How To Use CauseVox To Run Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns

You’ve heard the latest reports. You may have even already started revamping your year-end fundraising plan to incorporate more People Fundraising methods like peer-to-peer fundraising. But have you started putting all those thoughts and plans into action?

We get it. Sometimes, the hardest part of trying something new is the initial execution.

And that’s what CauseVox is here for. We realize that every nonprofit has different needs and the best fundraising route for your organization may not work for another. That’s one of the many reasons we created a fundraising platform that’s built to be flexible depending on your campaign’s specific needs.

As you know, there is a lot of competition out there for your donor’s attention. Thus, it’s vital you create the strongest digital fundraising campaign possible. We believe the strength in your campaign lies in the stories that build the foundation of your organization. Most often, these stories are best told by the people who support you.

CauseVox was built so that these people—your volunteers, your donors, your clients, your staff, your dedicated board members, and anyone else whose life you’ve touched, can speak to your impact.

Relationships were the key to fundraising in the past, but they’re also the key to fundraising in the future. The only difference is that many of these relationships aren’t just built, they’re maintained, online.

Here are 8 different ways your nonprofit can utilize the power of peer-to-peer fundraising through the CauseVox platform to build on your relationships and reach a broader audience.

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Crowdfunding & Traditional Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Crowdfunding is the basis behind all online fundraising. In a typical online crowdfunding campaign, an organization sets up a website and raises money from donors through this site.

When you add a peer-to-peer fundraising component, your supporters become your sounding boards as personal fundraisers. They create their own websites (linked to the main campaign site), write about why they’re participating, and share it with their friends and family.

At CauseVox, we know that the most effective way to reach a newer, broader audience is through your supporters’ power of recommendation. By fundraising on behalf of your cause, you’re engaging those closest to your cause and raising money from a new audience of donors at the same time.

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To familiarize yourself with crowdfunding-related terminology, check out this resource.

Your Essential Features: Donation Tiers

Give your donors guidelines to help structure their donation. If you need $25 from each donor, say so! CauseVox makes choosing a donation amount easy through the donation tier feature. Once a donor selects “Donate”/”Give” or whichever call of action you choose for your site, they’ll be directed to a donation checkout page where a list of donation amounts that you created will appear.

Below, you can see how The North Texas Food Bank used custom donation tiers for their latest crowdfunding campaign. These include:

• $10 USD: Will help provide 60 meals for those in need
• $25 USD: WIll help provide 150 meals for those in need
• $50 USD: Will help provide 300 meals for those in need
• $100 USD: WIll help provide 600 meals for those in need

Challenge

A peer-to-peer fundraising challenge looks a bit different for every organization and campaign. Sometimes, personal fundraisers wear the same dress for 5 days to highlight the impact of generational poverty, such as the Junior League of Atlanta. Other times, they set a personal challenge such as running a marathon to bring attention to their campaign.

The best part of a challenge campaign is the energy it adds to the efforts and unites the participants.

Your Essential Feature: Unlimited Fundraising Pages

CauseVox allows an unlimited number of fundraising pages for your peer-to-peer fundraisers, meaning you can recruit as many personal fundraisers as you can manage. Each fundraiser is given the ability to customize their website with their own story in addition to your organization’s branding.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the personal fundraisers who participated in the Workout For Water campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Each one created their own webpage and were given the tools they needed to run a successful campaign.

Competition

Competitions are quite similar to a challenge, but with a competition, your personal fundraisers are competing between one another to raise the most amount of money for your campaign. At the same time, they’re generally participating in some sort of in-person event, such as a Board Game Tournament or a Boat Race.

Your Essential Feature: Impact Meter

Your organization may be well versed in the impact of a dollar to your organization, but your supporters and their friends and family may not have the same familiarity.

By using the CauseVox impact meter on your main and personal fundraising pages, you can equate a donor’s gift to real-time impact, helping to fuel friendly competition between personal fundraisers.

Check out The Motherhood Collective’s use of an impact meter on their fundraising website.

Another great example comes courtesy of The Gauntlet: Infinity fundraiser to benefit the Treehouse Project. This charity board game tournament more than doubled their goal and made a huge impact for the program.

Run/Walk/Race

5Ks, Marathons, Triathlons—you host it and people in your community will be eager to join in. This fusion between health and fundraising has done wonders for the world of development because it doesn’t only give people a reason to give, it provides them a reason to get involved by physically committing to your cause. This is engagement at its ultimate potential!

Your Essential Feature: Custom Fields

With custom fields, you have the ability to input any necessary data you need to run your race. For example, you can input an option to record T-shirt sizes for participants. Whatever information you need to collect, you can do it with CauseVox’s custom fields.

Creative Campaigns

Up the ante and get noticed with a peer-to-peer fundraiser that’s unique and creative. When you incorporate a “never before seen” fundraiser, you’ll immediately garner the attention of your current supporters and their networks.

We’ve seen it with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and a number of other “viral” fundraisers. Think outside the box and you’ll set yourself up for success.

Your Essential Feature: Customization

When you use CauseVox, your organization has unparalleled access to custom websites. Add your logo, marketing videos, and even create your own personalized URL. Your donors will experience a seamless transition from your campaign marketing efforts (your org’s website, social media, etc.) to your custom crowdfunding site.

DIY Campaigns

Ongoing online fundraising campaigns help ensure your nonprofit or charity maintains a steady stream of income year-round. Set up a permanent website that directs your supporters to create their own fundraising page. From there, provide information to help them set a goal, shape their personal campaign, and get results with a toolkit like this one from Global Kid’s 5k.

Personal fundraisers are given the freedom to run a fundraiser on their own time using your materials and expertise.

Your Essential Feature: Storytelling Features

The story your supporter shares with the world will be the motivating factor for people to give to their DIY campaign. Since the story is absolutely essential, we structured each CauseVox website to include ample space to share it. We also have a Blog Update feature so your personal fundraisers can keep their donors updated on their personal campaign.

The ReThink Charity Project, High Impact Birthdays, is a great example of an ongoing DIY campaign.

Corporate and Nonprofit Partnerships

It’s not just your donors who benefit from the engagement opportunity afforded by peer-to-peer fundraising. Your corporate and nonprofit partners can also reap some rewards.

Consider partnering with local businesses and nonprofits who share your vision for the community you work with. Your personal fundraisers, donors, volunteers, and anyone else who visits your campaign website will notice the partnership, which essentially acts as a “vouch” for your cause.

Your Essential Feature: An Easy-to-Read Layout

Each CauseVox-powered peer-to-peer fundraising website has a layout designed to share your organization’s story and call attention to the cause. But there’s also room to share pertinent information, including your organization’s mission and strategic partnerships.

Staff/Board/Major Donors

Your intended donor audience isn’t always the friends and family of your current donors. Sometimes, you’re looking for support from those closest to your organization. When you run a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign using CauseVox, you can give your staff, board members, major donors, and volunteers the opportunity to give however they feel comfortable.

This may mean giving one large donation, setting up a legacy donation, or recruiting their networks to get involved with your cause.

Your Essential Feature: Recurring Donations

Monthly/recurring donations are becoming the natural, easy choice for many donors. Whether it’s because they prefer splitting up a major gift over the course of a year or they have a limited budget but want to make a big impact.

When you customize your donation page, it’s easy to add a recurring donation option and put it front and center, just like Dawn’s Place promoted in their Walk Her Home campaign.

No matter which type of peer-to-peer fundraising campaign you choose to run, CauseVox is here to make it work for you.

To learn all about how you can begin using CauseVox to engage your current supporters, rally new ones, and make a difference in the world, start here with our CauseVox Webinar Tutorial. Then, check out some of our case studies, including this exclusive podcast featuring CauseVox veterans World Bicycle Relief.