A NONPROFIT S GUIDE TO PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING

Transcription

1 A NONPROFIT S GUIDE TO PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING DONATE NOW!

2 1. INTRODUCTION In today s technology-connected world, personal fundraising is no longer about pledge sheets and coin jars. Our online networks allow us to reach friends and family through , social media, mobile devices, and more and that means nonprofits can grow their bases exponentially depending on how much they focus on their digital efforts. The rise of online person-to-person (or peer-to-peer) fundraising has completely transformed how charities and nonprofits are reaching new donors and supporters. Where organizations like yours used to rely on letters, face-to-face visits, and telephone calls, they are now using cost-effective digital platforms to raise money for good causes. Peer-to-peer fundraising grows your mission by engaging your network s network, empowering one time donors to become lifelong fundraisers. 2. WHAT IS A PEER-TO-PEER CAMPAIGN? A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign allows an individual, team or company to ask their networks, families, and friends for donations on your behalf! Campaign participants are usually raising money towards a set goal amount, often while participating in an event or completing a challenge. Just a few years ago, your charity or nonprofit organization s supporters were probably collecting cash and coins in envelopes for events like these. Independent supporters, called grassroots fundraisers, may also fundraise even though they may not be directly affliated with the organization. Coldest Night of the Year 2016 cnoy.org 2 2

3 3. HOW PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING WORKS 1. A nonprofit asks their most passionate supporters to fundraise on their behalf. 2. Fundraisers reach out to their network of friends and family. 3. Friends and family give to a nonprofit through a peer s personalized fundraising page online. With the growth of digital and social technology, peer-to-peer events have broadened their reach. Your fundraisers aren t limited to asking neighbors and coworkers for support they can now raise money from friends around the world! Take the reach of Facebook, for example. A little over 1 billion people log on to Facebook every day, and five new profiles are created daily i. This means that your organization has an unprecedented opportunity to reach new donors when your supporters reach out to their online connections on your behalf. Peer-to-peer fundraising online has made it possible to access a wide audience for your cause, so be sure to take advantage of it! 4. WHAT TYPES OF CAMPAIGNS ARE OUT THERE? There are two general campaign types that involve peer-to-peer fundraising: A defined campaign has a specific ask or action and may be framed around a sport, group activity, season, holiday, or a significant date. For instance: A 5K charity run, a Thanksgiving food drive, or a Halloween bowl-a-thon. These types of events are definitely popular with the public. You only have to look at the recent explosion of challenge events such as Tough Mudder, Color Run or Warrior Dash for evidence of that! Many of these events are produced annually, so participants are familiar with the experience of asking for pledges or donating to a friend s campaign. i 3 3

4 An open campaign has no specific ask or action, and is not necessarily framed around set dates. In this type of campaign, your organization asks your supporters to fundraise your way! For instance: Birthday parties, tribute or memorial events. Some of your supporters might be fundraising for a special project they ve individually identified as important. These campaigns generally offer more freedom for your supporters. They require far less management by your organization as each person or group is fundraising independently. Some of the most creative and media-friendly fundraising events can be found in this campaign type. 5. WHO WANTS TO FUNDRAISE FOR YOU? A volunteer who is willing to raise money for you is an incredibly powerful resource for your organization. Many of the people who fundraise online for a charitable cause fall into one of these three categories: Sociable Millennials Motivated by their peer relationships, Gen Y digital natives are enthusiastic adopters of new trends in charitable giving. This Millennial group may choose a creative or independent way to fundraise for your cause rather than join an existing campaign. After all, this is the generation behind unique events like Movember and the Ice Bucket Challenge! Social networks are important to Millennials, so make sure you provide social fundraising tools and a mobile-optimized experience for these participants and their donors. Active Athletes From dog walks to cycle-a-thons, there are as many sporty types of fundraising events as there are enthusiastic participants willing to fundraise for you. When you design and produce a signature event for your cause, you can gain new donors, volunteers, and fans from the Active Athletes group. Even if you don t manage an a-thon, members of this group may choose to participate on your behalf in an outside marathon or challenge event. Write online content to encourage your supporters to create fundraising pages on your website to pair with non-affliated events elsewhere. Community Organizers Whether it s a workplace picnic, a gala, a tea party or a birthday, your community is filled with generous leaders who are first to say: Let s take this opportunity to raise money for a good cause! Even the most traditional third-party or community event isn t complete without a secure way for participants to give online. When a 4

5 representative from the community wants to hold a fundraiser on your behalf, encourage them to create fundraising pages to collect and track donations when you provide them with an events kit, your logo or other event support WAYS TO BUILD PEER-TO-PEER SUCCESS! Now that you re familiar with the types of peer-to-peer campaigns and who might be interested in them, let s take a look at how you can create campaign success in 10 vital ways: 1. CREATE A FUNDRAISE NOW OPTION Make sure you don t miss an opportunity to reach people who want to do more for you than make a one-time donation. In a Fundraise Now section on your website, get the ball rolling with creative ideas from your community. Suggest your supporters turn their next birthday party, workplace event, or other special milestone into a fundraiser for your organization. Share stories from those groups or individuals who have successfully fundraised for you online. 2. PLAN OUT YOUR SOCIAL SUPPORT Your organization s website, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts are powerful and cost-effective marketing tools that can help your fundraising events succeed and grow. Use free services like Google Docs to create a shared social media editorial calendar for your staff, team captains and volunteers. Schedule regular social posts to encourage registration and fundraising activities for different stages of your campaign. Make sure that everyone on your communications team knows your event hashtags and dates. Don t forget to use Twitter s free widgets to embed tweets in real-time on your organization s website or your event microsite! 3. PROVIDE SOCIAL COACHING Not everyone who wants to fundraise for you is comfortable using popular social networks like Facebook or Twitter. It s important to recognize that your fundraisers may be new to online tools but willing to learn! Many supporters will need your help and encouragement during the campaign. Create a Social Fundraising Toolkit to help your participants get started. Your toolkit could be a document, a page on your website, or even a series of videos. In your toolkit, explain what the hashtags and handles are for your event and organization, and also provide some suggested 5 5

6 wording for supporters to post on social networks. Your enthusiasm can really help highlight the marketing capabilities of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Some organizations even create images for participants to share on specific social networks to spread the word about your cause and event! 4. SEGMENT AND TARGET YOUR COMMUNICATIONS Don t treat every registrant in your campaign the same way! Be sure to divide your participants into different groups and develop a specific communications plan for each segment. For example, as people join your event, you may segment them as: Team or workplace leaders, VIPs (board members, major donors, local celebs, etc.), top fundraisers and general fundraisers. Of course, any segments you create should be specific to your own event or campaign! Develop a communication plan to deliver targeted messages that are relevant to each group s needs. 5. ACTIVATE INACTIVE FUNDRAISERS It s a frustrating reality in many fundraising campaigns: Some folks will register, create a fundraising page, but fail to bring in any donations. Inactive fundraisers often find the idea of raising money overwhelming. Activate these participants by giving them some extra love! Build simple fundraising tips into specialized communications to this group. Remind your inactive supporters that while they haven t yet received a donation, research shows 1 in 4 friends will likely donate if asked by ! Try sharing stories of others who have been successful raising money at an early stage in your event. When your participants feel the positive lift of getting that first donation, they will be encouraged to send more solicitations to friends and family members. 6. REWARD ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS Encourage your top fundraisers to do more in your campaign by acknowledging them when they achieve their goals or reach a significant milestone. Incentives and rewards can help participants stay motivated. Some campaigns choose to set dollar amounts as incentive levels, but your campaign s reward system can be up to you. Be creative! For instance, reward participants when they recruit 20 team members, upload 5 new pictures, or earn 10 individual donations (no matter how big or small). Many organizations reward participants with items like t-shirts or other branded merchandise when they reach certain levels. Others use digital incentives like badges or virtual stickers to encourage fundraisers to excel online. 6 6

7 7. USE SOCIAL ADS FOR RECRUITING Social platforms are already helping you reach targeted audiences online, but are you using these networks specifically to recruit people to join your event? That s where social advertising comes in! Many nonprofits and charities are already running advertisements on Facebook, Google or Twitter with a call-to-action to sign-up and fundraise for an event. Twitter allows you to target promoted tweets by user interest, timeline keywords, geography and more. Google and Facebook ads can be similarly targeted to location, gender, interest, and in Facebook s case, even relationship status! Due to the low cost of running Pay-Per-Click social ads, charities can see a significant return on investment when recruiting new supporters that are then converted to fundraisers. 8. BUILD TEAMS INTO YOUR EVENT Experience shows that individuals who fundraise in teams often raise more money than those that go it alone. Give your participants the option to group together to raise money in your next event or campaign. Your registrants could create teams around workplaces, families, sports groups or locations Even shared interests can make for a great reason to join or create a team! Be sure to segment Team Captains as a special group for targeted communications. Plan regular check-ins with team leaders to find out the number of members that have been recruited, the number of active fundraisers on the team and the total amounts raised so far. Touching base helps team leaders remain focused, enthusiastic, and accountable for the team s success. 9. INTEGRATE CORPORATE GIFT MATCHING Don t leave money on the table make sure that the digital platform you choose to organize your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign also includes a corporate gift matching option on the donation form. If your event participants are employed by a workplace that agrees to match their donations, you could end up seeing a 20% increase in money raised! On top of that, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that just seeing the option for a corporate gift match on donation forms results in a 71% increase in response and a 51% increase in the average donation amount. Amazing! 10. CONSIDER YOUR MOBILE AUDIENCE Here s a huge stat from our platform: Over 50% of visitors to charity donation and fundraising pages are browsing on smartphones and tablets! And, over half of all s are now opened on mobile devices. 7 7

8 When your campaign participants are asking their friends for donations, those friends are likely reading those solicitations on a mobile device. Make sure that your fundraising pages and donation forms are compatible with smartphone and tablet browsers. It s also crucial to recognize that a mobile-optimized experience isn t just for donors! Our benchmarking research proved that when your fundraisers use mobile websites or mobile apps to ask for donations, they can raise up to 2.9x more than those who only use laptops and PCs. Now that you know: Try scheduling some of your campaign s social media updates, mobileoptimized s or e-newsletters for early evening instead of early morning. 7. HELP YOUR FUNDRAISERS HELP YOU It s your job to help your fundraisers be as effective as possible. This means arming them with all the necessary tools and information they will need. Be sure to share: high resolution logo images donation request templates fundraising best practices event day detail cause and mission updates any other important information they will need A designated contact person from your nonprofit to act as a fundraiser liaison will make sure your fundraisers are being heard. Remember, they are your cause ambassadors and nonprofit advocates. They are marketing your mission, so make sure they sound and look their best. 8. GET OUT THERE AND RAISE MONEY! Take it from us - the future of fundraising is online peer-to-peer campaigns. Not only are they interactive, engaging, and just plain fun, but these events represent a new shift in fundraising for nonprofits. And if you re prepared with software and solutions to help you to campaign success, you ll be building a base of lifelong donors as well as growing your nonprofit. Good luck - and have fun! 8 8

9 GET STARTED WITH OUR TOP 10 EASIEST PEER-TO-PEER EVENT IDEAS! Think you need a ton of overhead and preparation time for a peer-to-peer event? Think again there are so many creative fundraising event ideas to choose from that the only limit is your imagination! We ll get you started with our top 10 easiest (not to mention fun and successful) peer-to-peer events: 1. VIDEO GAME MARATHON: People of all ages love video games but can they play them for multiple hours straight? Get your participants to collect sponsors to keep them going. Pick a specific genre of video game puzzle games or multi-player co-op games work well and see how far everyone gets. 2. BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER: It s the most important meal of the day, and it can also make for a great fundraiser! Encourage people to donate in order to partake in a pancake breakfast with all proceeds going to charity. Plus, it s a stellar way to bring a workplace or school community together first thing in the morning maybe aim for a Monday to take the sting out of the beginning of the week? 3. TRIVIA NIGHT: Why stay at home watching trivia game shows when you can support one being put on for charity? Teams can take pledges to participate and charge admission for spectators coming to watch the trivia showdown. On a smaller scale, you could put on a trivia night at a local bar and promote it around a specific theme. 4. JUMP ROPE COMPETITION: Why stay at home watching trivia game shows when you can support one being put on for charity? Teams can take pledges to participate and charge admission for spectators coming to watch the trivia showdown. On a smaller scale, you could put on a trivia night at a local bar and promote it around a specific theme. 9 9

10 5. GARAGE SALE: Need to get rid of a few things around the house? Whether it s spring cleaning or just an annual cleanup, having a garage sale a fun way for your charity to earn money while jettisoning various items. Have supporters bring in unwanted goods to sell, and open the sale up to the community as well you could raise even more money and make even stronger connections. 6. TEDDY BEAR PICNIC: Here s one for the young and the young at heart a picnic that raises money through entry fees and specially made baskets of food, with the caveat that attendees get to bring a favorite stuffed animal. You could also make it a tea party of sorts with different baked goods for sale. Be sure to set up a little photo booth for extra adorable pictures! 7. PERSONAL FITNESS CHALLENGE: It doesn t have to be The Biggest Loser you can challenge your supporters to gather pledges to help them reach their fitness goal. Whether it s getting in shape, dedicating themselves to lifting a personal best in weight, or simply challenging themselves to be more active, it s a goal that can easily raise money for a worthy cause. 8. OSCARS WATCHING NIGHT: It s the glitziest night of the year in Hollywood, so bring some of that Tinseltown flavor to your supporters with an Oscars viewing party. Raise money by charging an entrance fee and selling typical (or maybe not so typical) movie snacks to eat while watching. Formal dress code should be required, or pick a specific movie theme to dress up as! 9. TEA PARTY: Pinkies up for charity! Organize a fundraising tea party with different types of tea, snacks, and baked goods for sale. Have participants set it up in the lobby of an offce building, or on campus for a unique school fundraiser. Extra points if fancy hats are part of the outfit. 10. SONG MARATHON: This idea is sure to get a strong reaction! In a song marathon, participants get pledges to see how many times they can listen to one song on a loop ( Never Gonna Give You Up, anyone?), or even sing along to the song. Hey, fundraising is supposed to be a challenge, right? 10 10

11 Everything you need to run your fundraising in one platform. galas seating charts mobile bidding registration teams branded customization Online Auctions Peer-to-peer and Giving Days easy export consolidated dashboard campaign reporting Custom Reporting Monthly Giving suggested donation amounts corporate matching recurring donations Donor Management Volunteer Management common donor profile reporting smart lists registration event search reporting What Panorama plan is right for you? PRO PREMIUM ENTERPRISE Custom reporting dashboard Peer-to-peer and project fundraising, giving days, and a donate button Online auctions, event seating, mobile bidding, and ticketing Everything Evrything in in Pro Pro p,l plus us: Donor management and volunteer Nonprofit portal CRM 360 Donor degree and volunteer view of your giving activity management Unlimited 360 degree records view of and your s giving activity Everything in Pro and Premium plus Fully white labeled peer-to-peer campaign and event pages Fully customized event registration, including multi-site events Dedicated account manager Want some extra help? Ask us about our 1:1 training options. Schedule a Talk to us: sales@frontstream.com or x1