7 Factors for success with your Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign

How do you achieve success with your Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign? Success doesn't always come on a silver platter. In this article, we'll give you 7 tips which will help you achieve your success.

1. Set a reasonable goal

Set a reasonable goal for your campaign. It's not as easy as it sounds. To set a goal, you need to answer the following questions:

• What's my target audience?
• How many supporters can I recruit?
• Will I be able to get x supporters to become active?
• When will I have enough supporters to start focusing on gaining success?
• What are the estimated proceeds per supporter?
• What are the possible challenges I can apply and what are the extra incentives I can offer?

Realise that time is an important factor for fundraising. Make a campaign plan with the deadlines and dates when you want to have achieved certain goals.

1. Start with a soft launch

Launch your campaign for a limited group of supporters that you're sure will participate first. They will take care of the first donations on your platform. If your platform isn't working properly or is unclear, you will hear it from them and will have plenty of time to fix it before reaching out to a larger audience. These supporters are also your best ambassadors and can persuade other people to join your Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign with their stories and successes. 

Who are these supporters?:

• Supporters who've raised funds successfully before
• Employees of your organisation
• Driven volunteers
• Social media Influencers (they can help you gain supporters by using their platform to put a spotlight on your campaign)

1. Guide your supporters

The campaign relies on the success of your supporters who are raising funds for you. That's why you need to guide them when they start a fundraiser. This takes time but eventually will bring you success. Make sure the first thing you get in order is your email communication. Automatic emails can save you a lot of time and can be successful if they are personalised in the correct way. Approach the most successful or inspiring fundraisers in a personal way. Team captains play an important role because they need to lead multiple others who are fundraising.

A part of the help you can offer is pointing out the importance of a properly decked out fundraising page. By giving tips on how to share their fundraising page and by proposing challenges which can help raise more funds.

A toolkit with communication materials and shareable graphics etc. is a great addition for your supporters that is available 24/7. Answering FAQs and offering transparent contact possibilities make helping your fundraising supporters even easier.

1. Make a short campaign video

It's not a must, but a video which explains the goal and the urgency of a campaign can really help to recruit fundraisers and donors. Why? People prefer watching short videos (no longer than two minutes) to reading. Bonus: a short video forces you to get to the point of your story and emphasise what is really important. A video is also easy to share. 

1. Connect impact to a donation amount (and total amounts raised by supporters)

Do you want to give your visitors extra motivation to donate? Connect the impact they can make to a certain donation amount (with 40 euros we can...). The impact is very important for donors and makes donating very specific. You can also tell supporters what you can achieve if they raise an x amount of money. This will influence them to try to raise more funds.

1. Share successes

Have you gained success or do you want to share a special result? Show this on social media via a graphic or a Facebook Livestream for example. You can announce the last one ahead of time to build up the tension. This generates buzz around your campaign.

1. Thank your donors

Every donor who has contributed to your Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign is important. Don't forget to thank them. Address the impact they have made and give them other possibilities to help, like sharing a campaign via social media. Don't ask too much from them in your thank you email because it should mainly be a thank you email. Slowly build a relationship with your donor and encourage them to contribute to your next Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign.