Developing A Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaign

A diversified income portfolio is essential to a nonprofit achieving long-term financial sustainability and to effectively fulfill the organization’s mission. Relying on limited sources of funding can leave an organization vulnerable to changes caused by economic factors like a pandemic, a recession or inflation.

As a co-founder and Member of the Movember Foundation, we are dependent on the annual peer-to-peer fundraising campaign and strategically seeking to diversify income outside of the month of November through corporate partners, and third-party events.

As CEO of Starlight Children's Foundation the opposite is true, we are dependent on our corporate partner portfolio and are seeking to diversify by growing individual giving and through the introduction of peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are a powerful tool for non-profit organizations to tap into new donors, as the fundraisers participating in the campaign engage their network to support the cause. This leads to increased awareness of the organization and builds a sense of community around the mission.?Importantly peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can be a source of unrestricted income giving the nonprofit flexibility on how to deploy the funds, be that on the mission or reinvesting in fundraising, ultimately to further fulfill the mission.?

There’s no shortage of peer-to-peer campaigns, from runs, walks, rides, swims, donating your birthday, to growing a moustache.??

In the highly cluttered peer-to-peer fundraising space, build it and they won’t come!?

Key to creating a successful peer-to-peer campaign is standing out, effectively marketing the campaign and engaging your target audience.?We did this exceptionally well at Movember, but is it possible to replicate the magic of the fundraising moustache, which still generates over $100 million each year???

When I joined Starlight, we created Stream for Starlight ((S4S)) to create a diversified income channel by engaging content creators primarily on Twitch to fundraise with their audience. To differentiate the campaign, we leveraged our two gaming programs that transform the hospital experience for kids through Virtual Reality and the Starlight x Nintendo gaming stations.?We allowed the streamers that met the fundraising threshold to place these programs in their local children’s hospital, leveraging Starlight’s national hospital network.?This transparency provided the fundraising streamers the ability to show their supporters exactly what program they were funding and which local hospital it would impact.?Starlight’s gaming programs and their transformative impact on hospitalized kids provided an authentic link to the streaming and gaming community, particularly the Nintendo streamers.?

In 2022 we realized that Starlight needed a mass market, peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to create another level of income diversity and help build brand awareness. As we ideated what this campaign could be, we developed the following criteria for a peer-to-peer fundraiser, which I recommend everyone contemplating such a campaign to do:

• Virtual to maximize participation potential and minimize costs
• Can be done at home, in the office, or at school
• Accessible to kids and adults?
• A challenge that can be ‘dialed' up or down by the participant depending on their capabilities
• Does not require any, or limited equipment to participate?
• A challenge that is significant and worthy of fundraising?
• Has an authentic link to Starlight’s mission and brand?

With all the criteria in mind, conceptualizing a new peer-to-peer fundraising campaign for Starlight was really tough!?After much thought and engaging the creative genius at Love Street & Company we landed on the Star Jump Challenge which runs from May 1 - 21.?The core challenge includes setting a daily jump target, anywhere from 50 to 1,000 (or more) jumps and then doing the jumps however people want - jumping rope, jumping Jacks, jumping boxes, or jumping on a trampoline.?

The link back to Starlight’s mission is to reignite the joy we had as kids jumping rope, jumping into water, jumping in a bounce house or on a trampoline to raise money for kids in hospitals that struggle to jump for joy. The link back to the Starlight brand is in the name, the Star Jump Challenge, and through the visual identity and messaging like Jump for Joy.

Conceptualizing and building a campaign like this is relatively easy compared to cutting through all the noise, reaching and inspiring people to participate in the challenge.?What I know from building Movember is that it takes just a few passionate people to spark a movement, plus savvy marketing and a whole lot of persistence and patience.

Please check out our first Star Jump Challenge and if you can, please donate to my campaign .??

If you’re contemplating creating a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, I'd love to hear from you.