The Present and Future of P2P: 15 Tips, Tricks and Trends in Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Billions—1.62, to be exact.

That’s the total 2014 gross revenue, in dollars, of the top 30 largest U.S. peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising programs, according to Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum. That’s not counting the $115 million raised by ALS Association—the Ice Bucket Challenge was not classified as a P2P program, though it embodied many elements of one—or the untold millions of dollars raised by programs 31 and on. We don’t have complete data for those programs, but The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s "Out of the Darkness Community Walk" ranked 30th on the list with $12.5 million in revenue. You can fill in the blanks from there.

Sure, the overall numbers are down slightly from 2013, mostly due to a few 
declines in some of the largest programs, but Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum notes 
that most smaller programs actually grew last year. P2P is a behemoth, and more and 
more nonprofits are adding it to their fundraising arsenals.

Still, it’s not a sure thing. As in any fundraising approach, there’s fierce competition for donors’ time, attention and dollars. And perhaps more than any fundraising approach, P2P is evolving. To be successful, nonprofits need to be ready and willing to evolve with it. That’s a tall order, so we asked some of the brightest minds in P2P for some advice. Here are their top tips, tricks and trends for P2P success.

1. Competition and Innovation
Many first-time programs are starting to saturate the P2P space. Traditional walk events for many legacy programs are starting to experience revenue declines year-over-year. Unfortunately, a lot of the innovation in the event space has been coming from the for-profit sector—think Color Run or Tough Mudder. Nonprofits should be looking at innovating their programs now—both through re-imagining their existing events as well as launching new initiatives that appeal to different types of audiences.
—Jett Winders, director of strategic services, Charity Dynamics

2. Empowering Volunteers
One P2P trend is a growing awareness of the need to empower volunteers. Volunteer empowerment maximizes fundraising and alignment to an organization’s mission. Research tells us that from the volunteer’s perspective, two factors—feelings of competence and autonomy—are of the utmost 
importance. These feelings produce a mindset in which people are motivated to perform the actions we ask of them—volunteering and fundraising. However, setting the right conditions to promote autonomy and competence is easier said than done. Happily, this generation of nonprofit leaders is 
placing high importance on this conversation.
—Otis Fulton, psychologist, Turnkey

3. Mobile Giving
In 2015, we have to incorporate mobile-friendly experiences for our event participants and fundraisers. Here’s how you can do that with a few simple tips:

• Simplify your site design. Keep it simple. When you think about your website’s design, think about empathy. Have empathy for your users and be authentic in your content. Ask yourself these questions: Would your fans and potential supporters be able to easily click through your website on their smartphones or tablets? Would they end up frustrated and unable to navigate through all the content on your site? What would you want your own experience to be?

• Make your registration and donation form responsive. Mobile-responsive design ensures that no matter what type of device your user is on, your website will adjust to his or her device and will provide a friendly experience. Whether on a desktop, a tablet or a smartphone, a mobile-responsive site will allow participants and donors to have a good experience with your site whenever they land on your homepage, registration or donation form.

• Adopt a mobile-giving app. There is a misconception that being mobile responsive and having a mobile app are one in the same. However, there is room and need for both if you want to propel your P2P programs to the next level. Mobile giving apps make giving simple and modern for event and do-it-yourself fundraising. In addition to having a mobile responsive site, adding a mobile app into your strategy can provide automated coaching tools, a clean user experience and social sharing that put the power of peer-to-peer fundraising in the palm of your fundraiser’s hands. Mobile apps help participants and fundraisers stay in touch with your organization and donate easily anytime, anywhere from within your organization-branded mobile app.
—Taylor Shanklin, director of marketing, RaiseMore

4. The Growth of Social Fundraising
Social fundraising has seen explosive growth over the last few years, with donation volume growing 70 percent in 2014. Better still, the average donation amount for gifts through these campaigns has grown 52 percent just in the last year. People are three times more likely to donate when asked by a friend or colleague. Nonprofits that have enabled and empowered their supporters to become active fundraisers are reaping the rewards. Nonprofits that add these types of peer-to-peer campaigns to their fundraising portfolio actually end up increasing their core fundraising activity. So, social fundraising doesn’t cannibalize traditional donors or donations. Our research has consistently shown that peer-to-peer campaigns are additive to other fundraising methods, allowing nonprofits to grow both their revenue and their donor base. (Data is from Network for Good’s 2014 Digital Giving Index.)
—Caryn Stein, vice president of communications and content, Network for Good

5. The Walk Is Not Dead—It’s Evolving
When Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum released its list of the 2014 top 30 fundraising events, it was a little scary to see so many of the long-established walk programs in the red. As an organization that is developing a new peer-to-peer event, it would have been easy to focus on the decrease in revenue and declare, “Walks are dead!”

The reality is that, despite comparative losses from 2013 to 2014, walking events remain the cash cows of the peer-to-peer fundraising world. Walks are a cornerstone in our industry because they are accessible—no special training or equipment is required to get involved. Anyone who cares about your mission can participate in a walk in some form. In many ways, a walk provides people the justification to ask their friends and family to give to their favorite causes.

Some of the largest programs are experiencing losses because the P2P space is more competitive than ever before. The number of walking events has significantly increased in the last decade, while at the same time the types of other non-walking P2P events has also diversified. The large walk programs must remain relevant by engaging their walkers in the mission of their organizations. Additionally, these large organizations should at the same time be expanding their P2P event portfolios to provide fundraisers with options to remain involved when they are interested in doing something other than the walk.
—Robyn H. Mendez, associate director of corporate alliances, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

6. P2P’s Future
We’ve always had a passion for P2P here at Charity Dynamics, and we’re fortunate to work with the largest P2P programs to give us insights. So we love seeing all the buzz around this type of fundraising. In a professional opinion study we recently conducted, 66 percent of those surveyed said their organization already has a P2P program in place. Of those that do not have a current program, 59 percent want to add one. We also saw a number of organizations that have a program adding to their portfolios with endurance events, DIY events and other peer-to-peer programs. This shows that the interest in P2P is certainly not slowing down any time soon.
—Donna Wilkins, founder and CEO, Charity Dynamics

7. Connecting P2P Data Across Channels
We’re seeing a peer-to-peer 2.0 emerging, where many nonprofit organizations that are reaching out to us entered the P2P space within the last few years, but have identified a barrier to growth: The tools they chose two or three years ago are not integrating the data being collected through these P2P channels into the rest of their operations. As a result, the NPOs are collecting one-time dollars, but not getting the reporting and analytics to identify influencers and connectors who could be cultivated as more substantial and invested supporters. NPOs that are veterans of P2P are starting to ask for better automation of workflow when their current supporters cross fundraising channels and pop 
up in the P2P side, as well as more personalized communications for these people so that their donors are rewarded with recognition when they take action.

This P2P 2.0 is an exciting sign of maturity and growth of the peer-to-peer space. The sentiment is, “OK, we know how to use P2P for an event, but how can we make it part of a long-term engagement and donor cultivation strategy that connects with our entire organization’s fundraising efforts, not just events?” I see this because the first question we hear is no longer, “Does it have a thermometer,” or “Is it easy to use?” (both of which for ours the answer is certainly yes.) The first question is, “How does this support my long-term data strategic for cultivating donors?” That’s a fantastic trend.
—Philip Schmitz, CEO and founder,
 CharityEngine

8. Breaking Through the 
Multichannel Noise
A recent study on the changing dynamics 
of consumer engagement by Viacom’s consumer insights and research division, Scratch, highlighted that, “What [consumers] ‘see’ is influenced by who they trust and their state of mind.” Eighty-four percent of people reported being “influenced to watch content by recommendations from someone they know.” When you view the trends in how people today are consuming messaging and content, all signs point to the high value of peer-to-peer, because while this study was in the context of understanding what television advertising messaging and content breaks through, it also indicates that people are increasingly likely to become interested in and invest themselves in your message if it’s being championed by someone they know and trust. What’s working for “Narcos” or “Game of Thrones” is essentially working for you.
—Leigh Kessler, vice president of
 marketing, CharityEngine

9. Head-to-Head P2P
We all have the best intentions when we register for a campaign, but in many instances, the distractions from daily life easily hinder us from putting 100 percent of our effort behind the cause. My 
favorite trends that counteract the procrastination of participants are those that measure the participants’ actions through points and/or rankings. Global Citizen utilized this point system based on tweets, emails and phone calls made on behalf of the mission. 
The more points I earned, the greater chances I had not only to make great impact, but also to win tickets to the Global Citizen Festival. Children’s Miracle Network also has effectively measured participants’ actions through its virtual endurance program, Miracle Challenge. For each of the 27 days of Miracle Challenge, participants can check-off whether they completed the daily fitness challenge and measure their actions against other participants’. My favorite part of these actions’ tools is their ability to constantly create a sense of urgency and a reminder that, each day, there’s something quick and easy I can do to support the campaign.
—Laurel Moorhouse, senior nonprofit consultant, 
Armbruster Consulting Group

10. Rapid-Response P2P
Natural disasters and humanitarian crises require that the world respond to save lives and rebuild communities. When a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, an astounding $13 billion in aid was provided through public and private institutions. In order to effectively respond to disaster, humanitarian relief organizations must be prepared to begin fundraising immediately.

Project HOPE has a robust disaster response plan 
that wisely includes fundraising strategies. In 2014, that plan was modified to include an online peer-to-peer 
fundraising platform that can be live within hours of a natural disaster. The key to success lies in the timing. On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal 
and “Fundraise for Nepal” was immediately launched on Project HOPE’s HOPE in Action website. Sixty-three percent of the funds raised through that program were realized in the first week.
—Stacey Bowers, senior nonprofit consultant,
 Armbruster Consulting Group

11. There’s an App for That: P2P Goes Mobile
We are seeing a lot of organizations adding additional applications that extend the reach of their fundraising platform. Mobile and tablet applications are acting as a crucial user experience (UX) pathway that allows event fundraisers to raise more money—on their own terms. One example of this phenomenon would be empowering a fundraiser to send texts with links to their fundraising page using the contacts in their phone. Another example is leveraging a participant’s email contact list on their tablet device to send emails without any importing of contacts. We are seeing event programs raise more than 10 percent of their revenue through these types of applications.
—Jett Winders, director of
 strategic services, Charity
Dynamics

12. Marketing Automation
An important trend in peer-to-peer fundraising is the beginning of the use of true marketing automation. Marketing automation allows organizations to scale more quickly, and creates greater efficiencies based on certain responses or non-responses by fundraisers or donors. Nonprofits in general are in a human resource crisis at the field level, with some organizations turning over up to 70 percent a year. Marketing automation supports this level of field staff by creating inbound leads for subsequent human handling. Heretofore, event level staff was in charge of creating that inbound lead in the form of a potential fundraiser or donor. Having responsibility to generate the lead and act on that lead is more time, energy and skill than most field level staff possess.
—Katrina VanHuss, CEO, Turnkey

13. Market Relationships
Another important trend in P2P is recognition of the importance of establishing social versus market relationships. Market relationships 
are transactional—I am doing something in order to get something in 
return. Paradoxically, social relationships—I am doing something because of the way I see myself—produce more fundraising revenue than market relationships. Nonprofits as a whole are starting to understand how to better nurture social relationships and avoid market relationships.
—Otis Fulton, psychologist, Turnkey

14. Data Capture: Who Owns the Relationship?
This is as much a trend as a perpetual question that remains unanswered in the P2P world: Who owns the relationship? For the most part, nonprofits have been unable or unwilling to contact P2P donors other than to subscribe them into email communications around an event. That said, some of these people may be raising their hands in other areas, and nonprofits are starting to want to know where. This makes the warehousing of data—P2P donations, event attendance, email clicks, website visits, social activity—essential for cultivation. If there is a trend, it’s toward smarter tools for capturing data on donors for long-term cultivation.
—Leigh Kessler, vice president of marketing, CharityEngine

15. Streamlined
 Registration
There are a lot of pieces that go into a successful P2P program. Our newest nonprofit research focuses on the registration process of P2P events. You can’t have a successful P2P event without participants, and you can’t have participants if they cannot get through the registration process. We’ve looked at analytics to see where many participants are dropping out of the process, and it turns out that for walk events, 59 percent of potential registrants who enter the process do not complete registration. Optimizing the registration flow and reducing roadblocks in this process could help get more potential participants all the way through the process to the fundraising stage.
—Donna Wilkins, founder and CEO, Charity Dynamics