Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraisers, such as walks, runs and rides, are a great way to empower first-time donors to become lifelong supporters. But for a lot of people, peer-to-peer fundraising is a new concept and creating an engaging personal fundraising page with a personal tie-in can seem daunting.
To ensure the success of your next P2P event, nonprofits should consider inviting a select group of VIP donors to start fundraising early. Reaching out to superstar fundraisers and teams before an event officially launches is a great way to recognize your VIPs and show them that their commitment to the cause has not gone unnoticed. Additionally, once the event kicks off, new participants can turn to VIP supporter pages for content and design inspiration.
Below are a few things to keep in mind when implementing this fundraising tactic.
Identify Top Supporters
Before inviting VIPs to create their pages, you need to decide how to identify top supporters. It can be a mix of individuals or teams who raised the most money, recurring supporters or people who consistently build really great fundraising pages.
Send Targeted Messages
Next, it’s time to segment your donor base. With an innovative fundraising platform like Panorama by FrontStream™, you can leverage robust engagement tools to easily segment and communicate with top supporters across multiple channels.
Be sure to craft targeted messages to these individuals – personalized communication goes a long way. Thank them for their ongoing support and commitment, remind them of past success and present an exclusive opportunity to start fundraising early.
To preserve the competition aspect of fundraising, you should plan to send these emails about a week ahead of the official start of your P2P event. Don’t send them too early – you don’t want new participants thinking they’ll never catch up!
Bottom-line Benefits
By stewarding the group of supporters that have been there all along and equipping new participants with great fundraising examples, nonprofits can quickly increase donor retention and maximize fundraising efforts.
For more peer-to-peer fundraising inspiration check out how Chicago-based Misericordia launched its first virtual P2P event.
For more peer-to-peer fundraising inspiration check out The Nonprofit’s Guide to Peer-to-Peer Fundraising.
Additional resources from FrontStream:
Panorama: peer-to-peer events:
Panorama: P2P Event Builder and Engagement Tools Video
Case Study: Misericordia Takes Candy Days Virtual
Case Study: Shriners Hospitals – Canada: Turning Lemons into Virtual Lemonade
