Paola van der Lans

Consultant and CTO at Peerworks Consulting

Who She Is:

Paola van der Lans is a consultant and CTO at Peerworks Consulting. Peerworks Consulting helps nonprofits grow their community and revenue through peer-to-peer fundraising events and campaigns. Paola shared her thoughts on what it takes to motivate peer-to-peer fundraisers in a GlobalGiving Social Impact Academy session.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is all about people—and giving them the tools they need to fundraise on behalf of your nonprofit. It accounts for 24% of all online donations, so if you are not trying peer-to-peer fundraising, you could be missing out. These four tips from Paola van der Lans will help you motivate the peer-to-peer fundraisers in your network:

1. Coach your advocates.

Make sure your advocates feel supported and ready. Communicate the fun, community-building experience that is fundraising so they realize what they can get out of this challenging but also rewarding adventure.

2. Challenge them to raise more money than they think is possible.

Motivate your fundraisers to raise as much as they can. An easy way to get them started is by setting SMART goals with them, mapping prospective donors and creating an outreach strategy and calendar for them to follow. Part of this means you need to suggest and give guidelines, such as the amount of funds they can realistically raise based on the size of their network and time commitment.

3. Provide them with a toolkit.

Set your fundraisers up for success by giving them email templates, easy-to-forward messages with pictures and case studies, sample social media posts, handouts, fact sheets, and blogs, which they can customize to fit their personality.

4. Incentivize and recognize your advocates.

For fundraisers to be motivated to continue their action, you need to show them the impact they have. Recognition and gratitude are key ways of highlighting their efforts. Try a “wall of fame” or a “fundraising badge.” Cheering on their successes also helps normalize fundraising and shows your fundraisers that they are capable of reaching their fundraising goals.

In summary, it is important to keep things positive and show your peer-to-peer fundraisers that they are part of a team that gives them the tools and support they need to make fundraising a rewarding experience. Want more tips? Download GlobalGiving’s free nonprofit peer-to-peer fundraising guide today.

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