Budget-Friendly Peer-to-Peer Additions to Your Annual Event

It’s time to weigh your options and add peer-to-peer fundraising to your annual auction, gala, or event. Here’s why.  

57% of nonprofits polled have never tried peer-to-peer fundraising.  

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a type of social fundraising where you empower your organization’s supporters to become peer-to-peer fundraising volunteers on behalf of your mission. They create a campaign or fundraising site connected to your organization and reach out to their friends and family to gather donations and support.  

Participation in digital peer-to-peer fundraisers increased 132% from 2020 to 2021. If you’ve never tried peer-to-peer, crowdfunding, or social fundraising for your organization, now is the perfect time to dive in! 

Peer-to-peer makes a great addition to any event—golf, gala, or other—and also makes for a great stand-alone fundraising opportunity. Learn more about GiveSmart Fundraising and the comprehensive, customizable peer-to-peer features we offer. 

What might a peer-to-peer addition to your event look like? 

• Peer fundraisers create and submit signature drink recipes for your audience to vote on and the winning drink is served at the event. 
• Golf foursomes compete in a virtual team competition during the event while also competing on the course. 
• Kids submit artwork like drawings of pets, pictures of sidewalk chalk, or constructed gingerbread houses or decorated cookies, and your in-person and virtual audiences can donate towards their favorite. 

Three out of four organizations selling tickets on GiveSmart start sales at LEAST 30 days before the event starts. 

Peer-to-peer fundraising is not only budget-friendly, but it’s also budget-building. As you begin to prep for your event and go live with ticket sales 30, 60, or 90 days before your event, consider building your peer-to-peer fundraiser. Get those fundraising volunteers raising money towards your goal before your event starts. This not only expands the timeline of your event but also expands your potential for revenue. Adding a virtual peer-to-peer component to your fundraising event expands the audience you have available to you by extending your limits outside of local attendees.  

Since 2020, we have seen more and more organizations using GiveSmart expand from virtual events into in-person events with virtual components, making hybrid events more popular than ever before. Virtual volunteering is also on the rise, as people look for more opportunities to benefit organizations online. To learn more about hosting hybrid events, read our Hybrid Events Guide.  

Finding your peer fundraising volunteers isn’t as difficult as you might think.  

Your fundraising volunteers can come from anywhere. Active donors of any level, current or previous board members, and corporate teams are some great options to explore to begin building your peer-to-peer team.  

Put out a call on your social media, send an email to your entire audience base to begin your recruitment, or build a persona of what the perfect peer-to-peer fundraising volunteer would look like for your event. For example, if you are planning a fundraiser to raise money to feed animals at your shelter for a year, a great persona could be a recurring volunteer or individuals from families who have adopted animals from your shelter. They not only have a connection to your mission, but they have a story to tell that could appeal to your donors. 

Don’t forget to make your fundraising volunteers’ job as easy as possible. Make them templates or media kits they can access for social media posts, emails, and more.  

Boost your peer-to-peer fundraising strategies further with this infographic. 

You CAN motivate your peer-to-peer fundraisers without impacting your event budget. 

There are plenty of budget-friendly ways to incentivize your peer-to-peer fundraisers to motivate them. 

1. Make it a competition! Offer badges at certain levels of fundraising accomplishments, communicate leader board updates throughout the event, or give titles to the fundraisers who raised the most and brought in the most new donors to your organization. Praise, promote, and thank them at every moment on every channel.  

2. Offer complimentary tickets! Whether it’s for the current event or an upcoming event, offer your peer fundraisers free tickets or seats to your event(s). Show them what their support means to you and give them a shoutout during the event!  

3. Free raffle* entries! Give your peer fundraisers free entries in a raffle, or a volunteer-exclusive raffle item from your live or silent auction.  

4. Plan experiences! Depending on how many peer fundraisers you have, you could host an exclusive event to thank them for their time and service to your mission. Whether it’s a bowling night or a lunch with the executives, you might be able to secure sponsors to make the experience lighter on the budget but just as impactful for your fundraising volunteers.  

* Consult your local and state guidelines if considering raffles during your event.  

For more on strategizing your peer-to-peer fundraising, watch Peers to Heroes: Captivating Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Strategies for Your Events.