Peer to Peer

Here are six potential trends that I think will emerge over the next year or two in crowdfunding: 1. Success stories will spur the growth and acceptance of the entire space. 2. The rise of the niche platform. 3. Platforms will become more social. 4. Certain verticals will stand out. 5. The crowdfunding space will contract. 6. Peer-to-peer lending will go mainstream.

The Valencia College Foundation took its six-week fundraising campaign, First One, online using peer-to-peer fundraising to supplement its offline campaign activities. At the end of the day the foundation raised $203,817, which included a matching grant, recruited 152 fundraisers on 36 teams, and attracted 170 first-time donors.

Donna Marino, Valencia College Foundation’s donor stewardship manager, shared some points of the foundation's success as well as some important lessons to take into planning for the next campaign.

Here are the top don'ts of peer-to-peer fundraising, along with the corresponding do's for a successful campaign: Don't measure the campaign's impact and long-term value in a silo. Do think ahead — far ahead. Don't expect a commitment to fulfill without a well-conceived touch strategy to keep volunteers on track and motivated. Do keep in contact with your volunteers throughout the process. Don't repurpose other campaign creative and messaging and expect it to resonate with prospective donors. Do give each peer-to-peer campaign a unique look and message.

Independent fundraising events (IFEs) are proving successful and lucrative for organizations of all shapes, sizes and missions. While it’s true that there are many benefits of starting one of these profitable programs, diving in carelessly ensures that you don’t maximize your revenue potential.

Twitter is a micro-blogging social network that consists of individuals sending 140-character messages to either their entire networks or to individual followers. Its integration into other online services has slowly made Twitter a standard in online conversation and information democratization. As a fundraiser, this is a tool that should not be overlooked. Here are five don’ts when sharing your fundraising page on Twitter.

After Superstorm Sandy hit in October 2012, individuals created campaigns and inspired people to donate money using online fundraising tools (including the ones mentioned in this article). These people raised millions of dollars and made many people’s lives a little bit easier.

This type of crowdfunding may not be new, but in increasing numbers, people around the world are creating all kinds of campaigns — for creative projects, technology, nonprofits and much more.

There’s a lot that goes into an engaging fundraising page. Though all pages are unique, we believe there are some important characteristics they all should have to be most effective. We’ve highlighted a few points in hopes of helping you maximize your online fundraising page potential.

In a recent whitepaper, "Fundraising With Facebook," online fundraising solutions provider Artez Interactive examined how peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns were affected when event participants using the Artez platform were given the option to share their fundraising pages on Facebook or register for event with Facebook.

Here are five best practices for a successful peer-to-peer fundraising program and tips on how they can be integrated into your campaigns.

Turning your everyday supporters into fundraising superstars isn't easy. It requires the right combination of fundraising expertise, engaged staff members and savvy technology. When done well, supporters can raise significant amounts of money and bring new donors to your organization. So how can you help supporters become fundraising superstars? Here are 43 tips, organized by topic and ordered from easiest to hardest to implement, for turning supporters into fundraising superstars.