7 Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tools to Deepen Impact
If you’re hoping to rally your community together and raise serious funds, look no further than a peer-to-peer fundraiser. Peer-to-peer fundraising taps your loyal supporters to fundraise on your behalf and amplify your cause to their personal networks.
There’s power in this type of social proof. In fact, almost four in 10 (39%) Americans say they’ve donated to a charity because of a request from a friend or relative.
To lead effective peer-to-peer campaigns driven by data intelligence, you’ll need tools that fully integrate with the leading nonprofit CRM, Salesforce. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to get started with Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising, including:
- Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising FAQs
- 7 Top Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tools
- How Springboard Can Support Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns
- Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Best Practices
With the right peer-to-peer technology, you’ll be well on your way to reaching and exceeding your fundraising goals.
Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising FAQs
Before we dive into the top tools to add to your peer-to-peer toolkit, let’s cover a few FAQs so you have all the basics down.
What are the benefits of peer-to-peer fundraising?
Peer-to-peer fundraising offers a number of benefits for nonprofits, including the opportunity to:
Engage your community in fundraising.
With peer-to-peer fundraising, you can expand your donor pool beyond your immediate supporter base. Your peer-to-peer fundraisers will create their own personal fundraising pages and share them widely with their friends and family members. As a result, the entire community will become involved in pushing your fundraising goals forward.
Plus, peer-to-peer fundraising can even take place in teams, in which multiple supporters work together with a fundraising goal in mind. By strengthening connections with each other, your supporters will feel an even greater sense of belonging at your organization.
Raise awareness around your cause.
Chances are that there are still people in your immediate community who may have never heard of your organization or simply aren’t familiar with the work you do. Peer-to-peer fundraising can help your nonprofit introduce itself to new faces and boost its visibility in the process. As a result, prospective supporters will feel more inclined to back your cause in the future.
Strengthen existing donor relationships.
Peer-to-peer fundraising empowers supporters to take on a more active and rewarding role in your organization’s success. As a result, they’ll feel even more connected to your mission, helping you retain them as recurring supporters of your mission. Make sure to express appreciation for all their efforts so you can count on them the next time you host a peer-to-peer fundraiser.
Attract new donors.
Peer-to-peer fundraising presents a promising opportunity to grow your giving pool with new supporters both near and far. Best of all, you don’t have to do this work of acquiring new donors on your own! Your peer-to-peer fundraisers will do the bulk of it by helping to connect you with new supporters from their personal and professional networks.
You’ll just need to follow up with new donors using a dedicated donor stewardship plan, which may include thanking new supporters for their gifts and inviting them to get more involved with your organization in other ways. For example, you might ask them to volunteer or participate in your advocacy efforts.
Increase revenue.
By pooling from supporters already in your donor base and beyond, peer-to-peer fundraisers raise much more revenue than traditional fundraising campaigns. As a result, you’ll have more room in your budget to pursue your mission, serve your community, and deepen your impact.
How does a Salesforce-integrated tool streamline peer-to-peer fundraising?
A Salesforce-integrated tool can support your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns in several ways:
- Centralized data management: Fundraising software integrated with the leading nonprofit CRM, Salesforce, safely and accurately stores your donor data, readily giving your organization access to insights like donation history, communication preferences, and engagement activities. As a result, your nonprofit will have a comprehensive view of your donors and fundraisers at all times, facilitating more personalized interactions and targeted fundraising efforts.
- Automated workflows: Salesforce-integrated tools can automate various steps of the peer-to-peer fundraising process, such as sending personalized fundraising appeals, tracking donations, and acknowledging donors with custom thank-you notes.
- Real-time reporting and analytics: Integration with Salesforce provides real-time access to fundraising analytics, letting you know how your fundraising efforts perform at a high level. With these insights, your nonprofit can make data-driven decisions and adjust its strategies as needed to maximize fundraising outcomes.
- Streamlined communication: Communication is the name of the game when it comes to meeting your goals within tight fundraising deadlines. With Salesforce-integrated tools, you can automatically facilitate seamless communication between your organization, its donors, and peer-to-peer fundraisers through email, social media, and other channels. Specifically, your nonprofit can easily send targeted updates and reminders to engage fundraisers and encourage participation—with no additional effort necessary on your end; your Salesforce-integrated solution will do the legwork!
- Customization: Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising tools are the most powerful solutions on the market because they can be tailored to meet organizations’ exact needs. By working with fundraising software with native integration to Salesforce, you’ll be able to customize features, workflows, and reporting to align with your specific goals and strategies.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can feel overwhelming to host on your own, but with dedicated Salesforce-integrated software, you can easily host campaigns year-round that inspire generosity.
How can my nonprofit pick the right Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising solution?
To pick the ideal Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising software for your organization, you’ll want to take a look at the following factors:
- Compatibility: Double-check that the peer-to-peer fundraising solution is fully compatible with Salesforce and offers seamless integration capabilities. Specifically, you should be able to smoothly transfer data between your fundraising platform and Salesforce, ensuring centralized data management and streamlined workflows.
- Peer-to-peer features: What specific features does the peer-to-peer fundraising solution offer that will support your fundraising campaigns? The right software should come with built-in tools like customizable donation pages, automated communication workflows, and real-time reporting and analytics. We’ll cover these features and more in greater detail in the next section.
- User experience: Evaluate the user experience provided by the peer-to-peer fundraising solution for both your nonprofit’s team and your supporters. The platform should be intuitive and provide a high level of self-service, making it easy for fundraisers to create their campaigns, engage with donors, and track their progress. Plus, donors should be able to easily track the donations they’ve made, adjust their billing and payment methods, update personal information, and more.
- Cost and pricing structure: Consider the cost and pricing model of the peer-to-peer fundraising solution, including any setup fees, subscription costs, transaction fees, or additional charges for premium features. Keep in mind that while investing in a Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising platform might feel like a big upfront expense, the right solution will earn you a significant ROI for years to come.
Now that you have a greater understanding of the power of Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising tools in advancing your fundraising progress, let’s take a closer look at the specific tools to add to your tech stack.
7 Top Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tools
1. Personal Fundraising Pages
At the heart of peer-to-peer fundraising are supporters raising funds on your organization’s behalf. For them to do so in an organized manner, they must be equipped with intuitive personal fundraising pages.
These pages are not unlike your nonprofit’s online donation page, as donors visit them, input their payment information, and make a gift. Therefore, personal fundraising pages should follow donation page best practices. The right Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising solution makes it simple to design donation pages that are:
- Accessible so supporters of all abilities can give to your organization.
- Mobile-friendly to make the giving process as simple and convenient as possible.
- Easily customizable and configurable to feature your nonprofit’s brand.
- Able to support multiple languages, currencies, and payment types.
- Shareable across multiple channels, including social media platforms.
Some peer-to-peer fundraising solutions equip supporters with standardized peer-to-peer pages that allow for little individual personalization. However, we recommend seeking a solution that allows supporters to personalize these pages, such as by setting individual and team fundraising goals, featuring their personal stories and experiences with your organization, adding photos, and more.
This allows peer-to-peer fundraisers to feel a greater sense of ownership over their role and deepens their connection to your organization. Plus, family and friends who receive the link to a loved one’s donation page and see how your cause has personally influenced their life will be much more likely to contribute a gift.
2. Flexible Payment Options
One of the greatest benefits of peer-to-peer fundraising is that it empowers your organization’s campaign to be shared with and receive donations from a significantly wider audience. Rather than limiting the campaign to your supporters, you’ll solicit donations from your supporters and their friends, family members, and colleagues alike.
With this larger audience, accepting a wide variety of payment methods will be necessary to accommodate everyone’s needs. That’s why it’s important to choose a Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising tool that can process donations made using a variety of different payment methods. This includes but isn’t limited to:
- Credit cards
- eChecks
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
Accepting a variety of payment types is important for two key reasons:
- Many people only use one or two primary payment methods. if you don’t offer the options that they use, they won’t be able to donate to the campaign.
- Even if individuals have access to other payment methods, they may not feel comfortable giving via certain modes. Casting a wide net increases the likelihood that you’re offering a payment method that each supporter both uses and trusts.
Regardless of what payment type they use, you should be able to securely process all donations. Invest in a Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising platform that integrates with Stripe, an all-in-one payment services provider that includes payment processing and payment gateway capabilities. This way, you can confidently facilitate payments from donors at any time, anywhere in the world.
Also, look for a Salesforce-integrated fundraising platform that provides multiple options for supporters to give to your campaigns beyond peer-to-peer, including one-time, monthly, DIY, honor/memorial, ticketed events, premiums, and designated gifts using one-step, two-step, and fully custom user flows.
By investing in an all-in-one fundraising solution, you'll have everything you need to smoothly run your peer-to-peer campaigns and all other fundraising types, allowing you to get the most bang for your buck.
3. Recurring Giving Options
When you think of classic peer-to-peer donations, you probably think of a one-time gift made to a nonprofit in support of a friend or family member’s campaign. However, it’s time to expand that view and incorporate sustaining gifts (also known as recurring gifts) into the mix. Seek out peer-to-peer fundraising Salesforce software that makes it easy for one-time peer-to-peer supporters to convert into sustaining supporters. In particular, look for features such as:
- Built-in sustainer upsell. Before a supporter makes a one-time gift, the solution should present the idea of upgrading their gift into a smaller monthly donation.
- Automated upgrades. With this, recurring supporters will be prompted to increase their monthly gift amounts over time.
- Donor portal. Boost sustainer retention by making it easy for your supporters to manage their own giving. With a convenient self-serve portal, sustainers can change their gift amount and update their billing information as needed.
Recurring giving can have a major impact on not only the one peer-to-peer campaign that the sustainer signs up through, but also your organization’s fundraising revenue more generally. Data shows that monthly donors donate 440 percent more to charity over their lifetime than one-time donors.
Recurring giving options are simply not a feature to overlook for any campaign—let alone peer-to-peer campaigns where you’re exposed to a wider audience than any other effort. As you advertise your peer-to-peer campaign, don’t forget to bring attention to your monthly giving program and the impact signing up will have on your mission.
4. Built-in CRM Integrations
Peer-to-peer fundraising exposes your organization to an entirely new audience of supporters; beyond raising funds, its biggest benefit is supporter acquisition. However, it’s impossible to follow up with and continue engaging new supporters if you don’t have key data such as their names and contact information.
By investing in peer-to-peer fundraising software that integrates directly with Salesforce, you can seamlessly capture this data within a secure and organized database. Then, you can not only follow up with new supporters acquired via peer-to-peer fundraising, but you can also view campaign data alongside all of your organization’s other metrics. This can allow you to glean valuable insights about your audience across various campaigns.
Some peer-to-peer solutions don’t offer built-in integrations but do allow for the creation of custom integrations. While this will technically accomplish integrating the two solutions, it can be a challenging task for your nonprofit if you’re not particularly technology-savvy. Look instead for a per-to-peer fundraising solution that already comes with Salesforce-integrated tools to ease your administrative burden.
5. Social Media Integrations
When your supporters can easily share their fundraising pages on social networks, it drastically increases the number of people your fundraisers can connect with. Work with peer-to-peer fundraising software that integrates directly with popular social networks like:
- YouTube
- X (formerly Twitter)
- Twitch
This way, you can empower supporters to expand their reach and share their campaigns widely with just a click of a button.
Plus, the right Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising platform will also enable your organization to identify key social supporters and influencers and continue to engage them further on other channels. This way, you can steward relationships with well-connected supporters and turn them into social ambassadors of your cause.
6. Automated Communications
Regularly staying in touch with your supporters for the duration of your campaign is critical to your peer-to-peer fundraiser’s success. Invest in a fundraising solution that takes all the hard work off your team’s plate and automates your communications, allowing you to power off email and texts to increase motivation and bring supporters back into the action.
For example, using Salesforce Marketing Cloud, your nonprofit can send an automated email series to reengage constituents who have had no activity on their peer-to-peer campaigns in a month.
You should also be able to send milestone emails at different benchmarks along the way to supporters’ goals and text campaign reminders with embedded donation links.
7. Reporting and Analytics
Your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns will generate significant data about your supporters. This data can provide valuable insights that you can use to continue to improve your supporter engagement efforts and elevate your future campaigns.
In addition to collecting this data thanks to Salesforce’s powerful data organization and storage capabilities, you should seek a peer-to-peer platform that empowers you to generate reports and analyze that data.
There are now innovative analytics tools that will allow you to understand donor behavior and habits across fundraising campaigns. For example, look for a fundraising software solution that offers source code tracking and custom tags so you can ascertain a real-time picture of how supporters interact with your peer-to-peer fundraisers.
How Springboard Can Support Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns
Finding a solution that comes with all the above tools is simple when you already know the best choice: Springboard by Jackson River. Springboard is the leading fundraising software, empowering organizations to leverage digital-first solutions and Salesforce-powered insights to elevate any and every online fundraising campaign.
Springboard offers the following high-level features and capabilities in a fully Salesforce-fluent platform to support your peer-to-peer fundraising:
- Sleek, modern, and configurable design: With Springboard, you can easily create microsites, landing pages, and donation forms that are fully authentic to your organization. As a result, you’ll be able to reinforce trust while building brand visibility.
- Social media integrations: Springboard builds social sharing right into the donation process by empowering supporters to share their donation and peer-to-peer pages to platforms like Facebook, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and more.
- Custom individual and team-wide fundraising pages: Your supporters can fully personalize their fundraising pages to incorporate storytelling elements, including images, text, and videos to showcase their connection to your cause. Plus, supporters can set their own fundraising goals and display them in progress bars right on their page, encouraging their friends and family to give. Then, donors can share messages on live activity feeds.
- Automated and targeted communications: Using data insights from Salesforce, Springboard will automatically power off the right messages at the right time, acknowledging supporters’ contributions, updating them on fundraising progress, encouraging them to give, and more.
- Recurring donation tools: For your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and beyond, Springboard makes it simple for your donors to convert their on-time gifts to monthly as part of the donation experience. Plus, Springboard will automatically prompt donors to increase their recurring donation amount when they’re most likely to do so.
- Advanced reporting and analytics: Springboard’s Salesforce integration ensures you always have a 360-degree view of how your peer-to-peer fundraising progresses and your donors’ engagement and activity. This will set you up to hone your fundraising approach as needed and maximize results.
Springboard has a proven track record in helping nonprofits bring their fundraising goals to fruition. For example, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) needed a holistic fundraising solution to streamline their campaign planning and execution, making it a more positive experience for both their team and donors.
After investing in Springboard, the ASPCA gained access to a full suite of tools to maximize their digital fundraising efficiency and was able to create a custom peer-to-peer fundraising registration process that met their needs.
The ASPCA quickly saw impressive results in supporter engagement, including:
- More than $46.5 million raised online in 3.5 years year-over-year
- Online fundraising increases of as much as 25%
- Steady increases in sustaining donors, now comprising 25% of their donor base
- 330,000+ petition signatures and letters to representatives from supporters in their first year using Springboard
If your nonprofit is interested in emulating these fundraising achievements, get in touch with Springboard today to upgrade your strategy and deepen your impact.
Salesforce Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Best Practices
Once you’ve got the right tools in your toolkit, you’re ready to move full steam ahead with your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Springboard will provide you with everything you need to be successful, but it’s equally important that you create a strategic fundraising plan to push your goals forward.
Let’s explore some Salesforce peer-to-peer fundraising best practices so you can amplify your reach and raise more than ever before:
- Set SMART goals to create a clear roadmap for success: Ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound to foster accountability across your team and make it easy to track progress. Set fundraising goals like how much you want to raise and new donors you hope to acquire, and engagement goals such as the number of peer-to-peer fundraising participants you anticipate joining.
- Train your team on how to use your fundraising software: Your fundraising team should be fully familiar with your software to maximize its use. Springboard will set up your technology on your behalf and provide around-the-clock support.
- Create a branded campaign page: Springboard equips your nonprofit with flexible and easily configurable donation page templates so you can add your unique branding elements. This includes your logo, fonts, color scheme, and visuals.
- Develop an inspiring marketing plan: Execute a multichannel marketing plan to get the word out about your peer-to-peer fundraiser and increase touchpoints with supporters and prospective donors. Leverage channels like social media, email, text, and your website. Springboard enables nonprofits to create engaging microsites to promote their peer-to-peer and other digital campaigns.
- Provide detailed instructions on how to fundraise: Offer clear and easy-to-follow guidance to participants on how to set up their fundraising pages, engage their networks, and solicit donations.
- Monitor data and analytics: Regularly track and analyze your key performance indicators using Salesforce analytics tools. This way, you can adjust your strategy as needed and make data-informed decisions to strengthen your fundraising plan.
Host standalone peer-to-peer fundraisers year-round, on year-end occasions like GivingTuesday, or pair them with fundraising events to bring in even more revenue. Regardless of when you host your peer-to-peer campaigns and how frequently, having a concrete roadmap and Springboard by your side will help you reach your fundraising goals.
Wrapping Up
Peer-to-peer fundraisers don’t have to be complicated. Armed with Springboard’s Salesforce-integrated tools, you’ll be able to boost your donor acquisition rate, strengthen relationships with existing donors, and take your fundraising strategy to new heights.
Eager for more information on how to optimize your next peer-to-peer fundraiser? Check out these additional resources:
- Best Salesforce Donation Apps to Power Fundraising Results: Take a look at the top Salesforce donation apps to maximize your use of Salesforce and tailor the CRM to your exact needs.
- Salesforce & Donation Processing: What Nonprofits Should Know: Learn more about how Salesforce can help your nonprofit process donations and organize donor data.
- How to Identify and Connect With Major Donors: A Guide: Major donors can make a significant impact on your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. Explore how to identify and cultivate relationships with these key supporters.