[GUEST POST] Key Trends in Peer-to-Peer Fundraising in 2024
Trends in peer-to-peer fundraising have been a bit… unpredictable lately. Post-pandemic participation swings, fears over economic instability, and a looming presidential election have made it especially difficult to divine the P2P tea leaves this year. So, we at Nuclavis decided to go straight to the source and ask our nonprofit colleagues how this year is shaping up so far.
Through an anonymous survey, we learned from peer-to-peer program managers that spring campaigns fared well. Seventy percent of survey respondents with spring campaigns reported year-over-year increases in revenue, and 60% reported increases in participation.
When we looked beyond the spring, however, things weren’t quite so rosy. Fifty-nine percent said fundraising was up year-over-year, and only 27% were seeing increases in participation. When asked what challenges were keeping them from reaching their goals, two main themes arose: 1) inconsistent staffing and 2) declines in revenue sourced from Facebook fundraisers. These findings were outlined in our recent 2024 Nuclavis P2P Fundraising Study.
Staffing Woes
When it comes to staffing, there’s no easy solution. Fifty-four percent of our survey respondents reported losing staff in the last year, due either to employee layoffs or voluntary departures. One hundred percent of programs that experienced a staffing change in the last year also reported challenges acquiring new participants, and 62% also reported challenges retaining past participants.
Organizations can’t effectively attract, build, and maintain relationships with peer-to-peer participants without dedicated, consistent staff members. But attrition happens, and layoffs happen. To ease the stress of these transitions and set new staff members up for success, we recommend three courses of action:
- Invest in a strong onboarding process and training materials for new staff. Equipping new staff members with data about their event’s past performance and an action plan for the year will help set them up for success.
- Look for opportunities to automate participant communications. Setting up emails and text messages to deploy automatically will ensure all participants are receiving consistent communication, and free up event managers to engage in 1:1 relationship-building in their communities.
- Use mobile technology like mobile check deposit and mobile check-in to take tedious work off of staff and provide participants with self-service options.
It’s not a silver bullet; but take comfort in knowing that you are not alone in feeling the pain of doing more with fewer staff members, or onboarding new staff in addition to your full-time job. Talk to your peers at other organizations and brainstorm and share ideas with your colleagues.
Shifts in Fundraising Channels
Both through our survey and through our work with our nonprofit clients, we are seeing a major shift in the way participants are fundraising in peer-to-peer campaigns. Just a few years ago, Facebook fundraisers were king, and bringing in donations that nobody expected. Now, Meta’s priorities have shifted elsewhere, and Facebook fundraisers are not as visible, not as popular, and not as lucrative as they once were.
With the decline of this key fundraising tool, you may be wondering what other participant fundraising channels are on the rise. Here are the top three peer-to-peer fundraising tools we’ve seen growing in 2024:
- Personal Fundraising QR Codes. This simple tool is driving serious revenue, and not just on mobile. Nuclavis clients that use Blackbaud’s TeamRaiser can embed the QR code from their app into their online Participant Center, and it’s paying off. Those who offer the QR code both in their mobile app and in their Participant Center are seeing 5% to 10% of online donations driven by QR Codes.
- Text Messaging. For Nuclavis clients, SMS is the second largest driver of donations through the mobile app – up to 11% of all online donations in some cases. Providing an easy way for fundraisers to share their fundraising page with the contact in their phone is a no-brainer, and our app makes it even easier with pre-written messages to boot.
- Social Media Link-Sharing. While sharing your fundraising page link on social media is nothing new to peer-to-peer, we’re seeing dollars shift in new ways. While Facebook fundraisers are showing declines, some organizations are seeing a rise in revenue from participants sharing their fundraising link instead. We’re also seeing increases in donations sourced from Instagram and LinkedIn – though, admittedly, it’s a much smaller bucket of revenue. And while it’s much harder to track dollars sourced from TikTok link-in-bios, we have a hunch it’s growing too.
Now that you know what’s driving revenue growth and what’s not, we recommend shaking up your coaching strategies leading into the fall.
First, if you don’t offer personal fundraising QR codes in your Participant Center or Fundraising Dashboard, work toward adding them (or set up time with us and we can talk you through it). Coach participants to print, post, or share their QR codes wherever they are and invite their community to donate.
Next, review the calls-to-action in your coaching emails and text messages. You don’t need to remove “start a Facebook fundraiser” completely, but add additional information about sharing your link on social media, and adding your link-in-bio on Instagram and TikTok or using a tool like Linktr.ee to update your link across multiple platforms.
And finally, let participants know they can use your mobile app to text out donation invites, receive donation notifications, and thank their donors right away via mobile messaging, social media, and more.
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By Noel Beebe, Director of Client Strategy, Nuclavis
Noel Beebe is Director of Client Strategy at Nuclavis. When she’s not helping organizations use technology to raise funds and change the world, Noel enjoys hiking, baking, and spending time with her family in Austin, TX.
