A quick opportunity before Christmas? A personal fundraiser.
Your Christmas campaign is most likely already running, or you have it ready to launch in the coming days. How about scanning it one last time and seizing the opportunity that personal fundraisers offer? At Christmas, people are used to giving gifts to their loved ones, but they are also more sensitive to the topic of helping others. So now is the time to bring in peer-to-peer fundraising, nudge your campaign a little further and offer your donors the chance to become the ambassador of an angelic Christmas personal fundraiser.
Christmas is one of many occasions where P2P can be integrated. But there are plenty of opportunities throughout the year. In this article, we will look together at how to make the most of them.
If this is the first time you are hearing about peer-to-peer fundraising, the term can be understood as “fundraising from person to person” or “direct fundraising between people”. It is a form of raising funds that builds on the personal involvement of individuals (so-called ambassadors) who decide to start their own campaign in support of a nonprofit organization or a specific project.
Ambassadors reach out to their friends, family, colleagues or wider community to support their campaign through donations. What is key here is the personal motivation and the relationship between the ambassador and their network – the donation is based on trust and a personal connection, not on direct contact with the organization.
Peer-to-peer on the rise
In the UK, peer-to-peer returned to pre-Covid figures in 2023 and organizations expect further growth. The 25 largest fundraising events of 2023 raised a combined £132 million, an increase of 16% on the previous year.
On Darujme.cz, we administered 577 corporate and personal fundraisers in 2023, worth a total of CZK 16 million. By the end of October 2024 it is already CZK 16.8 million in 485 campaigns. A significant share of this year's campaigns is down to the floods and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Personal fundraisers in practice: how to bring P2P into the life of your organization
P2P is a highly variable discipline. It can be approached as a mere add-on to your existing forms of fundraising, or as a complete campaign system ranging from recruiting new ambassadors to converting one-time donors from campaigns into recurring ones through telefundraising.
Here in the Czech Republic and around the world, personal fundraisers most often take these forms:
Main types of P2P events
Mass events (virtual or in person)
runs, walk-a-thons, swim-a-thons, ...Campaigns in crisis situations
floods, the war in Ukraine, ...Occasions and anniversaries
birthdays, weddings, in memoriam, races, significant days, crazy stunts, ...
Christmas, Easter, 17 November (Freedom and Democracy Day)
Tip: Follow the Domestici.cz project!
In June 2024, Martin Souček and Tomáš Navrátil lined up at the start of one of the toughest ultra-cycling races in the world and crossed the finish line after 8 days, 8 hours and 23 minutes. Their fundraiser in support of palliative care in the Czech Republic is still running, now even with matching from the Vlčeks, and new, beautiful and mostly cycling-themed personal fundraisers keep springing up under the banner of their campaign. Like Zorka's.
In concrete terms, in the minimalist version it simply means that with everything you organize as part of your fundraising, you think about how to bring P2P into it. Are you planning a classic online fundraising campaign right now? Try actively offering your more engaged segment of donors the chance to run a personal fundraiser for you.
You can find ideas for Christmas fundraising events for your ambassadors at the British organization Macmillan Cancer Support, for example.
Take a look at your website and your communication. Where could you offer donors the chance to start a campaign? What about during the year – when would be a good time for a mini-series in your e-mailing? Do you already have examples of successful campaigns for your organization that you could show to potential ambassadors?
Are you already organizing a sports event, coffee with donors, a benefit dinner, celebrating a world day relevant to your cause together with your supporters, or something similar?
Charity runs and other larger events that work in the Czech Republic and abroad
Hospic sv. Štěpána (St. Stephen's Hospice) in Litoměřice achieves great results with peer-to-peer campaigns. They organize an annual run, and a third of the proceeds of the whole event comes from personal fundraisers. You can see a beautifully built individual relationship between the organization and its ambassadors.
Also follow Nedoklubko's Běh pro miminka do dlaně (Run for babies that fit in your palm). It is a beautifully branded event offered to the event's corporate partners as an opportunity to organize an employee fundraiser.
For inspiration on how it is done on a large scale, look at the events organized by the already mentioned Macmillan Cancer Support. For the sociable types there is Coffee Morning, and the challenge we know in the Czech Republic as Suchej únor (Dry February) is celebrated in Britain as Sober October.
The number one peer-to-peer event, however, is Race for Life, a run in support of Cancer Research UK. Every runner commits to raising £50, and the entry fee goes purely towards organizing the races. The motivation to take part in this popular run is so strong that runners also take on the commitment to raise money for cancer research among the people around them.
Also very interesting is the Bucharest swim-a-thon, which gets the whole Romanian capital swimming and is organized by the Bucharest community foundation for the benefit of local organizations. A really interesting concept.
But you don't have to organize megalomaniac events right away – it is enough to think of peer-to-peer as another way of engaging donors and gaining new contacts throughout the year. For instance, you can pencil in a two-week mini-campaign to recruit new ambassadors for next year. Or, if you know your donors' birthdays, reach out to them a month in advance and ask whether they have considered this option.
Try a personal fundraiser for yourself
If you are in charge of fundraising at your organization, including personal fundraisers, try running a campaign yourself. Personal experience is invaluable when it comes to guiding ambassadors later on. You will be able to put yourself in their shoes and know exactly what they are dealing with and where they need support.
Tip: Try doing Suchej únor (Dry February) with your colleagues next year and, while you're at it, form an ambassador team that will fundraise for your organization. You won't feel alone, you will experience first-hand what it is like, and on top of that, teams have a higher chance of success than individuals!
What also matters then is looking after your ambassadors – and of course their donors too – but more on that next time. We will definitely keep covering personal fundraisers.
Interesting resources:
https://www.onecause.com/resources/categories/peer-to-peer/https://wearemassive.co.uk
