Peer-to-peer fundraising: the complete guide for nonprofits

What Is peer-to-peer fundraising?

If your nonprofit is searching for a fundraising model that expands reach without expanding your team, peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) is almost certainly on your radar — and for good reason. This is not a niche tactic. It is now one of the most widely adopted and fastest-growing revenue strategies in the nonprofit sector.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a model in which individual supporters — volunteers, donors, event participants, or brand advocates — create their own personal fundraising pages to solicit donations from friends, family, and colleagues on behalf of your organization. Unlike a single campaign page your nonprofit manages centrally, P2P distributes the fundraising effort across dozens or hundreds of individual ambassadors, each tapping into their own trust networks.

Also known as social fundraising or P2P fundraising, it works because of a fundamental truth about human giving: people donate when someone they know and trust makes the ask. A stranger's donation button is easy to scroll past. A fundraising page launched by your colleague, sibling, or neighbor is far harder to ignore.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can help retain up to 50% of donors — and 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
— Network for Good, Multiple nonprofit research sources

The P2P donation mechanics are simple: your nonprofit sets up a central campaign, recruits supporters to participate, provides them with fundraising tools and messaging templates, and they go to work. Each supporter's personal page links back to your campaign, so every gift rolls up into your overall total. The best peer-to-peer fundraising platform handles the technical infrastructure — page creation, payment processing, progress tracking, and automated supporter communications — so your team can focus on relationship-building, not administration.

Why it works: the data behind P2P fundraising

The growth trajectory of peer-to-peer fundraising is striking. From a pandemic-era collapse in 2020 — when in-person events evaporated overnight — the sector has recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic levels for four consecutive years.

Peer-to-peer fundraising statistics at a glance

Revenue growth: Top 30 U.S. P2P programs (2020–2025)

Campaign volume vs. per-participant productivity (2021–2025)

One number that should be in every nonprofit strategist's toolkit: 80% of first-time donors to an organization give through a P2P campaign. This makes peer-to-peer fundraising arguably the most powerful donor acquisition tool available — not just a revenue mechanism, but a pipeline-builder for your entire development program.

The digital-first angle is also significant. In 2021, 44 organizations raised over $154 million from digital-first P2P activities — a 30% jump from the prior year, versus just 3.5% growth for in-person campaigns over the same period. Deploying a true digital fundraising platform that optimizes the online supporter experience has become a competitive necessity, not a nice-to-have.

3 types of peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns

Not every P2P campaign looks the same. Understanding the three primary formats helps you match the strategy to your organization's capacity, audience, and goals.

1. Rolling (evergreen) campaigns

Open-ended campaigns with no deadline. Supporters can create a personal fundraising page at any time of year. Ideal for organizations that want an always-on revenue stream — like birthday fundraisers or memorial campaigns. Requires minimal ongoing management once configured. Example: Alex's Lemonade Stand, which allows anyone to host their own lemonade stand fundraiser at any time.

2. Time-based event campaigns

Tied to a specific event — a walkathon, cycling challenge, endurance race, or gala. Participants fundraise in the lead-up to the event, creating deadline-driven urgency. This is the most common format among top-30 programs. Walks, runs, and rides remain the backbone of the sector, anchored by programs like the American Heart Association's Heart Walk ($121M in 2025) and the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (931,383 participants in 2025).

3. Giving Days

Condensed 24-hour sprints that drive urgency and social energy. Can leverage established occasions like GivingTuesday or a date meaningful to your cause. Leaderboards and matching gift opportunities amplify participation rates and social sharing during these compressed campaigns.

How to run a successful P2P campaign — 5 steps

Step 1: Set smart goals before you launch

Define a specific dollar target, number of fundraisers to recruit, and an average per-fundraiser goal. Organizations that establish clear benchmarks — like "recruit 50 fundraisers, each raising $300" — consistently outperform those with vague ambitions. Your platform's analytics will be meaningless without a baseline to measure against.

Step 2: Recruit the right fundraisers — not just the most

The 2025 data is unambiguous: campaign volume rose 18% but dollars raised per participant fell 20% (Raisely Benchmarks, 2025). More fundraisers does not automatically mean more revenue. Prioritize your most passionate and well-networked supporters — major donors, long-term volunteers, board members, and program alumni — over broad, untargeted recruitment.

Step 3: Equip fundraisers with done-for-you assets

Provide email templates, social media captions, personal story frameworks, and a short FAQ they can share with their networks. Fundraisers who receive strong onboarding materials complete their first ask faster and raise more. Reduce the activation friction at every step.

Step 4: Keep momentum with mid-campaign engagement

The biggest drop-off in P2P campaigns occurs in the middle weeks. Automated milestone emails, leaderboard updates, and mid-campaign challenges (like a "first to $500" prize) sustain energy. Research shows fundraisers who receive mid-campaign check-ins are significantly more likely to reach their personal goals.

Step 5: Build a donor conversion strategy

P2P is exceptional at donor acquisition — 80% of first-time givers arrive via supporter pages — but retention lags. Build a 90-day stewardship sequence specifically for first-time P2P donors, distinct from your regular new-donor welcome series, emphasizing how their gift was used and inviting them into a recurring giving relationship.

What the best programs do differently

Most organizations understand the mechanics of peer-to-peer fundraising. The gap between average and exceptional lies in a few specific practices that rarely appear in generic how-to guides.

They treat P2P as infrastructure, not an event

The organizations posting the strongest long-term results — like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which operates three separate Top 30 programs — treat peer-to-peer fundraising as a permanent organizational capability, not an annual event they bolt on. That means dedicated staff, dedicated technology, and a year-round cadence of supporter cultivation between campaigns.

They segment by generational fundraising willingness

Not all supporters are equally inclined to fundraise on your behalf. Data shows that over 50% of Gen Z and Gen X supporters are willing to fundraise for an organization they care about, compared to just 27% of the Silent Generation. Forward-thinking development teams tailor their P2P recruitment messaging and channel mix accordingly — using digital-first outreach for younger cohorts and more personal asks for older, high-net-worth supporters.

They diversify campaign formats

The organizations absorbing participation shifts most gracefully are those running multiple P2P formats simultaneously — walks, DIY campaigns, livestreams, and hybrid events. Canada's Top 30 programs, which grew 7.6% in 2025 (outpacing the U.S.), demonstrated that diversification of event types correlates with more durable revenue. When one format underperforms, others compensate.

They integrate Facebook fundraisers strategically

The data on this is consistent and significant: fundraising pages linked to Facebook fundraisers raise 83% more than those without social integration. Yet many nonprofits still treat social media as a broadcast channel rather than a transactional one. The best P2P programs actively coach every fundraiser to connect their personal page to Facebook at setup — not as an afterthought.

Academic & authoritative resources

• Claremont Lincoln University — Fundraising ideas and strategies for nonprofits A higher-education perspective on digital fundraising models including peer-to-peer.
• Antioch University — Innovative fundraising ideas for nonprofits: Research-backed overview of how event-based P2P campaigns like March of Dimes leverage personal networks.
• New York Institute of Technology — Peer-to-peer fundraising resource guide: Practical guidance on recruiting, enabling, and managing P2P fundraisers in an institutional context.
• D'Youville University — Giving day peer-to-peer fundraising: A university giving-day model illustrating best practices in supporter segmentation and fundraiser recruitment.
• Stanford University / arXiv — Donor retention in online crowdfunding communities: A large-scale academic study of millions of donors on crowdfunding platforms, with implications for P2P donor retention strategies (Althoff & Leskovec, Stanford).

Here are the most common questions we hear about peer-to-peer fundraising in 2026

1. What is the difference between peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding?

   Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising are related but structurally different. In crowdfunding, your organization manages a single campaign page and drives traffic to it. In peer-to-peer fundraising, each supporter creates their own individual fundraising page, all connected to your central campaign. This personalization is critical — supporters can share their own story and relationship to your cause, which is far more persuasive to their personal networks than a generic organizational page. P2P consistently outperforms crowdfunding for donor acquisition because of this personal-story element.

2. How much does peer-to-peer fundraising typically raise?

   The average individual P2P fundraiser raises approximately $244. At the campaign level, P2P campaigns typically raise twice as much as comparable traditional digital fundraising campaigns (CauseVox data). At the sector level, the top 30 U.S. programs collectively raised $1.17 billion in 2025. Results vary widely by sector, nonprofit size, and campaign design — but organizations that invest in fundraiser support and onboarding consistently outperform those that rely on passive sign-ups.

3. What types of nonprofits benefit most from peer-to-peer fundraising?

   Health nonprofits have historically led P2P adoption — the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital dominate the top-program rankings. However, P2P is increasingly effective across cause areas including education, animal welfare, environmental organizations, and faith-based nonprofits. The common denominator is not cause type, but community strength: organizations with passionate, networked supporters who want to do more than write a check are the best candidates for P2P programs.

4. What features should I look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising platform?

   The core requirements include: easy individual page creation (supporters should be able to launch in under five minutes), mobile-optimized design, social media integration (especially Facebook Fundraiser linking), automated email communications tied to fundraiser milestones, real-time progress tracking and leaderboards, and seamless integration with your CRM or donor database. The best platforms also provide coaching prompts and suggested next steps directly to fundraisers, reducing the management burden on your team.

5. How do we retain donors acquired through peer-to-peer campaigns?

   This is the most urgent unsolved challenge in P2P fundraising. While P2P is exceptionally effective at acquiring new donors — with 80% of first-time givers arriving through supporter pages — many of these donors do not naturally convert into recurring contributors. The best practice is to segment P2P-acquired donors immediately upon first gift and enroll them in a stewardship track that differs from your standard welcome series. This track should quickly show the impact of their specific gift, introduce them to the organization beyond the campaign they gave to, and make a soft ask for a recurring gift within 60–90 days.

6. Can small nonprofits run successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns?

   Yes — and in some ways, smaller organizations have an advantage. The social trust that makes P2P work is often stronger in tight-knit communities around smaller nonprofits than in large, impersonal mega-charity campaigns. A well-run P2P campaign by a community food bank, local animal shelter, or regional health organization can yield extraordinary results relative to size. The critical ingredient is not budget; it is a core group of passionate supporters willing to put their name on a fundraising page and make personal asks. Start with 10–20 deeply committed advocates, provide them with excellent support, and build from there.