Donors don’t experience fundraising in silos — they may experience peer-to-peer campaigns, receive direct mail, engage through digital channels, and attend events. Even though our work focuses on direct response fundraising, understanding and strengthening how P2P engages supporters helps organizations build stronger, more connected donor journeys. This might happen because your fundraiser is too long, it interferes with other priorities like year-end giving, or participants just forget to engage with the campaign after they sign up.
When energy dips, your fundraising participants and potential new donors need compelling reasons to act now rather than later.
With peer-to-peer technology and targeted communication strategies, you can re-energize your supporters and maximize your results. Let’s explore three ways to keep the momentum going throughout your next peer-to-peer campaign.
1. Use gamification to spark friendly competition.
Gamification is one of the best ways to make fundraisers feel urgent, interactive, and fun. By adding small challenges and rewards, your fundraising experience will go from a standard donation request to an engaging competition that motivates participants to reach the next level.
A few popular, effective gamification tactics include:
- Real-time leaderboards: Encourage friendly competition by displaying top individual and team fundraisers prominently on your main peer-to-peer fundraising page. Notify participants when they reach the board, and send out regular leaderboard updates to all fundraisers to let them know who’s on top.
- Virtual achievement badges: Reward milestones, like reaching 50% of a goal or recruiting five new donors, with digital badges that participants can show off on their pages and share on social media. To make participation more inclusive, incorporate badges for easy wins like “First-Time Fundraiser” or “Told My Story.”
- Fundraising thermometers: Provide a visual representation of both individual and organization-wide progress toward goals to show supporters how close they are to the finish line. Encourage participants to set personal goals and check the campaign goal thermometer to gauge their progress.
- Flash fundraising goals: Set surprise, limited-time goals for participants to inspire urgent fundraising action. Flash goals should be small and achievable while still presenting a challenge, such as raising $100 by the end of the weekend or recruiting three new donors in one day.
- Visual countdowns: Place a countdown clock on your P2P event site to visually remind visitors that the opportunity to contribute to the campaign is closing. Share countdown updates with your peer-to-peer participants and on social media to engage your organization’s entire community.
The right peer-to-peer fundraising platform makes these gamification tools easy to implement and manage. When evaluating your options, look for a solution that offers several built-in gamification features throughout your peer-to-peer fundraising page. This way, you can start reaping the benefits of gamification right away without worrying about activation.
Your peer-to-peer software should also help you recognize individual success automatically. For instance, when a participant hits a flash fundraising goal or earns a new badge, they should get an instant notification email that celebrates their achievement.
2. Leverage multichannel check-ins.
Your supporters lead busy, full lives, and that’s a good thing! Your peer-to-peer participants are likely active members of the community with wide networks and various responsibilities. This helps your nonprofit reach more people, but it also makes it easy for participants to lose focus when their attention is pulled in other directions.
It’s your nonprofit’s job to reel them back in and remind them of the urgency of your fundraiser. Plan to send multichannel fundraising check-ins that engage supporters wherever they are. At a minimum, you should share urgent messages across:
- Email: Optimize your emails with personalized subject lines and time-based language (like countdowns). Send short, active-voice updates to fundraisers with their specific stats and a clear next step to keep them focused.
- Social media: Invite participants to join an exclusive social media group where they can send and receive updates and support throughout the campaign. A staff member or volunteer should check in periodically to see how everyone’s doing and drive higher engagement.
- SMS: Send time-sensitive updates and check-ins via text to provide a direct, accessible communication channel. Supporters are much more likely to read texts immediately than emails, and they can easily respond with questions or comments.
Managing multichannel messages requires tools that seamlessly integrate with your donor database. These might include a text marketing app and an email tool, or you can opt for an all-in-one fundraising platform that centralizes all communications.
No matter what methods or software you use, you must maintain organization and consistency with a detailed content calendar. Track when you’ll send messages via which channels, aiming for an even distribution.
3. Add in limited-time match challenges.
Nothing creates urgency like a ticking clock or the opportunity to make a gift go twice as far. With timed matching gift challenges, you can use both strategies at once by giving donors a limited time to double or even triple their impact.
Here’s how it works:
- Your nonprofit secures a corporate or individual sponsor: Partner with a local business or major donor to match all donations during a set timeframe (such as 24 or 48 hours). Agree on details like the match ratio (2:1 or 3:1), a total donation maximum, and whether the sponsor wants publicity. A major donor may choose to remain anonymous, while corporate sponsors typically want branded recognition.
- Announce the match across all channels: Use your multichannel strategy to build excitement before the match challenge begins. Communicate the purpose of the match and the urgency of the limited timeframe. Then, work with your participants to spread the word and provide countdown updates leading up to the challenge.
- Post frequent updates and highlight the impact: When you hit a fundraising milestone, blast the news across your channels to show off your success and momentum. Incorporate storytelling to explain exactly what the matched funds will achieve, such as “Today only, your $50 gift becomes $100 and feeds two families instead of one.”
Explain the benefits of matching gifts, the significant impact donors can achieve, and how the gifts play a role in meeting your fundraising goal. Remember to keep your support base in the loop throughout the challenge and after it concludes.
Keeping up the momentum of urgent peer-to-peer campaigns
These tactics will help you drive urgency during the campaign, but don’t forget to keep it up after your peer-to-peer fundraiser ends, too. Send timely thank-you messages and celebrate the campaign’s success early. Explore other fundraising guides for tips on keeping both participants and new donors engaged in the long term.