by Mark Becker, Founding Partner, Cathexis Partners
These days, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and events take many forms: virtual runs/walks/rides, tribute/memorial campaigns, virtual drives. The list goes on.
But no matter what types of peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns or events you’re running, they all require one key thing to be successful: participants. So how do you get more supporters to sign up as fundraisers?
Here are seven steps to help you recruit more participants for your next peer-to-peer campaign or event:
To get your supporters excited about joining your event and helping you raise funds, you need a compelling story that’s easy to share with friends and family. Make sure your messaging addresses these questions:
Here’s a look at how Summit Assistance Dogs communicated their messaging on their peer-to-peer fundraising campaign site:
A surefire way to lose people’s interest in signing up to help raise funds is to make it hard for them to find or understand information. Evaluate your website and emails, and make sure the messaging for your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is:
Here’s an example of how one peer-to-peer fundraiser shared Summit Assistance Dog’s story with their networks on their page:
Take time to gather, analyze, and use data from your past peer-to-peer campaigns or events to uncover trends and find new opportunities to improve your recruiting efforts. For example:
Consider doing a soft launch of your campaign in which you have staff members, board members, and your most involved constituents register to begin fundraising ahead of the official launch.
Then, when other constituents, frequent site visitors, or others come across the campaign, they’ll see that it already has interest.
A soft launch can also help to identify any bugs or confusion with registration or donation processes before your campaign really kicks off.
Create a calendar for recruitment emails to begin signing up participants for your peer-to-peer fundraising event or campaign. For each email, plan to send targeted emails with slightly different messages to past participants and those on your list who have not participated in the past.
Here is a sample of what your recruitment email calendar might look like for a peer-to-peer fundraising event:
Your list of targeted emails will vary based on your campaign or event. Here are some messages to consider sending:
Be sure to exclude people who have already registered from future recruitment emails.
Sample “Registration Now Open” email
These are just some ideas for recruitment emails. The key is to segment your audiences and tailor a series of messages to them to ensure they make the most impact.
Work toward automating your email communications so you have more time to focus on optimizing other aspects of your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Just imagine the time savings if you can create a communications calendar and schedule recruitment (and other) emails to send automatically.
Just remember that even if your communications are automated, you should be prepared to adjust your campaign messaging as needed, based on recruitment and fundraising trends identified through reports and dashboards in your peer-to-peer fundraising software platform.
Learn more about crafting your peer-to-peer communications plan with this free webinar.
Think about other communications channels that reach beyond your constituent list: social media, your website, signs at your organization’s events, public service announcements, local morning TV news shows — all of these channels can be used to announce your campaign and recruit participants.
Also, look at other groups who might be interested in supporting your campaign:
If you need more ideas or an extra set of hands for your peer-to-peer fundraising events or campaigns, contact Cathexis Partner to learn more about how the team can help.
Looking for a way to easily run your peer-to-peer campaign online? CauseVox is the easiest way to create your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign for your nonprofit. Learn more about the CauseVox peer-to-peer fundraising platform.
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