5 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Incentives You Need To Try

Peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) empowers donors to create personal fundraising pages and raise money on behalf of your organization. It’s an awesome way to involve your supporters and multiply your reach, but keeping your P2P participants motivated throughout the campaign can get tricky. That’s where fundraising incentives come in!

Fundraising incentives can range from exciting perks and prizes to ticking-clock fundraisers and team-based campaigns—all of which can give your fundraisers that extra bit of encouragement to meet (and even exceed!) their goals. Check out the five fundraising incentives below to engage and inspire your core supporters as they fundraise.

5 Fun Fundraising Incentives

Supporting peer-to-peer fundraisers with promotional materials is great, but we can’t overstate how important rewards and recognition are!

With fun incentives urging them forward, your P2P participants will associate raising funds with your cause with having fun. Let’s cover a few types of fundraising incentives you can offer!

1. Prizes: Free Stuff & Fun Experiences

When you’re exploring prizes you could give your fundraisers for hitting their goal, consider the two main “fun prize” food groups: free stuff and special experiences. 

In the “free stuff” category, you could include items such as:

• An acknowledgment plaque
• Clothing (t-shirt, tank, hoodie, etc.)
• Accessories (hat, socks, towel, backpack, etc.)
• Tech (iPad, watch, fitness device, speaker, etc.)

For experiences, on the other hand, you could consider things like:

• Recognition at group events
• Access to a VIP party
• Membership cards
• Add-ons like free parking
• Coffee with the Executive Director 

Review your previous fundraisers to determine what reasonable goal and incentive pairings should be. Assign each incentive a value rank. This will help you determine which dollar amount goal or team goal the corresponding prize will be paired with.

Keep your incentives manageable in terms of time and financial cost. For example, you don’t want to offer coffee with your Executive Director if it would be 100 coffee conversations over the next month. With a full menu of goals and incentives available, your fundraisers will have multiple reasons to keep pushing to raise as much as possible for the campaign.

2. Team Pages

To get supporters even more excited about your fundraising campaign, encourage them to fundraise with a team. Many peer-to-peer fundraising tools allow your fundraisers to create team pages to raise funds together.

Fundraising teams share responsibility and motivate each other to meet their team goals. The extra support and friendly competition among the group helps to motivate everyone and make fundraising more fun.

3. Time-Based Campaigns

There are three main types of peer-to-peer campaigns: rolling, time-based, and giving days.

With year-round campaigns, your organization and your fundraisers have an extended amount of time to meet your fundraising goal. 

Time-based campaigns are more successful for quick fundraising growth and can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Consider tying your time-based campaign to an event that you already have scheduled, like a 5k or dance competition. Participants will then fundraise up until the date of the event. 

This time constraint not only creates a sense of urgency but can also make fundraising more exciting.

If you don’t have an event coming up, consider running an even shorter campaign or hosting a giving day. A giving day, which is a 24 or 48-hour donation challenge, is a great peer-to-peer fundraising opportunity and a way to motivate people to donate quickly. 

Giving days often result in higher levels of engagement thanks to their clear deadline and end goal.

4. Direct Recognition 

Communication shouldn’t end once fundraisers have set up their personal fundraising pages. Continued communication throughout the process helps keep the momentum up for both your fundraisers and donors.

Consider creating virtual badges for fundraisers who complete different goals. The goals could be reaching a certain dollar amount, number of donors, or number of social posts and shares. This is a creative way to raise money and do more outreach.

When fundraisers meet their goals, send automated emails congratulating them. The more direct and personalized recognition you can give, the more fundraisers and donors will feel included in and excited about your campaign.

5. Personal Incentives

Plenty of people are excited about the chance to win a cool t-shirt or hat, but everyone isn’t motivated by the same things.

Encourage your fundraisers to come up with their own incentives. They can share what their personal incentives are on their fundraising page, and doing so will help them feel more accountable to their fundraising goal and extra motivated to reach it.

Personal incentives can be simple or silly—whatever motivates the fundraiser to do their best! For example, they might decide to bake cookies for everyone who donates over $500 or post a video of themselves singing karaoke once they hit 80% of their goal.

Offering the right incentives helps keep fundraisers engaged, motivated, and excited to hit (or even exceed!) their goals. Whether it’s exclusive merch, special recognition, or unique experiences, well-thought-out rewards can drive greater participation and boost your campaign’s overall success.

Everything You Need for a Standout Fundraising Event

Fundraising incentives are just one piece of the puzzle. Successful events require careful planning, thoughtful strategies, and the right tools.

The Nonprofit Fundraising Event Planner is your go-to guide for executing a high-impact fundraiser that your supporters are excited to participate in. From setting goals to engaging participants, this resource has everything you need to make your next fundraiser your best one yet. 

Check it out below!