Explore top peer-to-peer fundraising ideas and learn how P2P fundraising can boost donor reach, engagement, and impact for schools and nonprofits.
Anwesha Kiran
Published:
March 28, 2025
Peer-to-peer fundraising (also referred to as p2p fundraising) has established itself as a mainstay fundraising method with fundraisers like the American Heart Association's Heart Walk setting the standard by raising an impressive $110 million—making it the largest P2P fundraising program in the U.S. and a testament to the power of community-driven giving. According to Nonprofit Source, peer-to-peer fundraisers bring in an average of 4 new donors for every fundraising page created.
Whether you're a nonprofit, K-12 school, or higher education institution, p2p fundraising offers a versatile solution that combines social networking with charitable giving. By the end of this article, you'll understand how to implement this strategy and choose the right peer -to-peer fundraising platforms to support your mission.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a fundraising method where supporters create personal fundraising pages and solicit donations from their networks on behalf of an organization. Unlike traditional fundraising where an organization directly asks for donations, p2p fundraising empowers individual supporters to become advocates who raise funds from their friends, family, and colleagues.
What makes P2P fundraising so effective is its personal touch. When people give to someone they know and trust, they’re more likely to donate—and often in larger amounts. This approach turns passive donors into active fundraisers, helping your cause gain visibility and build stronger connections with new supporters. In fact, 39% of Americans report donating to charity based on a request from a friend or family member, which goes to show the power of personal connections in driving support.
Looking for creative ways to implement your next p2p fundraiser? Here are some proven ideas to inspire your next campaign:
1. Athletic Challenges: Organize walking, running, or biking events where participants create fundraising pages and collect pledges from their networks. Events like charity runs, walkathons, or bike-a-thons create built-in communities of supporters. The American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" raised over $5.2 billion since its inception by empowering participants to create personal fundraising pages for their relay teams.
2. Tribute Campaigns: Enabling supporters to fundraise in honor or memory of loved ones leads to meaningful campaigns that resonate with their personal networks. For example, the Alzheimer's Association's "The Longest Day" campaign raised $13 million in a recent season by encouraging participants to create tribute pages for loved ones affected by the disease.
3. DIY Fundraising: Allow supporters to create their own unique fundraising events, from bake sales to backyard concerts, empowering them to leverage their specific talents and interests. St. Jude's "Create Your Own" program generated $4.2 million in 2023 through supporter-created events ranging from lemonade stands to corporate challenges.
4. Team Competitions: In 2023, during Cornell Giving Day, a 24-hour fundraising event, the university raised a record-breaking $13,043,165 from 18,296 donors. While specific details about class competitions contributing $2.4 million in 2023 weren't found, the overall success of such events highlights the potential of friendly competitions in fundraising.
Implementing P2P fundraising offers numerous advantages for organizations:
Educational institutions face unique fundraising challenges, making peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising particularly valuable in engaging their communities and expanding their support networks.
For K-12 schools, P2P fundraising fosters deeper parent involvement and strengthens community bonds. Parents can become fundraising champions, reaching out to their extended families, colleagues, and social networks to support their children's education. This approach not only increases financial support but also teaches students valuable lessons about community service and philanthropy.
For instance, Cathedral High School embraced digital fundraising by empowering students to raise money and awareness for their annual tuition assistance campaign. This initiative allowed students to actively participate in philanthropy, enhancing their engagement and understanding of community support.
Higher education institutions can leverage their extensive alumni networks through P2P fundraising. Graduates often maintain strong emotional connections to their alma maters, making them effective advocates. Class reunions, homecoming events, and giving days can be amplified through P2P campaigns that tap into class pride and friendly competition among alumni groups.
Princeton University's Annual Giving program engaged over 2,500 volunteers and received contributions from many more, resulting in $73.8 million raised. This success underscores the power of peer-driven campaigns in sustaining donor engagement over time.
Both K-12 and higher education institutions can use p2p fundraising to support specific initiatives such as scholarships, facility improvements, or technology upgrades, providing supporters with concrete goals to rally behind.
Ready to implement p2p fundraising for your organization? Here’s a refresher on the essential steps to ensure success:
Choosing the right platform is like hiring a handy staff member, and you’ll want to make sure you get the choice right. Consider these essential features and your own needs to narrow down your shortlist:
💡Check out our picks on the top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms to power your next campaign
Almabase offers a powerful peer-to-peer fundraising solution designed for educational institutions and nonprofits. As one of the most loved platforms, Almabase sets itself apart by seamlessly integrating into most educational CRMs. Our industry-leading two-way synchronization with Raiser's Edge NXT, ensures your donor data remains consistent across all systems.
Almabase's unique features include:
Peer-to-peer fundraising has become a proven strategy for expanding an organization or institution’s reach and engaging supporters in meaningful ways. By empowering your community to become active fundraisers, you can tap into new networks, create authentic connections, and ultimately raise more funds for your mission.
Whether you're just getting started with P2P fundraising or looking to enhance your existing efforts, the right approach and technology can make all the difference. With platforms like Almabase, you can implement sophisticated campaigns that engage supporters and drive results.
Ready to take your fundraising to the next level? Explore these resources for more insights:
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The best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms help educational institutions and nonprofits boost donor engagement through personalized giving pages, social fundraising, and CRM integration. These tools streamline campaigns with built-in analytics, gamification, and mobile optimization. While some options are completely free, others cater to large-scale fundraisers that require advanced data synchronization and scalability.
The right tools can make all the difference in modern fundraising. In this blog, we’ll highlight some of the best options on the market and explore what you can expect out of them.
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Peer-to-peer fundraising, or P2P fundraising, is a type of crowdfunding in which your organization encourages its supporters to fundraise for your cause. Typically, these supporters will create an individual fundraising page and share it with their friends, family members, and social media followers to raise money.
A peer-to-peer fundraising site is the software that allows your supporters to create a donation page, share it with their personal network, and collect donations to support your mission.
Typically, most fundraising tools today include features such as:
When shopping for a peer-to-peer fundraising tool, you’ll need to weigh the cost of the tool against the value it provides. However, it can be difficult to know the true cost of using the platform, depending on the software’s pricing structure. Get familiar with these common structures:
To compare tools with different pricing structures, calculate what each platform will cost you, on average, for a certain period of time.
Whether you’re a K-12 school ,higher ed institution, or a nonprofit, in no particular order, here are some peer-to-peer fundraising platforms that you should consider:
(Prices are based on publicly available data at the time of writing and are subject to change over time)
Almabase runs on a philosophy of integrating into your CRM and existing workflows, which remains true for their peer-to-peer fundraising features. Almabase boasts native sync with most higher-ed CRMs due to their TrueSync integration, combined with superior customer support and a willingness to integrate your ideas into their long-term vision. Almabase offers customizable pages and leaderboards powered with inbuilt text and email communication features built to drive donor engagement through organic and personalized communication.
Almabase’s pricing depends entirely on your needs. Learn how Almabase empowers your p2p strategy, Schedule a personalized demo and get a quote.
GoFundMe Pro (formerly Classy) is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform optimized for maximum nonprofit impact. It provides ready-to-use templates for scalable, high-impact campaigns and equips supporters with intuitive tools to advocate for the cause.
GoFundMe Pro offers features like campaign templating, embedded videos and livestreams, progress thermometers, team structures, and mobile-optimized pages. The platform also supports recurring gift options and flexible payment processing, and has a mobile- and user-friendly interface.
GoFundMe Pro offers a standard “Essentials” plan and a “Partner” custom plan.
Bloomerang Fundraising (formerly Qgiv) is a fundraising platform offering tools for donation management, event planning, and donor engagement. It provides features like customizable donation forms, peer-to-peer fundraising, and text-to-give options
Bloomerang Fundraising starts at $40 per month if purchased as part of a bundle with Bloomerang CRM.
Zeffy is a 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits, offering peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, donation pages, and recurring giving options. This tool generates revenue through optional tips that donors can provide in addition to their donation. It allows fundraisers to join as individuals or teams and create their own fundraising pages. The platform is also known for being simple, intuitive, and customizable
Zeffy has no fees and instead runs on optional tips from donors.
Donorbox is a fundraising platform that allows nonprofits to launch peer-to-peer fundraisers in a few steps. It provides customizable donation forms and supports recurring donations via various payment methods.
Donorbox also offers features for managing donors, sending personalized emails, and recording donor communications. The platform provides resources like onboarding emails, courses, and templates to support nonprofits in their fundraising efforts.
For peer-to-peer fundraisers, Donorbox charges a flat 1.75% platform fee for a main campaign and 2.95% for a supporter’s campaign.
Bonfire specializes in fundraising through custom merchandise sales. Nonprofits, schools, and even individuals can design their own custom merch and sell it via Bonfire’s free online stores.
Bonfire supports peer-to-peer campaigns (which it refers to as “giving campaigns”) by allowing your supporters to create and share t-shirt fundraisers on behalf of your organization—then, all of the money they raise is sent directly to your nonprofit.
Bonfire is completely free to use, and your nonprofit keeps 100% of the profits. There’s an 8% processing fee on additional donations, but if you verify your nonprofit status with Bonfire, that fee is reduced to 3.5%
Givebutter provides tools to launch peer-to-peer campaigns, complete with donation forms, fundraising pages, event management, a built-in CRM, and marketing tools to analyze your progress and streamline workflows. Their fundraiser teams offer a great choice for organizations looking to gamify their peer-to-peer fundraisers as well.
Givebutter offers a popular “free forever” plan, as well as a paid option starting at $29/month. If your organization opts out of having donors cover fees, Givebutter charges 1% for donation forms, 3% for pages, and 5% for events and auctions, as well as a payment processing charge of 2.9% + ¢0.30 per transaction.
GiveCampus is a fundraising platform for educational institutions, providing solutions for online giving, giving days, crowdfunding, P2P fundraising, and more. It blends peer-to-peer outreach, social media, and gamification to engage more donors and increase fundraising. The platform allows schools to execute giving days, year-end appeals, and crowdfunding campaigns.
GiveCampus also offers features like matches and challenges to inspire donors and make them feel like their contributions are making a difference
GiveCampus has three platform plans: Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise. Additionally, pricing will vary depending on the modules you require.
As a Blackbaud product, JustGiving is a great choice if you are used to the Blackbaud CRM environment. Compared to other platforms on this list, JustGiving is relatively simple both in its presentation and its scope. This makes it an easy choice for teams just starting out or looking for something simple for a one-off event. However, there may be better choices for teams that want a more comprehensive solution that spans multiple fundraisers and year-long campaigns.
JustGiving charges platform fees and a standard payment processing fee based on your geographical location and payment platform. Crowdfunding pages are free to set up. While UK charities do not need to pay a platform fee, they do have a subscription model.
Gravyty leverages predictive AI technology to provide frontline fundraisers with personalized insights into donor behavior. This innovative approach helps organizations enhance their outreach efforts by automating email drafts tailored to individual donors while integrating seamlessly with existing CRM systems. Gravyty's focus on personalization empowers fundraisers to build stronger relationships with donors.
While some information is available online, interested organizations will need to contact Gravyty for a custom quote.
Bonterra’s peer-to-peer fundraising product (formerly DonorDrive) offers smart and customizable P2P fundraising solutions that empower supporters to create personalized experiences at scale. Its features include an intuitive event builder, personalized coaching for fundraisers, gamification elements like leaderboards, social media integrations, and seamless CRM integration, which enhances supporter engagement significantly
Bonterra offers three tiers—Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise—with pricing based on customer needs.
With so many unique platforms out there, choosing the right one can be a little overwhelming. However, there are several key factors to consider when selecting the right peer-to-peer fundraising software for your team:
Each platform will offer peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities, but you should dig a little deeper to find the right fit for your needs. For example, if you are a small team looking to organize a quick fundraiser, you may end up paying for features you don’t need. On the other hand, if you are looking for a long-term solution, a platform without built-in analytics would be a dealbreaker. Look for features that boost, rather than hamper, your fundraising efforts, and aim for a high return on investment.
Many teams want a tool that scales up alongside them as they engage more donors and alumni, but there is often a point where their needs outgrow the platform. To avoid this, consider both your short-term and long-term goals to determine if the platform’s upgraded pricing tiers will meet your team’s requirements later on. This way, you can simply upgrade to a plan with more advanced features or storage rather than migrating to a completely new platform.
Your staff, fundraisers, and donors should all have positive, smooth experiences when engaging with your fundraising pages. For example, if you want to sell custom merch, both the designing process and purchasing process should be easy and intuitive for supporters. From payment processing to reporting workflows to page load times, there are many aspects you should ask about or test out during a free trial or demo to see if a platform is the right one for you.
Some solutions come with a relatively low learning curve but offer limited functionality. Some, on the other hand, can be the driving force behind all your fundraising strategies but may require in-depth technical and/or coding experience. Try to find a balance between the training time required and potential functionality to ensure high adoption.
Pricing is a key consideration for any tool, but it’s also important to consider the nuances that may arise down the line. Always consider the rates associated with upfront costs, renewals, transaction fees, upgraded plans, and other relevant expenses. Additionally, switching to a new platform inevitably leads to more expenses through database transfers and staff upskilling. Consult with your database managers and other staff members before making a decision.
In the event that something goes wrong, you need to be able to reach the platform provider to resolve the issue. Keep factors like response times on live chat or email support channels in mind. For the long term, you also want to support platforms that onboard customer feedback and have detailed roadmaps for upcoming features.
Both your staff and donors need to be assured that sensitive data like payment information will be kept safe and secure. Always look out for a platform’s data encryption measures, as well as its compliance and authentication processes, to see if it inspires confidence from your donors.
Third-party review sites like G2 and Capterra offer insight into what customers think about specific tools. Keep in mind that these reviews are subjective, but they can be a great indication of how a platform is perceived overall, highlighting positive and negative software trends.
There is no single “best” fundraising website, but you can find the one that is best for your organization. Choose a platform that aligns with your goals, budget, audience, and campaign type.
Yes, a reputable fundraising platform should be able to integrate with your CRM to ensure donor data flows automatically into your central database. This eliminates data silos and the need for manual data transfers.
GoFundMe is a popular tool for personal crowdfunding, but it may lack the tools you need to run a full-fledged campaign. The platforms referenced in this guide offer the specialized tools mission-driven organizations need for branding, tracking donor data, and communications.
Crowdfunding is a centralized process led by your organization using a single donation page. On the other hand, peer-to-peer campaigns decentralize fundraising, empowering many supporters to help you raise money. Peer-to-peer campaigns empower supporters to help you raise money, meaning there are many people fundraising for your cause. Make sure your platform has the tools to support a peer-to-peer campaign.
Look for platforms that include gamification features, such as fundraising thermometers, badges, and leaderboards. These tools spark friendly competition among fundraisers and help them visualize their progress to maintain momentum and engagement.
We hope we’ve given you the tools you need to choose or at least consider some of the best peer-to-peer fundraising solutions out there, as well as the questions you need to ask yourself before adopting one. Whether you’re a higher ed institution optimizing your peer-to-peer fundraisers or a K-12 school just looking to get started, we hope you pick out the right solution and can make a great positive change.
If you’ve had successful peer-to-peer fundraisers before, learn how you can build a peer-to-peer fundraising community to help you keep providing meaningful experiences
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11 great peer-to-peer fundraising platforms for Institutions and Nonprofits 2026
Explore 11 of the best peer-to-peer fundraising sites for schools, higher ed, and nonprofits. Discover how to select the right one for your fundraising needs.
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Your organization may be investing more time and resources into peer-to-peer fundraising than before, and for good reason. Peer-to-peer fundraising is growing in popularity—the top 30 programs activated 3.8 million participants in 2023, a 15.6% increase from the previous year.
To make peer-to-peer fundraising sustainable over the long term, consider your strategy comprehensively rather than event by event. Prioritizing community-building around your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts can create a successful long-term strategy that drives program retention.
As Bloomerang’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide states, “By bonding over your shared commitment to your cause, you can develop lasting relationships [with supporters] and secure continued support for your organization.”
Explore top tips for engaging your supporters by building a robust peer-to-peer fundraising community.
Peer-to-peer fundraisers, especially newcomers to your program, will feel more comfortable participating when you provide a clear fundraising roadmap. Develop a training process for peer-to-peer fundraisers by taking these steps:
Emphasize storytelling strategies in your onboarding and training sessions. By incorporating their unique stories and connections to your organization, fundraisers can create much more compelling appeals for support.
Encourage participants to workshop their stories with one another, identifying the most captivating elements to spotlight on their fundraising pages. This collaboration can create a sense of camaraderie among supporters, building a stronger community.
Create a text chain or social media group to maintain an open line of communication with peer-to-peer fundraisers. Use this communication channel to:
Encourage participants to engage with each other's messages to create a two-way communication stream between your organization and your fundraisers. Ask long-time participants to share their best fundraising secrets or new participants to discuss their challenges. Rather than just having your staff members speak to your supporters, this participant-to-participant communication will help create a stronger sense of community and generate more useful insights.
Use your organization’s event management system to plan an engaging event for peer-to-peer fundraising participants. Fundraisers can interact with each other and your organization’s staff, volunteers, and other stakeholders, building community bonds.
The event could be in person or virtual, depending on how spread out participants are. If you’re hosting a virtual event, use an event management tool that enables audience interaction via hand-raising or live chat to engage with other attendees.
We recommend hosting a:
Kickoff and wrap-up events give your campaigns clear start and end dates so participants know exactly when to start fundraising and how long they have to reach their goals.
Gamification involves making your peer-to-peer fundraiser feel like a competition among supporters to encourage participation. Inspire friendly competition using:
Use modern communication and engagement tools to track participant progress and communicate updates to fundraisers. For example, leverage a peer-to-peer fundraising platform to keep track of everyone participating in your fundraiser and their fundraising totals. Use your text or social media groups to share updates about who is currently at the top of the leaderboard or who has reached their personal fundraising goals.
Developing a peer-to-peer fundraising mentorship program offers multiple benefits, allowing you to:
Automatically assign new fundraisers to a buddy or mentor or allow any fundraiser to opt into the program if they need more support. Depending on their location and availability, these pairs can meet in person or virtually. To help them make the most of their meetings, give mentorship duos guidance for topics to discuss, such as fundraising advice or storytelling strategies.
These strategies will help you create a peer-to-peer fundraising program that accomplishes two aims: raising necessary funds for your organization while providing participants with a fulfilling, meaningful experience and the opportunity to meet new friends. Participants will be much more likely to continue engaging with your fundraisers when they feel like crucial members of your organization’s community. As a result, you can set your organization up for long-term, sustained fundraising success.
Building a Community Around Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Efforts
Building a community around your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts supports engagement and retention. Use these tips to engage participants on a deeper level.
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November 19, 2024
12 minutes
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful social giving tool that many educational institutions have employed to increase donations while expanding their donor base. Through these campaigns, schools of all sizes empower their donors to raise money on their behalf.
Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns have become a mainstay of fundraising for higher education causes and charities because they tap into the power of your donors’ social connections. Plus, they’re extremely flexible and easily adapted to today’s virtual and hybrid fundraising landscapes.
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Schools are especially well-positioned to benefit from peer-to-peer fundraising since they have large communities of alumni, current students, and family networks who have emotional connections to their mission and the overall institution. These supporters are also likely to share your campaign online, and the social proof of their support encourages their wider social networks to get involved, too.
This guide will cover six key strategies that higher ed institutions need to succeed with peer-to-peer fundraising. But first, let’s review how these campaigns work.
There are a few core steps to executing peer-to-peer fundraisers. Every campaign will follow this general structure:
Within this easy-to-launch campaign process, there are plenty of other steps, tools, and strategies that you’ll need to succeed. Although your supporters are doing the actual fundraising, these campaigns aren’t hands-off. Use these six strategies to help you reach (and exceed) your campaign goals:
Providing an easy giving experience is one of the most important things you can do to drive supporter engagement and increase donations. The fundraising software you use directly impacts the donors’ experiences with your campaign.
Peer-to-peer fundraising software should allow you to:
By leveraging dedicated tools designed specifically for peer-to-peer fundraising, launching and managing your campaign and individual giving pages can be easy. Using peer-to-peer fundraising software that offers robust features, mobile-optimized giving pages, offline donation tracking, real-time reporting, and CRM integrations allows you to easily launch new campaigns and meet and exceed your annual fundraising goals.
Before launching your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, you’ll need to create a core campaign page. The next obvious step would be to spread the word online, allowing anyone to get involved to help you fundraise. While this approach definitely works, we also recommend taking a more strategic approach by actively recruiting ambassadors for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
Fundraising ambassadors are your most passionate and well-connected supporters. Rather than hope they’ll join your campaign, personally reach out to them in advance! Ambassadors can help your campaign by:
This strategy is particularly effective for peer-to-peer campaigns leading up to an annual gala or other large-scale events. Just be sure to provide your ambassadors (and all of your volunteer fundraisers) with the resources they need to succeed.
When you prepare to launch a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, it’s important to offer training opportunities to your supporters. Most supporters might not have a ton of experience as fundraisers, so getting them set up on the platform and providing them with resources will boost results and engagement. This is particularly important for ambassadors, who you may work with to set specific fundraising and event sign-up goals.
To make fundraising easy for these supporters, be sure to provide the following resources:
In order to reach your institution’s fundraising goal, your supporters must communicate to their networks in the way you need them to while offering them a way to put their own personal touches on the campaign. Training and support are also essential for making your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign a positive experience for your fundraisers. This will help ensure that the campaign pulls double-duty—raising donations and boosting alumni relations.
While your students may be online constantly, it’s a good practice to diversify your fundraising campaign’s promotional strategies to create maximum reach and appeal to a wide range of donors.
Donor and alumni networks consist of different generations, so you and your volunteer fundraisers will need to meet all of them where they are.
According to the OneCause guide to peer-to-peer fundraising, this means using a mix of traditional and modern marketing methods, including:
The various approaches you and your fundraisers use should be tailored to your donor audience to maximize impact. If you’re trying to reach a broad range of alumni and donors, you should use outlets that will help you reach a variety of age and location demographics. But if your fundraising campaign is mainly geared toward younger alumni, focusing on email and social media (and forgoing expensive direct mail) can be a smarter way to focus your efforts.
It’s helpful at this stage to review the performance of your previous fundraising campaigns. What marketing tactics worked best to engage particular donor segments? Use these insights to guide your new promotional strategy, and encourage your volunteer to rely on those outlets as well.
Peer-to-peer fundraisers work well with events, and you have tons of flexible options. Organizations often host a range of kickoff events, mid-campaign gatherings, and grand finale events like walkathons or galas for their fundraising campaigns. The rise of virtual fundraising events has opened up even more opportunities to efficiently plan and host a variety of events.
Take some time early in the planning process to brainstorm a few options based on the scale of your campaign. As you’re brainstorming, keep these top of mind:
Pairing your peer-to-peer fundraiser with an event or two can be an impactful way to bring your campaign full circle. Using peer-to-peer fundraising software that’s part of a broader suite of fundraising tools, including registration and virtual event features, makes it easy to diversify all of your future campaigns with a variety of events and donor engagement options.
Who isn’t motivated by a little friendly competition? Donors love to be recognized for their contributions, and your institution can benefit from leveraging gamification tools throughout your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
Classic gamification tools include:
Gamification and goal-setting are especially important if you’ve recruited fundraising ambassadors for your campaign. Give them plenty of support and specific goals to reach. This will help them better motivate their audiences to give. During your grand finale event, honor your fundraising ambassadors, have them complete fun challenges, and reward your top fundraiser.
And don’t forget that gamification and add-on strategies can help to boost your donations in more direct ways, too. Try implementing a matching donation challenge during which a corporate partner matches all incoming donations. Or challenge your fundraisers to see who can secure the most employer-matched gifts overall through any corporate philanthropy programs that donors may be eligible for—more on that in the next section.
Meanwhile, appended employer information can help you identify more opportunities among your alumni and guide your matching gift strategy during the campaign.
Peer-to-peer fundraising isn’t just about tapping into your alumni and student networks—it’s also about unlocking the extended networks they’re connected to. One powerful and often overlooked strategy is to leverage corporate giving programs, such as matching gifts and volunteer programs, to amplify peer-led efforts.
After all, many companies offer matching gift programs, where they’ll match donations their employees make to eligible nonprofits. This can double—or even triple—the impact of every peer-to-peer gift. Encourage your fundraisers to check if their employers (or their donors’ employers) offer these programs. Better yet, embed a matching gift search tool into your campaign pages or emails so supporters can find their company’s guidelines in seconds.
In addition to matching gifts, corporate volunteer grants are another valuable opportunity. Many companies reward volunteer hours with financial donations. If your peer-to-peer participants are also volunteering (for example, by hosting events, organizing campaigns, or participating in service projects), their employers may provide funding in recognition of that time.
To make the most of these opportunities, consider using an employer appends tool to identify where your supporters work. These resources can fill in employment information gaps in your donor database, helping you target the right individuals with corporate giving messaging.
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Peer-to-peer fundraising has proven to be one of the most flexible and effective ways to reach donors in recent years. For higher ed institutions with a large alumni community, launching a campaign that capitalizes on all those connections is a win-win: more donations to support your work and strengthened donor relationships.
Study up on these tips and other expert peer-to-peer fundraising best practices, equip your team with the right tools, and be prepared to help your volunteer fundraisers promote your campaign. You’ll be reaching your goals in no time!
Peer-To-Peer Fundraising in Higher Ed: 7 Proven Strategies for 2026
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful way to tap into your institution’s network of alumni and donors. Learn how to get started with these 6 top strategies in 2025.
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