Peer-to-peer fundraising is an incredible way to include and engage your supporters while raising proceeds for your nonprofit’s mission at the same time. Peer-to-peer fundraising empowers members of your community to create and manage their very own apparel fundraisers that raise money on behalf of your nonprofit. This is the perfect opportunity for the go-getters in your community to pitch in and help out in a highly productive and successful way.
To ensure that all of your supporters are aware of this fantastic opportunity and feel confident about getting started with their own peer-to-peer apparel fundraisers, we’ve put together a list of tips and tricks to help you set them up for success.
Clarify Your Goals
Reflect on why your nonprofit wants to host a peer-to-peer fundraiser in the first place. What are you fundraising for? Who will benefit from this fundraiser? What is your overall goal? How can you get your community invested and involved?
As you talk these ideas over with your team, you may find it beneficial to write your answers down. If you have a physical fundraising mission stated, it’s easier to hold your team accountable to your agreed-on goal.
Once you’ve clarified your mission and your team has a plan in place, you can finalize your organization’s fundraising page on Bonfire and prepare to share your fundraiser with your community. Make sure the information you send out to your supporters is clear, precise, and easily understood. Your hope is to inspire them to get involved with your peer-to-peer fundraiser – and hopefully, they will help spread the word and get even more people involved!
Helpful tip:
Make the event as appealing as possible so your supporters feel like they will miss out on something big if they don’t help out! Peer-to-peer fundraising can truly be a blast for everyone involved.
Make Sure Your Supporters Know About Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
Make sure your supporters can easily find and access your main fundraising page. For example, link to your fundraising page in all your social bios, and promote it in any email or newsletter you send out to supporters. We also recommend linking to your fundraiser page from your organization’s website. For the most visibility, try adding the link to your homepage and in the main navigation.
Helpful tip:
Does your organization use social media? Create posts about your upcoming fundraiser and include details in the comments section. Create Instagram Reels and Stories that show the fun side of fundraising. Start posting and sharing on social media early so that people can maintain excitement as the countdown to the peer-to-peer fundraising continues.
Encourage Your Supporters to Be Team Captains
For supporters who want to get involved and create their own apparel fundraisers on behalf of your organization, they can sign up on your fundraising page by clicking “Get Started”. Once they do so, they become a “Team Captain”. To ensure each Team Captain has all the information they need to launch a successful fundraiser, create a starter kit/guide and send it to them when they sign up.
If you’d like Team Captains to use a specific design for their fundraising apparel, make sure they have access to those design assets. Designers at Bonfire can help your organization create a customizable design template for Team Captains to use. Or, if you’d like them to have the freedom to create their own designs from scratch, make sure they know that is an option as well. Provide them with any guidelines, rules, or creative suggestions you may have before they launch their campaigns.
Helpful tip:
Team Captains can even add a little friendly competition to the fundraiser if they would like. Which team can sell the most shirts and raise the most proceeds? As long as it’s all in good fun, a little competition can be a great tool for motivation. All proceeds raised by each Team Captain go directly to your organization – so really, everyone wins!
Pick a Design Option For Your Fundraising Campaigns
When it comes to the design of the apparel, YOU, as the organization, get to determine what that process looks like for your supporters. There are three options to choose from :
- Create an editable template – Your organization can create a design template that Team Captains can use when putting together their fundraising campaigns. This option allows you to lock certain elements for brand consistency. You can decide what artwork they use, what products they can choose from, and even set the prices for those products. Creating a template like this ensures that your overall aesthetic and mission for your fundraiser are present throughout every supporter-led fundraising campaign.
While you get to decide what elements your supporters can’t change about the design, you also get to decide what elements they can change. This is important because you want your supporters to be able to customize their design and share their personal ties to the fundraiser. For example, you can allow certain text to be editable – such as a spot to add their team name or the name of a family member they are fundraising on behalf of. As an organization, decide what parts of the template you’d like to set in stone and which parts you’d like to give your supporters the ability to customize.
- Have supporters create their own design – If you want to give your supporters full creative freedom, you can allow them to create their own designs from scratch. If you choose to go this route, your supporters will be able to showcase their individual styles, as well as their individual reasons for supporting your campaign.
- Request a custom design – If you’d like help with your design, our team at Bonfire is here for you! You can fill out our Design Intake form, where we will gather your ideas, make note of your must-haves, and collect your reference images. You will then get a chance to review design concepts created by our talented Custom Design Team. Once you’ve selected your final design, you will work alongside your Bonfire rep to launch.
Designate a “Fundraising Coach” Within Your Organization
Team Captains and folks who participate in your peer-to-peer fundraiser will most likely have a few questions along the way. It’s important to designate one specific person or team to answer questions, offer support, and even encourage these folks when they can.
That way, the rest of your team can turn their attention elsewhere while your “Fundraising Coach” or team handles the incoming questions from supporters. Make sure your community knows who their point of contact is within your organization so they have a direct line to help when they need it.
Helpful tip:
If any of your Team Captains need assistance with their campaigns that go beyond the knowledge or experience of your “Fundraising Coach”, always remember the Bonfire team is here to help. Encourage your campaign organizers to email us directly at p2p@bonfire.com.
Promote Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
Promoting goes beyond just telling your community about your fundraiser. You want to make sure you use eye-catching visuals and create fun and playful Instagram and Facebook posts to pique the interest of your audience. Like we’ve said before, it’s important to start promoting early so that people can mark their calendars and prepare ahead of time. You could even “hint” to an upcoming event at first without actually telling your community what it is. That’s a surefire way to get them excited about what’s to come.
Encourage Team Captains to Link to Their Fundraisers in Their Social Bios
Once your Team Captains have launched their campaigns, encourage them to spread the word about their fundraisers by including a clickable URL in their social bios. Using simple links that prioritize the user experience will make it easy for their supporters to directly access their fundraising campaign.
Bonfire has partnered with Linktree on an integration that will allow supporters to shop their campaign without ever leaving their profile! This integration is a free and easy way to create a seamless buying experience across all platforms – Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc.
Once each Team Captain has enabled the Linktree integration, they can add their unique Linktree URL to all of their bios and tell their community to visit the “link in bio” to check out and support their fundraising campaign!
Learn more:
19 Promotion Ideas for Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
How to manage your Linktree integration
Share Fundraising Information Regularly
Remember to continue sharing the opportunity for your supporters to launch a t-shirt fundraiser leading up to your event or awareness month – you want to make sure your supporters don’t miss out on this opportunity to amplify your cause.
Helpful tip:
Check-in with your Team Captains and celebrate those who have gotten started and reached their goals; engage with their campaign posts and thank them for their support!
By following these helpful tips, your organization’s peer-to-peer fundraiser will run smoothly, accomplish your goals, and build a stronger relationship between you and your supporters. What are you waiting for? Let’s get you started today!
Written by: Hayden Ireland / Content Specialist
Illustrated by: Madison Summers / Lead Marketing Designer
