What would make people all over the country, even the world, dump buckets of ice on their heads and then post videos of their soggy selves online for everyone to see? The answer: A worthy cause, tons of peer pressure, and the momentum of a viral online phenomenon.
There is an incredible opportunity for nonprofit organizations who are able to tap into peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. The recent ALS Challenge proved the power of leveraging your own social networks to raise money. The organization reports the viral peer-to-peer campaign raised more than $115 million. In 2014, the largest 30 peer to peer campaigns raised more than $1.5 billion.
Awareness
It’s much easier to fundraise when people are aware of your important cause. Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can be an effective way for you to increase visibility for your nonprofit fundraising initiative. Events like a charity dance-off, a road race, or a biking event all draw attention in a community and provide an effective way for people to talk about (1) the fun they’re having at the event and (2) why they’re running/biking/dancing.
These events also empower people to promote your organization as they raise money through sponsors. Sharing their own Facebook messages to ask for donations from friends not only helps raise money, but drives awareness of the cause.
This screen grab from Facebook demonstrates why. If you see this post on your Facebook feed, you see one of your friends is participating in the Avon 39. If you don’t know what the event is, you can easily click the link to see it is a walk to raise money for breast cancer. Not only is the participant able to exceed her fundraising goal, she can drive awareness with her social networks.
Tap Into Millennials
The rise of the digital economy and the millennial population presents more opportunities for peer-to- peer fundraising. A recent American Pew Research study showed that three-quarters of millennials sleep with their cell phones. They garner information from social networks and are more likely than any other demographic to leverage their peers for recommendations. These numbers mean peer-to-peer fundraising can be an effective way to tap into millennials’ propensity to give back to their communities and leverage digital platforms.
Why a Mobile App Makes a Difference
Signing up with a free mobile app platform improves your organization’s ability to drive peer-to-peer fundraising. A mobile app drives awareness because people are able to support your cause with their phones, and can easily share their donations and encourage their friends to do the same. It all happens in less than two minutes with just a couple of taps of the screen. Also your participants are able to raise more money because supporters can donate easily with their phones.
If you don’t leverage mobile, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to connect and engage with new millennial donors. One of our uBack nonprofits has thousands of millennials engaged with its cause on a weekly basis. However, they’ve historically had difficulty turning that engagement into dollars. Why? One reason may be they aren’t meeting them where they are. The pledge card or even online donation process isn’t working with this age group. They are eager to try new things and learn and stay abreast of updates and news from your organization. They also want to share their involvement with friends. Mobile capabilities simplify a donor’s ability to achieve all three.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can be an effective way to increase awareness and funding for your cause. Leveraging a mobile app throughout the process will encourage more engagement, enabling your organization to capitalize not only on important peer connections, but that critical moment of impact that compels a person to give. Don’t let the moment slip away!
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