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How Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Works: A Complete Guide for Nonprofits
June 5, 2026
⚡TL;DR — The Short Answer
Verdict: Peer-to-peer fundraising turns your supporters into fundraisers. One nonprofit becomes hundreds of personal campaigns, each reaching a network you could never have accessed directly.
What works: Recruit fundraisers who already know your mission (board members, recurring donors, past event attendees). Give them templates, photos, and a clear ask. Check in mid-campaign so momentum does not stall. Measure new-donor acquisition, not just total raised.
What doesn't: Posting "anyone can sign up!" on social media and waiting. Platforms with compounding fees of 3% to 8% per transaction eat into hundreds of small gifts fast. Launching without a recruitment plan or fundraiser coaching leaves activation rates in the floor.
Best for: Small-to-mid nonprofits running a recurring event (walk/run, Giving Tuesday, birthday fundraisers, mission-specific drives) where lots of small gifts are the point.
Worth considering if: You want to acquire new donors at low cost, build a recurring annual fundraising program, or turn passive supporters into active mission ambassadors.
Peer-to-peer fundraising (also called P2P or social fundraising) is when individuals raise money on behalf of a nonprofit. Instead of your organization soliciting donations directly, your supporters become fundraisers. They create personal campaign pages, set their own goals, and ask their friends, family, and coworkers to give.
The mechanic is simple, and the simplicity is the point: one nonprofit turns into dozens or hundreds of fundraisers. Each fundraiser reaches a network you would not have reached on your own. The flow looks like this:
1. Your nonprofit creates a main campaign with a goal, story, and timeline.
2. Supporters sign up as individual or team fundraisers and create personal pages.
3. Those supporters share their pages with their own networks.
4. Donations flow back to your nonprofit, attributed to the fundraiser who brought them in.
How does peer-to-peer fundraising work?
Peer-to-peer fundraising works by letting supporters raise money on behalf of your nonprofit through their own personal campaign pages, then sharing those pages with their networks. Every donation flows to the nonprofit, and the supporter gets credit for bringing it in. The platform handles page hosting, payment processing, receipting, and reporting so your team can focus on coaching fundraisers, not chasing logistics.
Underneath that, there are two perspectives worth understanding, because the mechanics on each side determine whether a campaign actually works.
What the nonprofit does
Sets up the main campaign: goal, story, timeline, branded look. This is the umbrella every fundraiser page lives under.
Recruits fundraisers: usually starting with board members, recurring donors, past event participants, and volunteers who already believe in the mission.
Provides materials: social graphics, sample email and text language, talking points, photos, FAQs. The lower the lift for the fundraiser, the higher the activation rate.
Tracks progress: who has signed up, who has activated their page, who has raised what, and who needs a nudge.
Coaches and thanks: mid-campaign check-ins, milestone celebrations, and post-campaign thank-yous keep fundraisers engaged and willing to come back next year.
What individual fundraisers do
Create a personal page: add a photo or video, write a short personal story about why this mission matters to them, set a goal.
Share with their network: social posts, group texts, email to family and coworkers, in-person asks at work or events.
Donate to themselves first: a self-donation signals commitment and gives later donors a baseline to beat.
Thank donors as gifts come in: a quick reply, a shout-out, a hand-written note. Thanking donors is how you turn a one-time gift into next year's recurring supporter.
A typical fundraiser outreach message reads something like: "Hey, you know I've been a volunteer at [Nonprofit] for three years. They're running a campaign this month to fund [specific program], and I'm trying to raise $500. Anything you can give helps. Here's my page: [link]." Short, personal, specific. That is the format that converts.
If you want a platform that ships these mechanics for nonprofits, Zeffy's free peer-to-peer campaign tool includes individual and team fundraising pages, leaderboards, donor-board messages, and reporting at no cost.
Peer-to-peer fundraising vs. crowdfunding
Dimension
Peer-to-peer fundraising
Crowdfunding
Who raises the money
Supporters raise on behalf of a nonprofit through personal pages
One campaign owner raises directly for a project or cause
Page structure
One main campaign with many individual or team sub-pages
One-time project funding, emergency appeals, specific goals
Donor relationship
Fundraiser-to-donor (personal network) then nonprofit-to-donor
Campaign-to-donor (often a single relationship)
Typical duration
4 to 8 weeks, often annual or recurring
30 to 60 days, often one-off
Use case fit
Building a fundraising community over time
Funding a defined project with a hard deadline
The two are not mutually exclusive. Some platforms support both formats, and some nonprofits run a crowdfunding campaign for a capital project while running P2P for their annual walk. Pick the model that matches the job: P2P for community and recurring engagement, crowdfunding for a defined one-time goal.
6 benefits of peer-to-peer fundraising
Expanded reach: Every fundraiser brings a network you do not already have. Ten fundraisers with 200 contacts each is a 2,000-person audience your nonprofit could not have reached directly.
Higher donor acquisition: A friend asking is more persuasive than a nonprofit asking. P2P is one of the most reliable ways to bring in first-time donors who become recurring supporters later.
Lower acquisition cost: Your supporters do the outreach. You provide tools and coaching. The cost per dollar raised is structurally lower than direct mail or paid acquisition.
Deeper engagement: A donor who fundraises for you is more committed than a donor who only gives. P2P converts passive supporters into active ambassadors.
Storytelling at scale: Hundreds of personal stories about why your mission matters land harder than one nonprofit-voice appeal. Each fundraiser page is a piece of authentic, hand-written marketing.
Sustainability: Recurring annual P2P campaigns (walk, Giving Tuesday, birthday program) build a fundraising rhythm. Year two is easier than year one because you already have alumni fundraisers to re-recruit.
7 peer-to-peer fundraising ideas that work
P2P is not one format. Here are seven ideas that work for small-to-mid nonprofits, with a note on why each works and one practical tip.
1. Disaster relief and emergency funds
What it is: A rapid-response P2P campaign launched in the days after a humanitarian crisis. Supporters create pages to raise emergency funds for affected communities.
Why it works: Urgency drives generosity. People want to help and want to feel useful. A fundraiser page gives them a way to channel that.
Tip: Have a campaign template ready before you need it. When a crisis hits, you have hours, not weeks, to launch. The American Red Cross is one of the strongest examples of emergency P2P done at scale.
2. Birthday fundraisers
What it is: Supporters ask their network for donations to your nonprofit in lieu of birthday gifts.
Why it works: Birthdays come with a built-in audience (everyone who would wish a happy birthday) and a built-in occasion to ask. It is also one of the easiest entry points for a first-time fundraiser.
Tip: Make signing up a 60-second task. The longer the setup, the more drop-off. Charity: Water's birthday fundraising program is a strong reference for messaging and page design.
3. Charity walk, run, or ride
What it is: Participants register for an event (often a 5K or charity ride), create a fundraising page, and raise money in the lead-up.
Why it works: The event itself is the deadline that creates fundraising urgency. The shared experience builds community among fundraisers, which makes them more likely to come back next year.
Tip: Open team registration alongside individual. Teams raise meaningfully more than individuals because peer pressure inside the team drives performance. AIDS Walk events in cities worldwide are a long-standing example.
4. Social media challenges
What it is: A branded hashtag challenge tied to a fundraising page (e.g., a tagged activity, a personal commitment, a video chain).
Why it works: Challenges are designed to be shared. Each post recruits the next fundraiser, which compounds reach without your team doing the outreach.
Tip: Build the challenge around something easy to film in 30 seconds. The lower the production lift, the more participants you get.
5. Giving Tuesday and special occasions
What it is: A short, intense P2P campaign timed to Giving Tuesday or another giving day, with fundraisers activated in the days leading up to it.
Why it works: The cultural moment does the awareness work for you. People are already in giving mode that day.
Tip: Recruit fundraisers four to six weeks before Giving Tuesday. Activate them with a coordinated launch the week of. Same-day signups rarely raise meaningful money.
What it is: A P2P campaign tied to a specific program goal: funding a research project, a building, a program expansion.
Why it works: A concrete goal gives fundraisers a specific story to tell. "Help us fund research into X" converts better than "support our mission."
Tip: The University of Montreal ran a P2P campaign on Zeffy to fund Multiple Sclerosis research and tripled their original fundraising goal. The fact that no platform fees came out of the donations meant every dollar fundraisers raised landed in the research budget.
7. Recurring annual events
What it is: Any P2P campaign you run year after year (gala P2P, summer walk, anniversary campaign) where alumni fundraisers re-enroll annually.
Why it works: Year-two performance dwarfs year-one because you start with a base of trained, engaged fundraisers. The compounding effect is real.
Tip: The week the campaign ends, invite the top performers back for next year. Strike while the win is fresh.
How to launch a peer-to-peer campaign in 7 steps
This is the operating playbook for your first or second P2P campaign. Each step has a checklist, a timing recommendation, and a common pitfall to dodge.
Step 1: Set the campaign goal and structure
Timing: 8 to 10 weeks before launch.
Decide:
Dollar goal, tied to a specific program or outcome readers can picture.
Campaign length (4 to 8 weeks is the sweet spot; shorter campaigns underperform, longer ones lose momentum).
Whether you allow team fundraising in addition to individuals.
Key milestones (kickoff, mid-campaign push, final week).
Pitfall: Setting a round-number goal with no math behind it. Goal = (target fundraisers) x (average raised per fundraiser). If you cannot back into that math, your goal is a wish, not a plan. Use a fundraising calendar template to plot milestones backwards from launch day.
Step 2: Choose a peer-to-peer fundraising platform
Timing: 6 to 8 weeks before launch.
This is the single most consequential decision in the whole campaign. The fee structure compounds across every gift, the page UX determines fundraiser activation, and the reporting determines whether you can coach mid-campaign. We break down the selection criteria in detail in the how to choose a P2P platform section below.
Pitfall: Picking on feature lists alone and ignoring the effective fee load on a $25 gift. Read the fee section before you commit.
Step 3: Recruit your fundraisers
Timing: 4 to 6 weeks before launch (recruiting takes longer than you think).
Start with the people most likely to say yes:
Board members (lead by example: them first, in writing).
Recurring donors (they have already proven they will give; fundraising is a small next step).
Past event participants and volunteers.
Past P2P fundraisers from any prior campaign.
Major donors who might host a team.
Pitfall: Posting "anyone can sign up!" on social media and waiting. Personal asks convert. A direct email or phone call to a known supporter recruits a real fundraiser; a social post recruits almost no one.
Step 4: Create participant campaign pages and set goals
Timing: 2 to 4 weeks before launch.
Each personal fundraiser page should include:
A photo or short video of the fundraiser, ideally connected to the cause.
A personal story in their own voice about why this mission matters to them. Pre-written templates are fine as a starting point, but the page that converts is the one that sounds like the fundraiser.
An attainable goal: aspirational but not so high it discourages. A first-time fundraiser averaging $300 to $500 is a reasonable expectation in most P2P campaigns.
Multiple payment options: credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH. Friction kills small gifts.
Pitfall: Skipping the page-build coaching call. A 30-minute group office hours session lifts activation rates more than any other intervention.
Step 5: Fundraisers share their campaigns
Timing: Launch day through week 2.
Give fundraisers everything they need to share without writing it from scratch:
Sample social posts (long and short).
Sample email and text templates.
Branded graphics sized for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
A short "why this matters" video they can repost.
Pitfall: Posting once and going quiet. The fundraisers who win are the ones who post three to five times across the campaign, not the ones who post once on launch day.
Step 6: Engage and motivate fundraisers
Timing: Throughout the campaign, with a major mid-campaign push.
The mid-campaign drop-off is the biggest risk in any P2P campaign. Counter it with:
Leaderboards: Friendly competition keeps top fundraisers pushing and gives lagging fundraisers a target.
Donor-board messages: Let donors leave a public message on the fundraiser's page. The page becomes a wall of encouragement, not a static form.
Milestone celebrations: Email or text whenever a fundraiser hits 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% of goal. Public shout-outs on your social channels go further than internal pats on the back.
Weekly check-ins: A short note ("here's what's working this week") keeps the campaign top-of-mind.
Pitfall: Treating engagement as a launch-day activity. The fundraisers who need motivation most are the ones at week three with $80 raised and no idea how to push past their first ring of friends. Reach them.
Step 7: Follow up and thank everyone
Timing: Within 48 hours of campaign close.
Every fundraiser gets thanked. Every donor gets thanked. The top performers get a personal call or hand-written note. Public recognition on your channels matters, but private gratitude is what builds the alumni base for next year. Plan the thank-you sequence before launch so it actually goes out on time.
Pitfall: Going dark after the campaign ends. The week after close is when you set up the relationship for the next twelve months. Skip it and you start year two from zero.
5 common peer-to-peer fundraising mistakes (and how to avoid them)
1. Not providing enough support materials
Why it happens: Nonprofits assume fundraisers will figure out what to post. Most will not. They want to help, but they do not know what to say.
The fix: Build a fundraiser toolkit before launch. Sample emails, sample texts, three or four social posts, branded graphics, a one-page FAQ, a 30-second video. Make the lift to fundraise close to zero.
2. Setting unrealistic goals
Why it happens: A round-number goal feels aspirational. But when individual fundraisers see a $100,000 goal next to their $300 contribution, they feel pointless, not inspired.
The fix: Set the campaign goal as a function of (target number of fundraisers) x (realistic average per fundraiser). Set individual goals at a level a first-time fundraiser can actually hit. You can always raise the goal mid-campaign; you cannot un-set a deflating one.
3. Launching without a recruitment plan
Why it happens: Teams build a great campaign page, hit publish, and assume fundraisers will appear.
The fix: Recruit one-to-one before launch. Make a list of 30 to 50 likely fundraisers (board, recurring donors, past participants). Email or call each personally. Aim for 60% to 70% of your target fundraiser count signed up before launch day.
4. Forgetting to follow up with fundraisers mid-campaign
Why it happens: Nonprofit teams get busy. The launch is the visible moment, and the middle of the campaign feels quiet.
The fix: Schedule mid-campaign check-ins as calendar holds before launch. A short weekly update ("here are this week's top three pages, here's what's working") keeps fundraisers engaged. Personal nudges to fundraisers who have not posted recently lift activation more than any leaderboard.
5. Choosing a platform with high fees that eat into donations
Why it happens: Platform fees look small in isolation. 5% on a $25 gift is $1.25. But P2P is built on hundreds of small gifts, so the fee drag compounds.
The fix: Calculate the effective fee load on a $25 gift before you sign up. Platform fee + processing fee + any per-transaction charge. If the answer is 7% to 11%, that is the slice of every supporter's donation that does not reach your mission. See the platform selection section for the criteria.
How to recruit and coach your peer-to-peer fundraisers
The platform you pick determines the upper limit on what is possible. The way you recruit and coach fundraisers determines whether you get anywhere near that limit. P2P is a people program, not a software program.
Who to recruit first
Recruit in concentric circles, starting with the people most likely to say yes:
1.Board members: They lead by example, and recruiting them first sets the tone. Make it expected, not optional.
2.Recurring donors: They have already cleared the giving hurdle. Fundraising is a small next step.
3.Past event participants: Anyone who showed up for a walk, gala, or volunteer day has demonstrated commitment.
4.Prior P2P alumni: If you ran a campaign before, your highest-performing fundraisers from that campaign are your highest-probability sign-ups for this one.
5.Volunteers and major donors: Volunteers are already invested. Major donors can sometimes be talked into hosting teams, which unlocks their network.
How to make the ask
The ask is one-to-one and specific. A template:
Hi [Name], we're running our annual [campaign] in [month]. Last year [X] supporters raised [$Y]. I'd love for you to be one of them this year. It's about 15 minutes to set up your page, and we'll give you everything you need to share it. Can I count on you?
Personal. Specific. A clear ask with a small lift. Group emails to 200 supporters generate almost no fundraisers; 30 individual notes generate 15.
What training and materials to provide
A 30-minute kickoff session: live (Zoom is fine), walk through page setup, share the messaging templates, answer questions.
A fundraiser toolkit: sample emails, social posts, graphics, FAQ, a one-page "how to share" guide.
An always-open channel: a dedicated email address, Slack channel, or text thread where fundraisers can ask questions.
Mid-campaign tactical guidance: "Here's what's working this week" updates with concrete examples from top fundraisers.
How to keep fundraisers motivated mid-campaign
Public shout-outs on your social channels for milestone hits.
Personal text messages from staff or board to fundraisers who have stalled.
Weekly leaderboard updates with names, not just numbers.
Small recognition: a thank-you video from a beneficiary, a behind-the-scenes update on what the funds are doing in real time.
A halfway-point team call or rally to reset energy.
Total raised is the number everyone watches, but it is the worst single metric for measuring whether your P2P program is healthy. Track these five, and you will know whether to do it again next year.
Metric
What it tells you
What good looks like
Total raised
Top-line outcome
Above last year, ideally above goal
Number of active fundraisers
Recruitment + activation performance
Hit your recruitment target and 70%+ of those fundraisers raised at least one gift
Average raised per fundraiser
Coaching effectiveness
Trending up year over year; first-year campaigns often land $200-$500
New donor acquisition rate
Strategic value of P2P (this is the real prize)
50%+ of donors are new to your organization
Fundraiser retention rate
Program sustainability
30%+ of fundraisers return next year; top performers should be 60%+
Social reach and shares
Top-of-funnel awareness
Trending up; correlates with new donor acquisition
New donor acquisition is the metric most nonprofits underweight. The dollars from a P2P campaign matter, but the strategic value is the donors you would not have reached otherwise. Those donors only become recurring supporters if you have donor management built into the campaign so they land in your CRM, get receipted, and enter your cultivation flow automatically.
Best practices for peer-to-peer fundraising
Before launch
Segment your contacts. Recruitment outreach should be tailored: board members get a different note than recurring donors who get a different note than past event participants.
Build the toolkit before you need it. Sample emails, social posts, graphics, FAQ. Have it ready on launch day, not three weeks in.
Host a kickoff training. Live, short, recorded. The fundraisers who attend the kickoff outperform the ones who do not, every time.
Encourage fundraisers to self-donate first. A self-donation signals commitment and gives the next donor a baseline to match or beat.
During the campaign
Make giving frictionless. Pick a platform that accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH. Every removed click recovers small gifts.
Lead with storytelling. The fundraisers who hit their goal are the ones who shared a personal "here's why" story, not the ones who posted "donate here."
Use leaderboards and milestones. Public recognition is a free motivation lever.
Promote matching gifts. Many fundraisers and donors work at companies with employer matching programs and never check. A simple reminder to ask their HR can double individual gifts.
Check in mid-campaign. Weekly fundraiser updates and personal nudges to stalled fundraisers move the numbers more than any feature.
After the campaign
Thank everyone. Personalized emails to all donors and fundraisers, hand-written notes to top performers.
Report back on impact. "Here's what your $X raised did" closes the loop and seeds next year's campaign.
Re-recruit top fundraisers immediately. The week the campaign closes, invite top performers back for next year while the win is fresh.
Debrief honestly. What worked, what did not, what would you change. Write it down. Year two starts the week year one ends.
How to choose a peer-to-peer fundraising platform
Most "best platform" guides drown you in feature checklists. Useful but not decisive. The real question is which platform makes your specific campaign math work. Five criteria, in priority order:
1. Effective fee load on a $25 gift
This is the most underweighted criterion and the most important one. P2P is built on lots of small gifts. A 3% to 8% platform fee plus a 2.2% to 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee compounds across hundreds of transactions. On a $25 gift, a 4% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing equals roughly $2.05 lost, or 8%. Across 500 small gifts, that is over $1,000 your supporters intended for the mission that never gets there.
Across the platforms most small-to-mid nonprofits consider, platform fees commonly range from about 3% to 8%, on top of standard payment processing. The one outlier: Zeffy is the only completely free fundraising platform for nonprofits. No platform fees. No transaction fees. Every dollar a fundraiser raises lands with the nonprofit. Every other platform charges fees to fundraise.
2. Fundraiser-side page UX
If your supporters cannot create and customize a page in under 10 minutes without calling support, your activation rate collapses. Test the page-builder yourself before committing. Look for: photo/video upload, story editor, goal setting, social share buttons, mobile-responsive design, and team page hierarchy if you want teams.
3. Engagement and gamification surface
Leaderboards, donor-board messages, milestone notifications, and progress thermometers are not nice-to-haves. They are how you counter mid-campaign drop-off. Verify these are included in the tier you are picking, not gated behind an upgrade.
4. P2P-native vs. repurposed
Some platforms ship with team structures, fundraiser dashboards, and coaching workflows out of the box. Others are crowdfunding or merch tools repurposed for P2P. Repurposed platforms leave you stitching together features that do not quite fit. P2P-native is meaningfully better if your campaign relies on team competition or recurring fundraiser cohorts.
5. Reporting and donor capture
The strategic value of P2P is new-donor acquisition. If donor records do not unify with your other channels (direct gifts, event tickets, recurring giving), those new donors evaporate after the campaign closes. Look for built-in donor management or a clean integration with the CRM you already use.
The only zero-fee P2P platform. Every dollar a fundraiser raises from their network reaches the mission, which is the only way P2P's small-gift multiplication math actually pencils out.
Effective fee on a $25 gift: $0. Zeffy covers platform and processing; the entire $25 lands with the nonprofit.
How it works: Donors are given the option (never obliged) to add an optional contribution to Zeffy at checkout. Enough donors do that nonprofits never pay anything.
P2P features included: Customizable individual and team pages, team and individual leaderboards, donor-board messages, embeddable fundraising thermometer, donor management, automated tax receipts, all standard payment methods (credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH), unlimited support.
2. GoFundMe Pro (formerly Classy)
Deep, contract-priced P2P campaign tooling built for large nonprofits. Not the right fit for a first or second campaign.
Pricing: Custom, sales-quoted. Contract pricing varies by tier and add-ons.
Strengths: Deep Classy heritage in enterprise P2P, fully branded P2P pages with deep customization, used by Livestrong and Hope for Haiti, strong event management, Salesforce connector available as a paid add-on.
Caveats: Sales-cycle commitment, contract pricing, overkill for a first or second campaign.
3. DonorDrive
Purpose-built P2P software with deep endurance-event, streaming, and DIY-fundraiser tooling. Pricing is sales-quoted and onboarding is slow.
Pricing: Not publicly disclosed; contact sales.
Strengths: One of the deepest fundraiser-side experiences in the category, built around endurance events and streaming, real-time analytics.
Caveats: Limited self-serve customization, slow setup, designed for nonprofits that already run mature P2P programs.
4. Qgiv
A versatile fundraising platform with P2P, events, auctions, and text-to-give bundled into a subscription. Good for nonprofits that need a bit of everything in one place.
Pricing: $259/month, up to 4.95% + $0.95 processing fees.
An all-in-one fundraising platform with a built-in donor CRM. Peer-to-peer is a premium feature, so the free plan is not the one that matters here.
Pricing: Peer-to-peer sits on Funraise's premium plans, which are quoted by sales with no published monthly price. On those plans the platform fee runs 0% to 3%, plus 2.9% + $0.60 per donation in processing. The free plan is $0/month for US-based organizations with a 5% platform fee and the same processing, and it does not include peer-to-peer. Donors can opt to cover fees on either plan.
Strengths: Customizable campaign websites, supporter-built fundraising pages, fundraiser goals with progress bars, automated milestone and stalled-progress emails, Facebook Fundraisers integration, registration for runs, races, and walks.
Caveats: Peer-to-peer is premium-only and premium pricing is sales-quoted rather than published, so there is no way to find out what peer-to-peer will cost you without talking to sales.
6. CauseVox
A user-friendly P2P-focused platform. Starter tier is free with donor tips; team pages and branded campaigns sit behind paid tiers up to $315/month plus a platform fee on transactions.
Pricing: $0 to $315/month, platform fee up to 4.25%, processing fee up to 2.2% + $0.30.
Strengths: Custom team and individual pages, donor management, triggered emails, custom fundraising notifications, user-friendly page builder.
Caveats: Higher tiers get expensive fast for small nonprofits; reporting depth gated by tier.
7. GoFundMe
A personal-crowdfunding platform; verified 501(c)(3) charities pay 2.2% + $0.30 per donation, but the product is built around one-off campaigns rather than team-and-individual P2P structures.
Pricing: 2.2% + $0.30 per donation for verified 501(c)(3) charities; 2.9% + $0.30 for personal campaigns; optional donor tip on top.
Caveats: No real team/individual P2P hierarchy, no leaderboards or fundraiser dashboards, donor records don't unify with other channels.
8. Fundly
Crowdfunding software repurposed for P2P. Custom donation pages and mobile-friendly, but limited P2P-specific engagement tooling.
Pricing: No platform fee; up to 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee.
Strengths: Custom donation pages, mobile fundraising, social media integration.
Caveats: Limited P2P-specific engagement tooling, no integrated donor CRM, mixed reviews on ease of use and support.
9. Donately
An all-in-one fundraising solution with P2P capabilities. Designed for small nonprofits that want a low monthly cost but limited P2P depth.
Pricing: $0 to $49/month, up to 4% platform fee, up to 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee.
Strengths: Custom fundraising pages, social media integrations, recurring giving.
Caveats: Limited P2P features compared with purpose-built P2P platforms; layered fees.
10. Bonfire
A custom-merchandise tool where supporters design and sell branded apparel. Not a fundraising platform in the donation sense; include only if your P2P scope explicitly covers merch.
Pricing: No platform fee; up to 8% processing fees.
Strengths: Easy to use, handles shipping, no upfront costs, social integration.
Caveats: Merch only, no donation forms or CRM, no tax-deductible receipts (apparel purchases aren't donations).
Yes. Zeffy is completely free for nonprofits. No platform fees. No transaction fees. Every dollar a fundraiser raises through their personal page lands with your nonprofit. Donors are given the option (never required) to add an optional contribution to Zeffy at checkout, which is how the platform stays free for nonprofits.
Four to eight weeks is the sweet spot for most nonprofits. Shorter campaigns do not give fundraisers enough time to share and re-share. Longer campaigns lose momentum and donor attention. If your P2P is tied to an event (a walk, a giving day), back-time the campaign so the final push lands in the week leading up to it.
Work backwards: target realistic average per fundraiser = recruitment goal. A first-time fundraiser commonly raises $200 to $500. If your campaign goal is $25,000 and you expect $350 per fundraiser, you need about 70 active fundraisers, which usually means recruiting 100 to account for activation drop-off.
P2P uses many personal fundraiser pages under one nonprofit campaign; supporters raise on behalf of the nonprofit from their own networks. Crowdfunding is usually one campaign page with one direct ask, often for a specific project or emergency. P2P is better for ongoing supporter engagement and recurring events; crowdfunding is better for one-time, project-funded goals with a hard deadline.
Start with the people closest to the mission: board members, recurring donors, past event participants, and any prior P2P alumni. Board members go first so they set the tone. Recurring donors say yes most often because they have already cleared the giving hurdle. One-to-one asks (email or phone) recruit; social-media blasts almost never do.
Mid-campaign drop-off is the biggest killer of P2P results. Counter it with weekly leaderboard updates, public shout-outs on your social channels when fundraisers hit milestones, personal texts to fundraisers who have stalled, and a mid-campaign rally or check-in call. The fundraisers who need motivation most are the ones at week three with $80 raised and no path forward. Reach them directly.
Total raised matters, but it is a lagging indicator. The metrics that tell you whether your program is healthy are: number of active fundraisers (activation rate), average raised per fundraiser (coaching effectiveness), new donor acquisition rate (the real strategic prize), and fundraiser retention rate year over year (program sustainability). Track all five.
Yes. The two inputs that matter most are personal recruiting (which takes time, not headcount) and a good fundraiser toolkit (which you build once and reuse). A two-person team that recruits 30 committed fundraisers and gives them strong materials will outperform a five-person team that broadcasts to 500 passive followers.
Webinar - Hosting a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign on Zeffy.
From peer to peer fundraising tips to how to host a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign on Zeffy, this webinar is your guide to peer to peer fundraising.
Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.
Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.
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