The community-centric nature of peer-to-peer fundraising can unlock new potential with today's donors, but it'll take some creativity. If you're hitting a wall trying to think of new ideas to get fundraisers involved and expand your impact, this list of creative ideas is here to help.
Explore over peer-to-peer fundraising ideas that will inspire you to kickstart your campaigns with a fresh approach.
Jump ahead to what catches your eye:
What is peer-to-peer fundraising?
Peer-to-peer fundraising allows individual supporters to raise money for a cause. Advocates can create a fundraising page with a personal touch and use it to recruit donations and supporters to reach their goals.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are a great way to reach donors a nonprofit may not have otherwise, with the help of current supporters. People enjoy giving back to friends, colleagues, and family members and might be more willing to donate if they ask someone they know.
Why nonprofits leverage peer-to-peer fundraising
Charitable giving is becoming more community-oriented as donors seek new ways to come together to create impact. Peer-to-peer models aren't new, but refreshed approaches are changing the game and leading to greater fundraising potential.
Nonprofits are looking to fundraisers as an effective channel of donor acquisition that costs little to no money. Before we jump into ideas to refresh your strategy, let's start with the value of peer-to-peer as a modern giving experience.
- Expanded donor reach: Peer-to-peer fundraising plays into the personalized and organic outreach people respond well to. Supporters can learn about your cause through a trusted source, donate easily, and create their own fundraiser to continue the domino effect.
- Accessible action: Supporters of any financial standing can create a fundraiser and take action as economic uncertainty fluctuates. Asking for help from the community and sharing their personal ties to the mission is a great way to make a big impact without funding alone.
- Cost-effective promotion: The cost of a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign and enabling supporters to help spread the word is far less than many other marketing activities. Nonprofits can save money and time while getting their name in front of people excited to get involved.
- Social giving: Social media and the age of the influencer align perfectly with peer-to-peer giving. Fundraisers can be easily shared through links on stories and call on followers to come together and make a difference.
- Credibility: Donation appeals from individuals who attach their names to your cause create a sense of trust for your organization. The more people, groups, and corporations participating in your campaign, the more credibility you'll earn to entice future giving.
Peer-to-peer fundraising thrives on creativity to stand out and resonate well with today’s donors. If you’re ready to see what peer-to-peer fundraising can do for your nonprofit, dive into the 24 ideas we’ve gathered below and save this link whenever you need inspiration.
Virtual peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
Make the most of your peer-to-peer potential by expanding opportunities with virtual campaigns. This way, anyone can participate and call on their networks worldwide to join in the impact.
Virtual community run
Running is a universally understood and appreciated activity by many people worldwide. Launch a running event that helps participants unite around a common distance from anywhere.
Instead of charging participants a ticket to enter the community run, ask them to raise a certain amount. Offer a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to help them create their individual fundraiser page.
From there, each participant can share a donation form to gather donations from those who want to cheer them on. The more participants you gain, the more eyes you can get on your cause.
Virtual escape room
An escape room can be a great mix of fun, suspense, and challenge that people have come to love. Get creative by bringing the experience online through puzzles and riddles to unlock and eventually "escape."
Have people raise money within their communities through a personalized fundraiser page. You can encourage a minimum fundraising goal equivalent to the cost of an event ticket.
As your campaign gets shared, you'll gain donations, awareness, and more participants. Each new participant can continue the chain reaction with their fundraising pages.
Virtual world tour
Play on your supporters' love for travel and new experiences with a virtual world tour. Think of this creative idea as a way to allow virtual participants to fundraise a certain amount to gain entry and "visit" countries.
You can use breakout rooms on video platforms like Zoom to host immersive experiences representing various countries.
A host or group of hosts can then guide visitors through things like:
- A lesson in common words from the local dialect
- A walk-through to recreate the country's best-known dishes
- A lesson on the culture and traditions of the country
- A fashion show to display traditional clothing or artifacts that represent the country
You can even create a virtual passport to "stamp" as people make their way through each location and consider making it an event series to cover more countries.
Awareness campaigns
Awareness campaigns align well with virtual peer-to-peer fundraising by encouraging social sharing and rallying global communities to create change. Fundraising pages can be easily shared on social media to help individuals spread the word about a challenge and recruit support.
This is a great time to showcase statistics demonstrating the need and demand for your nonprofit's work. From there, you can create a common language for people to use when creating a fundraising page.
You can recruit loyal supporters passionate about your cause to add their personal ties to a page that they can widely distribute. For awareness campaigns, it can be helpful to set targets such as the number of posts shared, likes, comments, and reposts that encourage fundraisers to get creative about getting in front of their networks.
Movie night
Invite participants in different locations to break down geographical barriers and enjoy a movie together. A movie night allows you to stream a popular hit or a relevant film to your cause in exchange for setting up a fundraising page.
It'll help to share simple steps to set up a fundraiser for your cause and tips for sharing it. You might consider adding a timeframe to collect the first few donations and empowering participants to keep their pages live as long as they'd like.
Supporters can enjoy the comfort of their homes while feeling the sense of community the campaign offers. At the same time, you're reaching new people with a cool first impression with whom to establish relationships for future campaigns.
DIY peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
A DIY peer-to-peer fundraising campaign puts the power in the hands of your supporters. Instead of tying individual donation pages to an established campaign theme or project, supporters can create their own fundraisers for anything they'd like.
Birthday campaigns
A birthday campaign is a great way to help supporters call on their communities for donations instead of gifts. The celebrations surrounding birthdays can encourage more people to show generosity.
Your supporters can design their birthday campaign with a personal message and imagery that resonates with their networks. The campaign's sporadic nature can help you gain donations at all points of the year to contribute to your annual fundraising strategy.
Memorial campaigns
A memorial campaign honors someone or an animal who has passed. Supporters can create thoughtful fundraising pages that showcase the life they remember without waiting for a specific campaign to launch.
Fundraisers can collect tribute donations on behalf of family, friends, organizations, and any other groups. These honorary fundraisers may be appealing if the individual being honored had a passion for the cause or benefited from its work. (ex. A memorial fundraiser for the American Cancer Society to celebrate the life of a cancer patient)
Celebration campaigns
Celebrations such as graduation, wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, or engagement make great DIY peer-to-peer fundraisers. A fundraising page can be linked to your supporters' gift registry to ask loved ones for contributions.
Your nonprofit can advertise this option to supporters with customized donation forms that match the event's theme. This would be great for people who want to showcase philanthropy while celebrating important life moments.
Peer-to-peer challenge fundraising ideas
A challenge can give your peer-to-peer campaign a new twist. While participants compete against one another, they’re doing so while knowing the efforts are coming together for a community impact like no other.
Cooking or baking competitions
There's nothing like competition to get people engaged and ready to take action. Host a culinary or baking competition where participants can invite their community to taste test and vote for their favorites.
Have each contestant create a fundraising page where people can donate to "vote" for their favorite recipes. The page with the most donations is your winner, and you'll raise a lot of money for a good cause.
Workplace giving challenges
More employees seek charitable activity through work, and workplace giving opens your nonprofit to an established community. Imagine giving organizations a peer-to-peer fundraising challenge to have teams compete to raise the most.
Each department can team up to create a fundraising page and call on their friends and family members to help them raise money. As employees check out the leaderboard in real time, their competitive nature might encourage them to push harder and secure donations.
Ultimately, the company made an awesome impact on a charitable cause and employee engagement. As an additional benefit, employees and their networks became aware of your cause and potentially joined in as donors in the future.
Social media challenges
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a fundraiser that no one will forget, even if it was a decade ago. The organization paired the power of social media with a viral challenge that people couldn't help but take part in.
With more access to platforms like TikTok to reach people in seconds, try out a challenge with your next peer-to-peer campaign. Ask fundraisers to complete a specific action and share it with their followers, along with a call to action to donate.
Here are a few challenge ideas that might just go viral:
- Complete a 30-second dance to a trendy song
- Ask a stranger a question to see their response
- Share something no one knows about you
- Complete a fitness challenge (ex., 10 pushups in 30 seconds)
Don't forget to include a hashtag and ask everyone to tag your organization so you can reshare the challenge and build awareness at the same time.
Polar plunge
On the theme of icy challenges, the polar plunge concept is another inspiring idea for your peer-to-peer campaign. Ask fundraisers to raise a specific amount of money from their friends and family members to watch them plunge into an icy body of water.
Nothing says taking one for the team, like doing something other people might not to show your commitment to an important cause. You can use any similar challenge to raise money as you get creative about what's around you and how to maintain safety and fun.
Unique peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
Let's wrap up with a few ideas we loved if you want to stand out. These campaign concepts may spark an approach no one has thought of before to grab donor attention quickly.
Cookbook creation
The idea of creating a family cookbook or building a collection of sentimental recipes can get anyone feeling excited to get involved. Imagine taking this concept to your fundraisers with a community cookbook they can help create and receive the finished product as a prize for hitting their goals.
You can ask each new fundraiser to share a recipe that means a lot to them, with a story about why. From there, you can build a digital or physical copy of the cookbook authored by your community.
Incentivize your supporters to meet their personal fundraising goals with the promise of a free copy. You can also encourage more participation as people hook onto the idea of adding their mark on the cookbook so many will benefit from reading.
Storytelling campaigns
Most of your loyal supporters have a story that is entirely unique to them. Embrace this by introducing a storytelling peer-to-peer campaign asking fundraisers to document their "why" and share it with the world.
Not only will your campaign reach new potential donors and fundraisers, but you'll also have a beautiful collection of reasons people love to support you. You can ask supporters to use their "why" stories in future marketing materials and campaign promotions.
Symbolic gestures
Some peer-to-peer campaigns can get people involved through a symbolic gesture or activity. For example, you might ask participants to wear a color representing your cause for a week to build additional awareness about what they're fundraising for.
Other gestures might include things like:
- Starting a kindness chain by giving out a compliment each day of the campaign
- Attending a yoga or fitness class for a certain amount of days in a given week or month
- Lighting a candle each night in honor of the cause
- Giving something up like sugar or social media for a week
- Wearing a cause awareness ribbon
Endurance peer-to-peer ideas
Endurance events will excite any athletes or growth-minded supporters to do what they love for a good cause. Tie your peer-to-peer fundraiser to certain activities someone can complete in exchange for donations from their community.
Walks
We'll start with the most accessible endurance fundraiser. Walks can unite participants of all ages and physical abilities to feel included and involved.
Think about hosting a walk through an interesting area, a scenic roadway, or a community center that aligns with your cause. You can set a collective goal to achieve through your walk event and ask that participants collect donation pledges per mile they complete.
For example, participants can ask for $20 per completed mile so their community can help motivate them to go further. The longer they walk, the more they can raise for your cause.
Runs
Taking it up a notch, runs and races such as 5Ks, marathons, and half marathons are a popular way to unite people. You can charge a minimum fundraising target for each participant to enter the race, encouraging them to get the word out.
You can host a traditional race or add an element of lighthearted enjoyment depending on your runners' experience.
A few more creative run ideas include:
- A color run where people watch the race and throw colored powders onto the runners wearing white at various milestones for a rainbow of fun
- A mud run where runners have to navigate a messy course and embrace the added challenge
- A themed run that asks runners to dress up as they make their way through your course
Biking and cycling
Cycling through a community is a great way to take in the views and evoke memories of cruising freely with friends. You can also organize a cycling event to add a layer of engagement to your peer-to-peer campaigns.
Cycling fundraisers can be structured with pledges per mile or a registration goal to enter. The bonus of taking the family out or reuniting on a nice day with some friends can make this idea one your donors respond well to.
A-thon peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
An "a-thon" peer-to-peer fundraiser asks people to do something they already enjoy doing for a certain period of time in exchange for donations. Anything can be an "a-thon" event, but below, you'll see some common ideas people tend to gravitate toward.
Dance a thons
A dance-a-thon is one you can't avoid having fun with. Whether you're a school organizing students around a fundraiser or want to bring together participants of all ages for a night of letting loose, this is a great idea.
Ask your supporters to set up a fundraising page and gather donations in exchange for their commitment to keep dancing for a certain amount of time. Friends and family can cheer their peers on while contributing to the cause.
Work-a-thon
A dance-a-thon is one you can't avoid having fun with. Whether you're a school organizing students around a fundraiser or want to bring together participants of all ages for a night of letting loose, this is a great idea.
Ask your supporters to set up a fundraising page and gather donations in exchange for their commitment to keep dancing for a certain amount of time. Friends and family can cheer their peers on while contributing to the cause.
Timely peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
When people have a certain time period during which donations are collected, or supporters feel the importance of fundraising around a goal date, you may see more traction. The following ideas pair time-based giving with peer-to-peer fundraising for an ideal combination.
Day of giving
A day of giving is a simple fundraising idea we love because it adds a layer of urgency. By inviting people to start and share a fundraising page with their networks within a 24-hour period, you can quickly see a rise in donation volume.
Your day of giving can symbolize your nonprofit's anniversary, a significant date for your cause (think Mental Health Awareness Day), or a date you establish and continue to fundraise for year after year.
Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is a worldwide movement that calls on donors to give back. Most nonprofits jump on this opportunity to present their cause to new and existing donors when generosity is already higher.
In 2023, Americans donated $3.1 billion on Giving Tuesday, and peer-to-peer campaigns played a role. Launching your campaign in the November timeframe will help you accelerate your impact at a time when supporters are looking for causes to get involved with.
Year-end
Giving Tuesday kicks off the year-end giving season when people look for ways to show generosity around the holiday season and complete their resolutions before the new year. Your peer-to-peer campaign can also run during this time to capture that heightened giving potential.
New Year's Eve has been reported as the most lucrative day of the year for charities to solicit online donations. If you pair that with the help of your supporters to fundraise on your behalf, you can see even greater totals to close out the year.
Current event response
Aside from the planned launch of a timely peer-to-peer campaign, your nonprofit can also lean on moments of heightened need. Fundraisers are a wonderful way to capture donations quickly in response to current events, emergencies, and unexpected news updates.
For example, a major hurricane or weather event might prompt you to launch a timely peer-to-peer campaign that asks your community to help you meet the supply-demand.
Major events are also topics that social media covers broadly, and your campaign can reach those who want to help but don’t know how.
Impressive results from creative peer-to-peer fundraising
Noelle’s Gift to Children raised $325,208 through engaging ticketed events and peer-to-peer campaigns. With a single fundraising platform to host it all and manage donors efficiently for free with Zeffy, the organization has also saved $16,260 in transaction fees.
Noelle’s Gift to Children hosts their yearly 5k run, gala, and car raffle to give donors opportunities to get involved in creative ways. The interactive components appeal to supporters and help the organization gain attention from even more donors and the ability to support children’s lives.
How to get started with peer-to-peer fundraising
When you're ready to turn these ideas into an impact for your nonprofit, there are a few quick steps to help you prepare for success. The most important place to start is with a peer-to-peer fundraising solution you can count on to maximize your potential.
Features to look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising solution:
- All payment types accepted
- Customized fundraising pages
- Simple donation forms
- Leaderboards and gift messages
- An easy process to input offline donations
- Accessible reporting on performance metrics
- No transaction fees
Steps to get you started and create a peer-to-peer campaign:
- Create your peer-to-peer campaign with your branding, name, and theme
- Include information about why you're launching the campaign, details to get involved, and storytelling that helps people want to join
- Add in any paid registration fees if applicable, or fundraising goals you'd like people to strive for that ladder up to your greater campaign goal
- Customize options like one-time or monthly donations, automatic receipts, and questions that help you gather important information from each donor
FAQs:Peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
