, thank your fundraisers – acknowledge top fundraisers, share the results of the campaign, and connect it back to the impact they’ve helped you achieve.

4. Make a social media plan

Your social media channels are a great place to use a softer approach to asking your supporters to fundraise on your behalf. Create a mix of content that includes stories from your P2P fundraisers, updates on the campaign goal (and any new incentives!), and the impact of your organization. Plan for enough content to share at least 2-3 times a week and consider creating a hashtag that you can use across all your campaign-related posts to bring some consistency to the post. For maximum impact, encourage your fundraisers to use it in their social media as well!

5. Create links to your campaign

In addition to your email series and social media plan, get creative about the ways that people might connect to your organization and hear about the campaign. Create a unique email signature that links to your campaign page and ask all your staff to use it for the duration of your campaign. Add a banner or announcement to your homepage. In addition to posting regularly, switch up your cover images on your social media profiles for greater impact. Don’t forget all the offline ways your supporters might come in contact with your organization. If you have an office that sees a lot of visitors, consider making a poster to highlight your campaign – a plus if you can put up a moving thermometer that will have the additional benefit of motivating your staff.

These are some of our top five ways to promote your peer-to-peer fundraising program and we hope that you find them useful. Don’t forget to check back on our SparkRaise blog at SparknShare for more resources on online fundraising best practices!