Peer-to-peer fundraising is a proven way to leverage the power of your ardent supporters to boost donations to your fundraising campaign and increase your outreach. Keep reading for insights into everything peer-to-peer!
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America’s top 30 peer-to-peer fundraising programs raised $1.17 billion in 2025. Peer-to-peer fundraising can be a lucrative online fundraising method that helps increase supporter participation while maximizing your impact.
However, a successful P2P fundraising campaign requires careful planning and the right peer-to-peer fundraising software to enable success.
In this article, I’ll explain how to run a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. I’ll also share tips, best practices, and top platforms to increase support for your mission.
The biggest benefit of peer-to-peer or team fundraising is the level of impact it can have. Peer-to-peer fundraising helps you:
Peer-to-peer fundraising mostly relies on strong relationships and passion. Leverage a user-friendly fundraising platform to make fundraising effortless for you and your supporters.
Not every peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is the same. Here’s a breakdown of the three different peer-to-peer campaign types to ensure the one you choose aligns with your fundraising goals and audience type.
Ongoing/rolling peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns have no deadline and enable self-motivated fundraisers to fundraise for you at any time of the year.
These evergreen campaigns enable fundraisers to control the activity and timing of campaigns. Create programs that align with your fundraisers’ interests to inspire support and include a button that encourages them to click and customize their own campaigns.
See how this campaign by Maya’s Hope has a button at the top to encourage visitors to fundraise for the cause by creating their own fundraising pages.
Create a Peer-to-Peer Campaign with Donorbox
Time-specific campaigns are spread over a few weeks or months and have a set end date to create a sense of urgency. Participants help you fundraise up until the day of your event or the specified deadline.
Time-bound campaigns are sometimes tied to events like galas or a-thons.
These campaigns rely on creating an exciting beginning to build momentum. Your nonprofit should check in with fundraisers mid-way through your campaign to keep them engaged. Acknowledge their efforts and provide updates once your campaign has ended.
Here’s an example of a time-bound campaign:
Giving days like Giving Tuesday are ambitious, fast-paced 24-hour campaigns that rely on urgency and social participation to meet fundraising goals. They can be incredibly successful if your organization loves a challenge.
Provide a substantial amount of education and awareness beforehand, so participants are ready and eager when the day comes.
Now, let’s look at the five-step process to establishing a successful peer-to-peer campaign.
Decide on your event and who will take the lead. Now is also the time to set a smart fundraising goal that aligns with your mission and makes it easy to track campaign success.
By ironing out all the details in advance, you’ll manage stress levels internally and build trust with your fundraisers.
Pro tip: While planning your event, consider the other ways you’ll be fundraising throughout the year. This ensures you inform potential donor fundraisers, choose the best volunteer fundraisers, encourage participation within your network, and build excitement.
A solid peer-to-peer fundraising platform offers the flexibility to be creative in your fundraising efforts. Look for one that offers great support for short- and long-term campaigns. It should also let fundraisers set up customizable fundraising pages with minimal hassle.
For example, check out this customized peer fundraising campaign created with Donorbox.
Prioritize recruiting your most passionate and well-connected supporters to fundraise for you. They’ll be more motivated to advocate for your cause and help you achieve your fundraising goal.
The resources you provide could be anything from a simple customizable email template to a package of materials for hosting their own event. Equipping fundraisers with ready-to-use assets will reduce friction and increase fundraising success!
With fun events or active challenges on the horizon, sometimes the true purpose can get lost. Remind everyone involved what they are working towards.
Reiterate your organization’s story and include it on all materials – handouts, speeches, and especially landing/donation pages.
Minimize campaign drop-off by posting updates and incentivizing fundraisers mid-way through your campaign. Share milestone updates and recognize leading fundraisers via email.
You could even consider putting up a prize to maintain engagement and keep the momentum going.
Tune in as Jena Lynch, Head of Community Engagement at Donorbox, shares how to create a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign with Chris Hammond and Brittany LaGanke from Corporate Giving Connection.
Bonus resource: Learn how to set up a peer-to-peer campaign in this step-by-step guide.
Donorbox’s peer-to-peer fundraising tool is easy to use, provides excellent storytelling potential, and offers various add-ons to maximize your campaign efforts.
Pricing: Donorbox Peer-to-Peer is free to start, with a platform fee of 2.95% on your parent peer-to-peer campaigns and 3.95% on child campaigns. Standard Stripe and PayPal payment processing fees apply. For reduced platform fees, upgrade to Donorbox Pro or Premium.
Learn more about Donorbox’s pricing here.
GoFundMe is a popular online fundraising tool used to raise money for personal projects, trips, or a more specific goal in a smaller, more crowdfunding-like method.
Pricing: It’s free to start a fundraiser on GoFundMe. The platform automatically deducts 2.9% + $0.30 from each donation to cover card and transaction fees. GoFundMe requests optional tips from donors to cover operational costs. The default tip amount is set to 16.5%.
Visit their website to learn more about their pricing.
OneCause is an event and online fundraising platform that offers mobile bidding and auctions, text-to-give, and various peer-to-peer fundraising models.
Pricing:
According to the website, OneCause offers a Pay-as-You-Go package starting at $200 with a maximum cap. A 5% pay later fee is also deducted from all funds raised. They also offer an annual subscription for their Professional Auction & Event package, which costs $2,995.
For exact pricing based on your unique fundraising requirements, request a demo for a custom quote.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind when hosting a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign:
Consider specific activities that your network enjoys, or that relate to your organization. Read-a-thons are a great way to involve all ages. Run/walk/swim-a-thons help promote healthy habits.
Read-a-thons create friendly competition among fundraisers. Establish different reading teams, set a reading goal for each, and encourage team fundraising to increase engagement and make fundraising more fun.
Get creative with the themes, too!
Challenges are a fun way to encourage virtual participation.
For example, the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Foundation encouraged participants to post a video of themselves pouring ice water over their heads and passing the baton by “challenging” their friends to follow suit.
Symbolic gestures are a good way to involve people by asking them to change an aspect of their lifestyle in a symbolic way.
Movember encourages participants to grow out their mustaches for the month of November. The End It Movement encourages participants to mark a red X on their hands. Both of these gestures raise awareness and open the door for conversation in addition to fundraising.
Empower your top donors, supporters, or clients to represent your organization while giving them the power to tell their story. This strengthens your relationship with them and ensures they’ll continue to be a part of your mission in the future.
Pro tip: Be thorough and communicative about the guidelines so they have some instruction to help you maintain consistency while allowing them to be unique.
Event management peer-to-peer fundraisers are a great way for people to participate in a more hands-on way.
Create a handbook that includes activities and talking points to guide the fundraising host. Or consider a box of materials to give the fundraiser to provide swag items, decorative banners, or information materials to provide for attendees.
A good example is the American Red Cross Blood Drive Scholarship. Each participant receives a handbook educating them on how to host a blood drive with helpful tools and tips for success.
By giving your fundraisers helpful materials, you’ll make the process less intimidating and more impactful.
Like a-thons, create an event on a specific day managed by your organization to help fundraisers get involved easily.
A good example is the AIDS Vaccine 200, which encourages participants to raise money for their individual cycling rides without the hassle of hosting their own event.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a fantastic way to engage your network of supporters, acquire new donors, elevate donations, and raise awareness.
Donorbox offers a comprehensive suite of donation-driving products and features to help your nonprofit raise more online and in person.
Sign up to start peer-to-peer fundraising in minutes.
Check out the Nonprofit Blog for additional fundraising tips and resources. Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive a curated list of fundraising insights sent to your inbox.
Peer-to-peer fundraising encourages your supporters – including donors, volunteers, board members, friends, and family – to actively participate in your cause by helping you fundraise. Tools like Donorbox Peer-to-Peer help you multiply your awareness and support, increase engagement, and enrich your donor base.
Crowdfunding empowers a large crowd of people to come together and donate money within a specific timeframe to help meet a fundraising goal. Peer-to-peer fundraising is a mass of many peer campaigns linked to a main fundraising campaign. This helps reach a wider network and raises money from untapped sources.
One way to encourage participation in peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns is to create friendly competition between fundraisers and push goals to the limit. Incentivize the competition with social media shoutouts, gifts, or other forms of public recognition to elevate engagement.
Some of the best platforms that support peer-to-peer fundraising include Donorbox and OneCause. Platforms like these enable you and your fundraisers to create customizable fundraising pages that are easy to share online and raise additional support.
Heather is a writer, business owner, and nonprofit professional. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) with more than a decade of experience leading fundraising efforts and creating communication materials for arts, education, and social services nonprofits.
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