Peer-to-peer fundraising is a popular (and powerful) way to raise money and grow your network of supporters. But many participants sign up without ever having raised a single dollar before.
And that lack of experience … it shines through. In fact, according to DonorDrive, 80% of participants won’t raise any money at all unless there’s a required minimum.
Getting participants to actually participate is a huge part of running a successful campaign—but it can be hard.
To help you out, here are five steps you can take to get (and keep) your peer-to-peer participants involved in fundraising.
1. Talk About Fundraising (Seriously!)
It may seem obvious, but do your participants actually know they’re expected to fundraise?
You know this is a fundraiser. You may even think it’s obvious that this is a fundraiser. But do your participants know that?
Some people may sign up for your event without knowing that fundraising is a part of it. This is especially true if you’re running something like a 5k or bike ride that could attract people who are more interested in the event than in the campaign.
Make sure your registrants understand:
- That your event is a fundraising campaign
- Why their participation in fundraising is crucial
- The impact they will have by raising money
Repetition is key! Mention fundraising when promoting the event, in registration confirmations, and in progress updates. The more you reinforce the message, the more likely people are to start raising money.
2. Train Participants to Use Your Fundraising Tools
Fundraising can be intimidating under the best of circumstances, and your participants have probably never done it before. Add in the element of a new and unfamiliar set of tools and you’ve got a recipe for a disengaged participant!
You can reassure them by offering training and pointers on how to use the tools included in your peer-to-peer fundraising platform. Try:
- Hosting an in-person or virtual workshop where you walk people through their tools and how they work
- Creating a user guide or FAQ document for your participants
- Recording a tutorial video for different parts of your platform
Learning a new tool can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re already intimidated by the thought of raising money. When you make it easy for your supporters to use their fundraising tools, they’ll be a lot more confident about getting involved.
3. Give Participants a Fundraising Toolkit
Do you remember the first time you ever sent a fundraising appeal? Or the first time you ever sat down with a potential donor and explained what your organization does and why they should give?
You were probably pretty nervous!
Your fundraising participants are in a similar boat. Most have never raised money before, or if they have, they haven’t done it very frequently. That inexperience can result in nervousness or indecisiveness that will derail them before they even get started.
Help them out! Give your participants access to a fundraising toolkit that includes resources they can use while they raise money for you, including:
- Talking points for social media, emails, and conversations
- Pre-designed images and infographics they can share
- Social media and email appeal templates
- Fundraising best practices and creative fundraising ideas
Training participants to use your fundraising platform is a great first step. Giving them access to tools and resources that will make them comfortable asking for support is even better.
4. Keep Your Participants Motivated
Even the most well-trained, well-equipped participant is busy balancing your campaign with other things. They’re busy! On top of participating in your event, they’re also managing their families, friends, jobs, and hobbies. If you want them to stay involved, you’ll need to look for ways to keep them motivated.
That’s where gamification comes in.
If you’re not familiar with the term, “gamification” is the concept of adding gaming elements to non-gaming situations, and it’s usually done to encourage specific behaviors.
If you’ve ever checked into a location on FourSquare (remember FourSquare?!) to get a badge or finished your LinkedIn profile to fill up the little progress meter, you’ve experienced gamification in action.
Add elements to your event that make fundraising a game, like:
- Goals for individuals, teams (if you’re using teams), and your overall event
- Checklists, digital badges, and incentives for meeting fundraising milestones
- Friendly competition between participants and teams
People love games, and your participants are no exception. A little gamification can turn raising money into a fun challenge instead of a chore.
5. Offer Mentorship & Support
Picture it: you’ve just signed up to participate in a fundraising campaign. You’re nervous, but you’re excited—you’ve never done this before, but you’re really passionate about the cause. You log into your fundraising dashboard and click over to a template you want to use to send an email… and the link is broken.
What do you do? Do you decide to draft something from scratch? Or do you get discouraged and decide to put it off?
Your participants may give up on fundraising if they don’t know what to do, have technical issues, or don’t know who to go to for help.
Prevent that from happening! Make sure your participants know who they can talk to if they need help. We recommend having two options for them:
- Have someone on staff who can answer questions about the organization, your mission, and the fundraising platform you’re using
- A peer mentor who’s participated in past events and can offer encouragement, insight, ideas, and support (this is most realistic for events that you’ve run in the past)
Offering these contacts shows your participants that you value their involvement and are ready to support them if they need it… and those connections can increase the likelihood that they’ll participate in your next event.
Set Your Participants Up for Success
If you want to boost participation in your peer-to-peer fundraising event, it’s important to remember why people don’t get involved. There are lots of reasons, of course, but the most common are that they’re busy, they’re intimidated by fundraising, and they don’t know where to begin.
You can help them overcome those hurdles! Talk about fundraising often, give them great tools and show them how to use them, focus on keeping them motivated, and let them know who they can contact for help.
While you may never reach 100% participation (although, if you do, please contact us immediately to tell us what you did!), your participants will be more confident, more active, and more successful.
Don’t Take Our Word for It
Alzheimer’s San Diego also struggled with low participant engagement with their peer-to-peer campaigns. With the right tools and some encouragement, the people who support their two flagship events are much more active. Here’s how they did it!
