Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Turn One-Time Donors into Advocates

Donor retention is a long-term challenge across the philanthropic sector. To keep supporters engaged over extended periods of time, nonprofits must create and execute creative fundraising strategies each year. A strong base of donor support is critical for sustainable revenue and operational stability.

Peer-to-peer fundraising keeps donors engaged with minimal administrative oversight from your team. Peer-to-peer campaigns ask long-time supporters and donors to reach out to their communities to encourage support for your organization. This exposes your organization to new audiences while expanding your fundraising pipeline. This post outlines three important strategies to engage your donors, encourage natural word-of-mouth marketing about your cause, and build long-term loyalty.

1. Create accessible, community-based fundraisers

Social events, fundraisers, and volunteer events are natural opportunities to build community in support of your mission. Accessible events let every prospective donor engage with your mission and learn about how supporting your cause has a real-time positive impact on your community.

Here are some ways to build engaging events that generate support:

• Use engagement markers. Past event attendance and qualitative feedback can help your team determine which fundraising events and types are most successful in your community. For example, if your popcorn fundraiser is your most popular event of the year, create similarly themed food fundraisers to scale your impact.
• Make it easy to give. Include QR code donation sign-ups and intuitive registration and payment portals throughout your event so community members can easily engage with your cause.
• Encourage community participation. Your existing donors are among your strongest advocates for your organization. Consider their support networks as a new pool of potential donors. Create pre-written appeal templates, social media toolkits, and graphics that they can send to their community so they can spread the word about your cause without having to write their outreach from scratch.
• Use AI to personalize appeals. BWF Zuri’s guide to AI fundraising recommends using predictive analytics to identify donors who might be interested in your initiatives based on past engagement. Automatically generate and send personalized invitations to donors with a history of previous engagement in similar causes.
• Follow all ADA and web accessibility guidelines. When planning a fundraising event, whether online or in person, it’s important to make it accessible to all. For in-person peer-to-peer events, such as a Fun Run, make sure to include frequent hydration stations and accessible parking maps. For online experiences, record a video walkthrough of your donation portal to ensure your donors have an intuitive, easy-to-navigate payment experience.

When creating a large-scale, community-based fundraiser, it’s important that your supporters know who to go to for support. Designate a staff member to monitor your peer-to-peer campaigns and supervise large-scale events, and give your top-tier fundraisers their contact information. That way, they can quickly redirect complex questions to a staff member while still advocating for your cause.

2. Nurture consistent engagement through stewardship

After receiving a donation, it’s important to immediately thank the donor and initiate an outreach sequence welcoming them to your organization. Effective donor stewardship helps one-time contributors turn into long-term community members. Automated outreach cadences minimize the administrative work of directly contacting every contributor while still inducting supporters into your community.

When you receive a new donor, launch these communication touchpoints to encourage further involvement with your organization:

• Immediately thank new donors. Every donor should receive a personalized thank-you email and gift receipt after they’ve made a gift. Then, send new donors a handwritten thank-you card. This personalized touch shows that their presence in your organization is appreciated.
• Establish consistent touchpoints. Create a unique, automated communication sequence tailored to new peer-to-peer participants that educates them about your organization’s programs based on the campaign they were interested in, new program offerings, and general operations.
• Celebrate tangible community impact. Share clear, metric-driven outcomes that show exactly how the funds raised are moving the needle on your organization's overarching mission. Mogli’s text marketing guide recommends sending automated SMS updates to update your supporters throughout your fundraising initiative and generate community excitement.
• Shout out top advocates. Everyone deserves recognition, especially those who go above and beyond to advocate for your organization. Feature individuals who brought in the most new donors or who contributed a significant gift amount in your monthly newsletter or on your website to show your appreciation for their contributions and foster donor loyalty.

Make sure to include a blend of appreciation and education in your stewardship cadence. While you want to show your gratitude for your contributors’ gifts, they should never feel like you contact them only when you expect a donation. Regular outreach keeps donors engaged in your organization and excited about your new opportunities.

3. Foster long-term community participation

When running your peer-to-peer event, it’s important to focus on your final objective: transforming the momentum of your one-time event into a permanent community movement.

It’s important to show your appreciation for the dedicated donors who repeatedly support your organization and who encourage their peers to do the same. Long-term engagement efforts show supporters that you truly value their place in your community.

Here are some ways to keep your donors engaged long-term:

• Create recurring engagement opportunities. Design smaller, regular social campaigns that maintain energy and involvement year-round rather than relying entirely on a massive annual gala. For example, a text-to-give campaign lets supporters give instantly year-round. Targeted marketing keeps donors engaged, and a total funds tracker generates excitement as you get closer to your goal.
• Send event invitations and reminders. When life gets busy, a well-timed reminder can prompt an interested individual to connect. Send reminders before major fundraising deadlines, events, and giving anniversaries to encourage donations.
• Create personalized impact reports. Track and generate reports that show how a donor’s support has driven positive change over time. Include metrics such as how many people their funds have helped, what initiatives they supported, and how many new donors they have introduced to your cause. Regular, donor-centric reminders that their funds truly make a difference motivate donors to support your cause over the long term.
• Ask for feedback. One way to keep your fundraising efforts relevant to donors in the long term and encourage engagement is to regularly ask for feedback. When donors see that their opinions and experiences are taken into account as your team launches new fundraising efforts, they feel confident in their support for your cause.

No fundraising strategy will work in the long term without an easy-to-use donation platform and user interface. Continually test your donation page for slow load times, broken links, and confusing instructions.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns bring in a large number of new donors in a short amount of time. AI-driven data logging and outreach processes can help your team reduce the administrative burden of large-scale campaigns, allowing you to focus on personally connecting with new supporters. After all, peer-to-peer fundraising relies on your nonprofit’s strongest asset: your community. Connect with your new donors and organizational advocates by sharing your belief in your mission to build strong, long-term donor relationships.