Peer to Peer

Social relationships happen when two entities want to be a relationship. Market relationships happen when each of the two entities has something the other wants and an exchange of currency happens. Unfortunately, nonprofits trip up and fall into market relationships without really internalizing what that means (and it means a lot)...

I just wrapped up a great session with Otis Fulton and Robyn Mendez at Nonprofit PRO P2P in Baltimore speaking about how theories, data and strategies give us insight into the way we plan our event programs. Otis brought great insights on human behavior and motivation from his background as a psychologist and consultant, Robyn…

Your “first date” with your volunteer fundraisers is when they register for your peer-to-peer fundraising event. You may have shared prior secretive glances and witty repartee with them in the form of direct response or a donation, but this is the big move. You are asking them out. You have to decide if you’ll make them pay to date you: Are you going to charge a registration fee?...

Ask anyone what their favorite season is and you’ll get a variety of responses, from spring to winter and everything in between. But for the dessert aficionados among us, the most highly anticipated season of all–Girl Scout cookie season. Since 1917, the Girl Scouts of America have reaped the many benefits of peer-to-peer fundraising through…

Are you at the NonProfit PRO P2P: Redefining Peer to Peer Conference? You should be! But if you couldn't make it, fear not: We’ll be providing live coverage of the event throughout the day, updating with key information, photos and tidbits from the conference. This post will serve as your go-to hub for everything, so make sure to check in throughout the day...

There is a worrying trend that may sound familiar to some of you: Fundraising event revenue online is down in the first half of 2015 versus the same time last year. Not in all cases of course, but in enough situations to warrant a discussion. Some of the data I have examined tell a pretty clear story. As audience shifts from desktop to mobile, the average gift online is declining. So even though there are more donations, the overall revenue is less than 
the same time period last year. What’s going on here...

The 2016 presidential election cycle, with its parade of minor candidates, makes it easy to forget that grassroots fundraising isn't limited to the campaign trail. If Ted Cruz can raise $14 million in three months of grassroots fundraising, imagine what nonprofits can do over the course of a year or more. Here's how one nonprofit raised $15 million, almost entirely in grassroots fashion...

A senior White House adviser was struck and killed by a car when he lost control of his bicycle while participating in a charity bike ride raising money to fight cancer. Jacob Thomas Brewer, 34, was entering a sharp bend in Mt. Airy, Md., when the married father and senior policy adviser crossed into an…

The eyes that matter most on your event T-shirt are the eyes of the person wearing it. The value of the T-shirt is that the person wearing it sees him or herself in it frequently over the next year. When we reinforce the intrinsic label of a person by helping him or her overtly self-identify as someone who performs certain behaviors–in this case being a fundraiser for our nonprofit–we increase the likelihood we will get he or she back next year to do that same behavior...

There are a ton of conferences out there. It's impossible to make it to all of them, unless your job title is Professional Conference Go-er, or something. And even then, you'd need to hire an Associate Conference Go-er to keep up. There are that many. But, trust us, if you're a nonprofit professional whose work is even remotely related to peer-to-peer fundraising, you don't want to miss the NonProfit PRO P2P: Redefining Peer to Peer Conference, Oct. 1 in Baltimore. Here are five reasons why...