The past year has been a challenging one for volunteer coordinators.
Social distancing takes many typical volunteer opportunities out of the equation, which leaves you wondering how you keep your volunteers engaged.
Our answer? Volunteer peer-to-peer fundraising. Peer-to-peer fundraising is any fundraising effort that relies on peers reaching out to each other on behalf of a cause.
You’re probably familiar with some classic examples of peer-to-peer fundraising: things like walkathons and races, or birthday campaigns. But you can incorporate peer-to-peer fundraising in almost any campaign, from year-end to giving days.
If you’ve never asked your volunteers to become fundraisers, you’re missing a huge untapped market, and losing out on a chance to build your relationship with volunteers.
Let’s dive into how you can best leverage your volunteers for peer-to-peer fundraising so they can raise more on your behalf.
Volunteers are an amazing group when it comes to peer-to-peer fundraising. Here’s why:
In addition, if you’re struggling for ways to engage your volunteers during Covid, this is a wonderful option. Raising money to support your cause can be done on their own schedules, within their own networks, while still connecting to your organization.
Raising money can also offer volunteers a very tangible way to see the impact of their help. It is naturally socially distanced. And it’s a low barrier to entry: anyone can do it. Your volunteers are a natural group to tap for a peer-to-peer fundraiser.
You may be looking for ideas to get a peer-to-peer campaign started. Never fear; there are so many virtual fundraising options that it’s hard to narrow them down. Spend some time perusing these 23 top virtual fundraising ideas and pick your favorite.
As an organization, you’ve already recruited your volunteers, but now you’ll want to get them to take the next step to become advocates and fundraise for you.
The biggest thing you can do is to make it wildly easy for them to get involved. The software that you choose for running your peer-to-peer fundraiser should be easy to set up and easy to use. If your fundraisers can set up their page in a couple minutes or less, they’re much more likely to complete the process. When you’re selecting your software, keep in mind the ease of use.
Now you want to communicate with your volunteers. There are a couple strategies to use here:
North Texas Food Bank asked volunteers to host their own virtual food banks and raise money.
The result was amazing: volunteers were excited to have a way to give back.
But the best way to leverage these mentors to turn your volunteers into expert peer-to-peer fundraisers is to reach out personally and talk to them. Answer any questions the volunteers might have, share with them dos and don’ts, and help them get started. That mentor can also check in on volunteers throughout the process to help them along.
For example, Faith in Action included a ‘Your Role’ section in their communications to their peer-to-peer fundraisers to set expectations, and hosted webinar training to help them get set up and share fundraising best practices.
Once you’ve got your volunteers on your side, you want to give them as many resources as possible to help them become expert peer-to-peer fundraisers. Not everyone has experience in fundraising, but you do! Your job is to share that experience with them. Here are the steps to take to support your fundraisers:
It can also be great to give fundraisers a chance to connect with each other. A Facebook group for your fundraisers, or a Zoom meet up are great opportunities for your volunteers to talk to each other, share tips, and build competition.
With these four steps, you can leverage your volunteers for peer-to-peer fundraising and empower them to effectively raise more for your cause.
CauseVox is here to help you streamline and tidy up your online fundraising, making it more effective and less of a headache. No clunky software, endless contracts, or needless complexity.
With CauseVox, peer to peer fundraising is less complex for you and your fundraisers alike, helping you raise more with less effort.
Learn more about how CauseVox can help you raise 2x as much with peer to peer fundraising.
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