Kari Kiel is a guest contributor for Nonprofit Hub and the Marketing Director at DoJiggy, a company that’s been providing affordable, easy-to-use online fundraising software solutions for nonprofits, schools, churches and community organizations for more than a decade.
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Peer-to-Peer Fundraising (also known as Crowdfunding) is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people via the internet. Often people associate peer-to-peer fundraising with personal fundraising campaigns. It is true that this is a very effective way for an individual to raise money for an important cause. Yet, crowdfunding can also be a very effective fundraising tool for nonprofits.
Crowdfunding for nonprofits allows organizations to expand their reach by engaging current supporters to raise funds for your cause. Participants can include: employees, donors, volunteers, people affected directly by the cause, board members, sponsors and more. With crowdfunding, current supporters aren’t just volunteering their time or making personal donations, they are actually helping you raise money by reaching out to their personal networks and requesting donations on your behalf. Sometimes this personal appeal is a much easier “sell,” as the potential donor would prefer to give to a credible source (or friend) vs. an organization they don’t have a personal relationship with.
A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign can help your nonprofit accomplish a number of strategic goals such as: increased website traffic, greater awareness for your cause, attracting new potential supporters, and of course the potential to raise more money due to numerous advocates soliciting donations (we’ve seen many of our clients triple or quadruple the monies raised in the past through crowdfunding).
The infographic below illustrates just how much value a peer-to-peer fundraising event can have for a nonprofit organization. This information was pulled from numerous industry reports, as well as actual case studies of DoJiggy clients that host peer-to-peer fundraising events using crowdfunding software.
This infographic first appeared on DoJiggy.
