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Tapping into Social Fundraisers through peer-to-peer campaigns can be your secret weapon in growing your fundraising in a virtual world. The first step lies in attracting them and engaging them in your cause.
When looking to engage today’s socially connected participants, you first need to understand who they are, what motivates them, and how to reach them.
We recently surveyed 1,106 Social Fundraisers in the U.S. to better understand their motivators, challenges, and future intentions. The study results focused on individuals who had fundraised on behalf of at least one charitable organization in the past 12 months.
They shared valuable information on why they fundraise and how to keep them fundraising for you.
The research revealed four top insights to attract new peer-to-peer participants:
Social recruitment is critical to success, and the best way to engage new participants is through their social connections! You have to find ways to leverage connections in your virtual peer-to-peer campaigns and events.
Today’s peer-to-peer participants are more than two times as likely to have been recruited by friend, family member, or colleague than directly by the nonprofit.
The top channels for recruitment include:
Nonprofits, social fundraising calls for social recruitment. Remember the beauty of peer-to-peer virtual fundraising is that participants do the recruiting work for you.
To ensure your participants are empowered to be great recruiters, arm them with the right resources and peer-to-peer fundraising software, including:
Equip them to recruit and watch your online campaigns and virtual fundraising take off.
While reaching potential participants is the first step in the process, driving fundraising efforts is where the real work comes in.
Because peer-to-peer campaigns and virtual events take place online, and typically span weeks or months, you’ll need to drive sustained and longer engagement. To get the most out of your virtual fundraising, it’s important to know what makes today’s peer-to-peer participants tick.
The top three reasons that peer-to-peer participants fundraise are:
Seventy-two percent of peer-to-peer participants are driven by a connection to the mission. When looking to recruit new participants for your virtual fundraising, find those who are closest to your cause.
Be sure to look for:
This will be the sweet spot to get you started on your recruitment journey. Then, equip them and unleash them to fundraise for your virtual campaign.
Their ability to spread your mission within new networks widens your reach and amplifies your fundraising efforts. The wider the reach, the greater the return in a virtual fundraising world.
Having a solid recruitment strategy will power your campaign to new heights and help your virtual fundraising reach your goals.
While it’s important to identify the top participant drivers, it’s just as important to identify what is not important to today’s peer-to-peer participants.
While mission, impact, and activity were the top three drivers for Participants to fundraise, it’s also important to participants that your peer-to-peer campaign is:
Today’s social fundraisers are also driven to fundraise when the organization made it clear exactly how the money raised would be spent. This highlights the importance of communicating not just your mission, but the impact of what their efforts will do.
Don’t wait until after your campaign is over to tell participants and donors how their money will be used! Make it clear why their fundraising efforts are needed and where the donations will go.
So, what does this mean for your communicating during your virtual peer-to-peer campaign?
Seventy-two percent of peer-to-peer participants are driven by a connection to the mission. Start the recruitment process by looking at your most active past participants, donors, volunteers, board members, etc.
Connect with them by:
The majority of peer-to-peer participants hear about a fundraising opportunity from their friends, family, and colleagues. Leverage your fundraising technology with multi-channel share capabilities:
A leading driver for peer-to-peer participants is that they believe the money they raise will make a difference. When designing your campaign be sure to:
This will appeal to today’s peer-to-peer participants and create a more personalized connection to the cause.
Now that you are armed with the top tips to attract fundraisers for your virtual fundraising, it’s time to get out there, spread the word, and unleash the power of peer-to-peer!
New to social fundraising? We’ve gathered some resources to keep learning: