If you’re looking to try a new tactic or activity this GivingTuesday, you’re not alone!
For many nonprofit professionals, GivingTuesday is an opportunity to try new ways to engage their communities and kick off the end of the year. If you’re mulling over how you can reach more people on the big day, peer-to-peer fundraising might be the answer you’re looking for.
Since GivingTuesday is a community-driven and highly social event, peer-to-peer fundraising is a great fit!
Let’s walk through what peer-to-peer fundraising is, why it’s a smart fit for GivingTuesday, and how you can run a simple but effective P2P campaign your community will love.
Are you ready for GivingTuesday 2026?
Check out our GivingTuesday Resource Center and get the tools you need to plan your 2026 campaign. Templates, worksheets, calendars, checklists—they’re all here!
First, a Quick Refresher: What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?
Peer-to-peer fundraising involves recruiting people from outside your organization to fundraise on your behalf. Instead of your team asking people to make direct gifts, you’ll invite them to sign up to raise money for you from their own personal networks.
You’re turning your most loyal supporters (like your board members, advocates, volunteers, and longtime donors) into mini fundraising teams.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are often associated with 5Ks or large-scale events. But you don’t need to plan a complicated campaign and culminating event to make this tactic work for you! Smaller, more focused campaigns can be especially effective for GivingTuesday and don’t involve creating a ton of extra work for your team.
Why Peer-to-Peer Works on GivingTuesday
Today, GivingTuesday is a global movement. But it started as a community event, and that focus on community extends through a lot of nonprofits’ campaigns today.
If you want proof, look no further than the #GivingTuesday hashtag on social media channels!
That emphasis on community is part of what makes peer-to-peer fundraising such an effective tactic on GivingTuesday.
Put yourself in a potential donor’s shoes—getting a fundraising email from a local nonprofit is interesting, but being asked to donate by a friend is much more compelling.
Three Simple Peer-to-Peer Ideas to Try
You don’t need a big team or a complex event to use peer-to-peer fundraising on GivingTuesday. Here are three practical ways you can make it happen.
1. Build a “Street Team” of Super-Supporters
Some peer-to-peer campaigns involve recruiting hundreds of fundraisers who can form teams and recruit even more participants.
You don’t need to do that!
Instead, focus on cultivating a small group of highly engaged supporters that will be very active on GivingTuesday.
Long-term donors, active volunteers, and even non-fundraising staff members would all be great candidates for this kind of involvement. These are the people who already love what you do!
Invite them (personally!) to participate in your campaign. Give them simple fundraising pointers and make sure they know why their participation is important and what it will accomplish.
Focus on:
- Recruiting a small group (think 5-10 people) of people you know will be enthusiastic participants
- Providing clear goals and a game plan for reaching them
- Equipping participants with easy-to-use templates and tools that they can use as they ask their friends and family for support
The more prepared your team feels, the more likely they are to participate. But even the most well-equipped participants will need some encouragement during GivingTuesday and the days leading up to it, so make sure you set aside time to check in with them and offer help.
Want help planning your next fundraiser?
Our nonprofit fundraising event planner walks you through the entire process from start to finish, with expert insights and free resources to help guide you.
2. Get Your Board Involved (Yes, Really)
Have you ever gotten frustrated because your board seems to disappear when you need a fundraising assist? It’s a really common problem!
Board members are often unsure about how to help. That’s especially true if they’ve never had to raise money before! A peer-to-peer campaign can help because it gives them a clear, structured way to get involved.
If you want to try this, here’s what to do.
A few weeks before GivingTuesday, introduce your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to the board and emphasize their role in the campaign’s success. Make sure your board members understand what they need to do and how their work will make an impact.
Set up a personalized donation form or fundraising page for each board member. Ask them to share it with their networks during GivingTuesday and throughout the rest of the month.
And, remember, your board members aren’t professional fundraisers. Give them email and social media templates they can use in their outreach.
3. Host a Mini Challenge or Campaign
Want to open things up to a broader group? Create a small event or challenge with a GivingTuesday deadline.
This is a bit different from the previous two ideas. Instead of focusing your effort on cultivating a small group of very involved people and equipping them for success, you’ll focus more on planning a fun event and recruiting a broader mix of participants.
And, instead of one fundraising push right on GivingTuesday, the timeline for this event will be a little longer.
That said, you can still make this happen if you plan the right kind of challenge. You might try doing something like:
- A “20 for 20” challenge where you ask supporters to raise $20 from 20 people
- A fun challenge goal that will take place on GivingTuesday if someone reaches their fundraising goal—we’ve seen everything from getting a pie to the face to climbing a certain number of stairs to people dying their hair wacky colors
- A matching gift challenge where fundraisers unlock a match after reaching a goal
Whatever you choose, keep the concept simple and the timeline tight! That’ll make pulling everything together by GivingTuesday much more manageable for you and your team.
Looking for some inspiration? Here are some peer-to-peer fundraising examples that will help.
Set Your Fundraisers Up for Success
Most of your peer-to-peer fundraisers aren’t professional fundraisers. That’s okay! But that does mean you’ll want to give them some tools they can use while they’re raising money for you.
A good peer-to-peer toolkit might include:
- Email and social media templates
- Storytelling tips
- Talking points they can use to make a case for support
- Photos or other marketing assets they can use to reinforce their appeals
You’ll also want to make sure each participant knows who to contact if they have questions or if they need help!
Here’s the good news: You don’t have to build your toolkit from scratch.
Our handy peer-to-peer fundraising toolkit has email and social media templates plus a campaign planning worksheet to get you started!
No Peer-to-Peer Platform? Try This
If you don’t have a dedicated peer-to-peer tool, don’t worry. You can still create a powerful experience with a few simple workarounds.
(Psst: If you’re a Neon One user, you have peer-to-peer tools! Peer-to-peer fundraising is built right into your CRM—you can learn more about it here)
Here are two options.
1. Create a Crowdfunding-Style Donation Page
You may not be able to set individual and team goals on a single donation page, but you can set a GivingTuesday goal.
When you spin up the donation form for your GivingTuesday campaign, add a progress tracker that helps people understand how much you want to raise and visualize how their gift will help.
You’ll still give your fundraising participants a toolkit that contains fundraising resources. The only difference is that they’ll direct their friends and family to your GivingTuesday donation form instead of to a personal fundraising page.
2. Create Custom Donation Forms for Each Fundraiser:
This tactic really only works for very small groups, like your board members. Here, you’ll spin up individual donation forms for each participant and—this is important—associate each donation form with your overall GivingTuesday campaign.
We’re gonna repeat that bit: Each person’s donation form should be associated with your greater GivingTuesday campaign. If you don’t take that step, reporting on your results will be way more complicated than it needs to be.
You’ll give each person their peer-to-peer fundraising toolkit and make sure they have a link to their individual donation form.
Now, remember, these are just two workarounds that you can use if you don’t have dedicated peer-to-peer fundraising tools. That said, peer-to-peer fundraising will be much simpler if you’ve got a platform that supports it!
Peer-to-Peer Is About More Than Dollars
Peer-to-peer fundraising isn’t just a tactic you can use to meet your fundraising goals. It’s more than that! It’s also a really powerful way to deepen your relationships with existing supporters while also bringing in new donors.
Even if your participants don’t raise thousands of dollars on GivingTuesday, they’re still publicly advocating for your work. That kind of engagement can lead to long-term support, and that’s valuable!
Did you know that peer-to-peer participants tend to give at higher levels than other donors? That’s just one of many fascinating findings from our recent research into the different ways people donate to their favorite organizations! If you want to dig into how deep engagement grows generosity, check out The Generosity Report: Data-Backed Findings for Sustainable Fundraising.
Expand Your Impact: The Peer Effect
Understand how the power of peer-to-peer campaigning can deepen your donor relationships while significantly boosting your fundraising efforts – get the insights in our latest report!
Will You Use Peer-to-Peer Fundraising on GivingTuesday?
If you’re used to walkathons and major events, using peer-to-peer fundraising on GivingTuesday can sound overwhelming. But it doesn’t need to be! P2P is a flexible, people-powered style of fundraising that can bring some energy and excitement to your GivingTuesday campaign.
Whether you build a small street team, give your board members their own fundraising pages, or run a fun challenge, the core idea is the same: You’re inviting people to get involved with your work and share your mission with their communities. That’s all!
Need Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tools?
Did you know peer-to-peer fundraising tools are built right into Neon CRM? If you’re looking for a straightforward way to create, launch, and manage a P2P campaign on GivingTuesday, you’ll love this set of tools. Get a feel for how easily you can make it happen with this self-guided tour!
