Do This, Not That: P2P Fundraising Strategies

Our advice this spring: Don’t get lost in the weeds.

Here are some do’s and don'ts from our Customer Success team to help you streamline your spring fundraising campaigns on Pledge It, so you can stay focused and on track with your goals.

✅ Do: Have a clear, concise call to action.

❌ Don’t: Overcommunicate and overcomplicate.

Why should someone sign up for your campaign? What do they need to know to get started? Presenting your call to action succinctly and effectively is really important, but we often see nonprofits struggle to prioritize this core message and end up overloading their Campaign Story with nitty gritty details that can be intimidating for your audience to sort through. It’s not that the details don’t matter, rather it's how and when you present them.

Our tips:

• Be strategic with what you include in your Campaign Story and the sub-header on your campaign—this is some of your most valuable real estate! It should inform and excite, but not overwhelm.
• Communicate in 3’s! When you keep your instructions or takeaways to three points or less, it’s more likely for your audience to retain what you shared.
• Use sub-pages to organize your campaign details and host additional information about your organization so you’re not info-dumping an overwhelming amount of detail on your homepage.

✅ Do: Simplify your registration options.

❌ Don’t: Go overboard with too many questions or too many choices.

When launching your campaign, are you finding that you're responding to lots of questions and clarifications about your registration options? When registration isn't streamlined, it can make more work for you and discourage participation. A thoughtfully designed registration procedure can still be inclusive and adaptable to a variety of participant needs without being cluttered.

Our tips:

• Take a look at your past registration data. Are there registration options that can be phased out or merged into a single ticket?
• Custom questions can be a valuable tool for helping you organize your event and registration options, but consider saving non-essential questions for your post-event survey.
• Are you offering multiple price points for registrations with or without merchandise included? Don't forget that you've got the power of add-ons to allow folks to customize their registration if they want that extra swag!

✅ Do: Maintain regular communication with your fundraisers, even if it’s quick or informal!

❌ Don’t: Feel like your communication plan needs to be perfect.

Recruitment takes a lot of work, but don’t skimp on your contact with fundraisers after they’ve committed, especially if your campaign has a long lead time. Your campaign’s Messages center is the perfect place to maintain this quick communication en masse. While the exact cadence may vary depending on your campaign and timeline, the goal is to avoid long periods of no communication during your active fundraising window.

Our tips:

• Keep it short, sweet, and skimmable. Share some brief encouragement and leave folks with a clear action item for the week.
• Use these quick messages to build community—give kudos to teams that you’ve seen are crushing their goals, welcome new teams that have just joined, or highlight milestones
• It doesn’t always have to be about fundraising! Share an educational resource, news article about your cause, or something to make folks feel proud of what they’ve signed up for!

✅ Do: Have a plan for how you’ll follow up with participants after the campaign.

❌ Don’t: Send a blanket “thank you” without any personal touch.

What happens after your campaign can be just as important as all the dollars you just raised! Following up personally with your fundraisers to show your appreciation of their time, effort, and leadership is key to building relationships that will support your organization well beyond your peer-to-peer campaign. When you take the time to follow up, you also open the door for valuable feedback that can help make your campaign stronger in years to come.

Our tips:

• If you have the capacity, an individual phone call or text message to your team captains and top fundraisers goes a long to make them feel seen in your campaign
• A post-event survey shared with all participants is helpful, but it’s even better when paired with some personal outreach to let folks know how much you value their perspective
• Following up immediately after the event is great, but don’t forget to share updates about the impact of your funds raised throughout the year! Send a personal email to your top fundraisers or team captains when you’ve got news to share—show them you remember and recognize their impact!

Need some help with your fundraiser stewardship plan? We’ve got some handy templates to get you started.

These are some of P2P fundraising’s best practices for a reason, but we also understand how easy it is to lose sight of the basics when you’re in the thick of it. Use this list as inspiration when it comes to prioritizing your time and investing in the strategies that will bring you results this spring and beyond. And if you need help, our team is here to make sure you don't get caught in those weeds!