Below are a few tips to help you conduct your peer-to-peer fundraising event strategy as if you were in spring training.

Draft Winning Prospects

Who will be on your roster? Create a prospect list of those people who you feel have a strong connection to the mission and the campaign itself. Discuss the event fundraising opportunity, how it will work, how they can help and what is expected. Encourage team fundraising, ask these prospects to be a team captain and recruit friends and family to join their efforts to potentially increase additional fundraisers and funds.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Ask a segment of your supporters to participate in a soft launch before opening it up to all supporters and request feedback within a few days. A soft launch allows these fundraisers to register, create and personalize a donation page as well as begin utilizing the online fundraising tools. Your beta fundraisers could possibly provide you with valuable feedback that will allow you to answer questions more efficiently down the road.

Train

Some of your players may come from the fundraising major leagues and will already have their personal strategy in place, while others will be rookies. Give fundraising participants the training and coaching they need in order to be successful.

• Have a communication plan to keep your fundraisers informed and engaged.
• Invite fundraisers to a breakfast or lunch: Show and tell about the online fundraising tools, offer fundraising tips, get your pro fundraisers to share anecdotes of their success
• Provide communication with tips to use email and social media to increase participant’s fundraising goal

Continue Coaching

If available, assign volunteers and/or staff members who are familiar with the online fundraising tools to assist your fundraisers.

• Provide support to less-tech savvy fundraisers with navigating the website, creating donation pages, sending emails, etc.
• Follow up with low performing fundraisers to offer assistance
• Reach out to high performing fundraisers to acknowledge their all-star status and encourage them to possibly increase their fundraising goal to push the envelope and knock the ball out of the park for your cause.

Pour on the Gatorade and Celebrate

At the end of your fundraising campaign, don’t forget to celebrate. Feature your top fundraisers in eNewsletters, social media channels and blogs, email participants to acknowledge all of their efforts, and consider hosting a thank-a-thon with your board members to call and personally thank participants for raising money and donors for giving to support your mission.

Ready to play ball in the IFE world for your next fundraising campaign, but not sure where to start? Be sure to download Blackbaud’s Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Benchmark Study and check out other posts here on npEngage:

Kathryn Hall reviews some techniques used by organizations using IFEs to raise funds in A Cornucopia of Ways to Support Independent Fundraising Events

Robyn Mendez discusses Online 3rd Party Fundraising Done Right

Jeff O’Toole talks about Creating a Development Army: The Next BIG Thing in Fundraising

Fast forward… you probably do these things now with confidence and ease and almost take your expertise for granted. That you have forgotten at one point in your life you were not a good swimmer or a good driver.  But, however long ago it was, you knew you wanted to learn, you wanted to succeed, you wanted to conquer learning those challenges.  And more than likely, you reached out to a parent, a teacher, a coach to help you learn how to do these things and hopefully inspired you to be awesome at it.

So, how are you setting up your first-timer fundraisers for success?  How should you get these group of newbies comfortable and acquainted with the information and tools you have shared with them after they signed up for your event?  It can be overwhelming and daunting for them… and for you and the organization, too.  So, let’s break it down.

Step 1:  Get your participants to access their online fundraising tools

For today, let’s focus on Step 1: Get your participants to log in to their online fundraising tools.  For TeamRaiser and Friends Asking Friends users, these tools are located in the Participant Center or Fundraising Headquarters.  It’s to be expected that first-time participants may be hesitant to immediately jump into the online fundraising tools after completing the registration process.  So, it’s extremely important that we make these online fundraising tools easy to find and easy to access. Be sure to  explain how and why they should be fundraising for your event.  Here’s an example…

Include this call-to-action everywhere

Where and  how you promote this content to newbies is also very key.  You need to hit them up at all angles and include the above messaging everywhere you are talking to your first-timers.  This could include:

• Thank you for registering email (also known as the autoresponder email sent immediately after completing the registration process)
• Coaching Emails (email series sent prior to the event)
• Printed materials like event kits, fundraising tip flyers, etc.
• Fundraising workshops/seminars

Now, one may think this is going overboard with all the hand-holding, but hey… didn’t someone hold your hand when you were attempting to take your first step?  And eventually, after you got the hang of walking, you let go.

How do you communicate with your first-time participants?  I would love to hear your ideas, so please share.

In my next post, I’ll share some tips on how to help first-timer fundraisers understand how to use their Participant Center.

And one more thing: I’d like to say thanks for reading this blog post as this was my first blog post (seriously), and I’d like to thank my good friends and fellow bloggers Robyn and  Nancy for holding my hand!!

Interested in learning more fundraising best practices?  Download the our free eBook: NPExperts: Fundraising Ideas and Marketing Insights for Nonprofits.

This past week marked my one year anniversary as a strategy consultant at Blackbaud. The more I engage with clients the more I find myself wishing I knew what I know now when I was on the fundraising staff at a nonprofit. When you work with some of the brightest minds in the industry, you quickly realize that we all have a lot to learn. With that said, I decided I should write a series of blog posts titled “What I Wish I Knew Then” with the hope that the lessons I have learned will make you a better fundraising professional, too.

To kick things off I want to focus on learning outside of your organization. If you are reading this blog, you already have a head start. Pay it forward by sending it to a colleague and encourage them to learn outside of the box as well. There are an endless number of resources available to you once you start looking for them. I follow more than 500 of them on Twitter alone. It is easy to be overwhelmed so I recommend you are strategic in your learning:

Five Things You Can Do To Become a Better Fundraising Professional

1. Read one thing related to your job a day (news article, blog post, or white paper)
2. Participate in one webinar a month
3. Attend one local networking event or conference each quarter
4. Attend at least one national conference a year
5. Participate in other fundraising events as often as you can

I can’t stress enough that participating in other fundraising events is the best learning experience anyone at a non-profit can have. I encourage you to register, fundraise, donate and volunteer so that you can have firsthand experience being on the other side. In addition, it is a great way to learn what your peers are doing in the industry. Speaking of learning what your peers are doing, my colleagues at Blackbaud and I will be hosting a variety of opportunities for you to learn and network in 2013.

Save the Date and Join Me at a Conference in 2013:

How will you reach your peer-to-peer and event fundraising goals? Discover how your peers are cracking the code to event, team, and peer-to-peer fundraising success by attending one of our Fundraising Roundtable events in 2013. The series of events will be taking place in Chicago on May 28, Washington DC on June 10, New York City on September 10 and Boston on September 12. Register today at www.fundraisingroundtable.com

Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits is a great place to experience, learn, and network with industry experts and peers. Join 2,000 nonprofit professionals from 900 unique organizations in Washinton DC September 29 – October 1, 2013. http://www.bbconference.com/

Oh Yeah! That’s me 9 years ago at the BP MS 150 lunch stop with my friend JJ Vitarius.

My first gig as a peer-to-peer fundraiser was working on the MS Walks and MS 150 Bike Tour in the Houston office of the National MS Society. The bike tour had established a fundraising club called Club 300 to recognize the top 300 fundraisers from the previous year’s BP MS 150.

Club 300 was established in 2000 based on fundraising from the 1999 event. In 1999, the top 300 fundraisers brought in more than $877K of the $3.2 million raised by the event. After its first year of existence, the top 300 fundraisers increased their contributions to the overall fundraising effort by more than 73%, bringing in $1.2 million for the 2000 event.

Spring forward to today, the 2013 Club 300 members raised more than $3.9 million of the $17.6 million raised for the 2012 event. Fundraiser #1, Stephen Susman, raised $113,935, and #300 raised $6,860.

For those of you who are not super geeky (like Amy & Nancy) about metrics, the main take away from these numbers is that fundraising clubs work. When they are leveraged year round to cultivate and expand the relationships with your top fundraisers, you will see a positive impact on your bottom line without significant increase in cost. Before your eyes, this group of top fundraisers will transform into elite fundraisers.

Here are some tips learned from my time working on the BP MS 150 to help you establish your own fundraising club.

Pro Tip #1: Entry into your fundraising club should be based on fundraiser ranking rather than total fundraising $$$.

For Club 300, since entry into the club was based on fundraising ranking against other cyclists, only the top 300 fundraisers made the cut. As a result, the minimum total fundraising required for entry into the club has consistently grown year over year. This strategy fuels the competitive nature of these elite fundraisers and increases the total fundraising required to rank above #300. As mentioned earlier, for the 2013 Club 300 #300 brought in over $6,800. Additionally, the membership cap helps with budget planning because the # of people you are supporting remains constant year-over-year.

Pro Tip #2: Make your fundraising club visible, desirable and elite
The BP MS 150 has done a great job of recognizing and pampering their top 300 fundraisers. From exclusive port-a-lets & showers during the event to special wearable gear and VIP receptions, these elite fundraisers know they are special and the perks make it worth the effort to stay in the club year over year.

For those not involved, the perks are visible enough to the general participant population so that it prompts the question, “How do I get into the Club 300?”

Check out the 2013 Club 300 Perks

Pro Tip #3: Keep the club activities rolling year round
Top fundraising clubs are great vehicles for the year-round cultivation necessary to keep those elite fundraisers coming back year over year. Think about creative ways to engage your fundraising elite in mission-driven activities, especially those opportunities that might live within another branch of your organization.

One organization I worked with would offer their fundraising club members with the first opportunity to volunteer for their summer camp for kids with cancer. This is fantastic because it allowed fundraisers connect more deeply with the mission while at the same time making them feel special outside the realm of fundraising.

Looking for more fresh ideas? Here are 35 ideas to recognize top event fundraisers before, during and after your event.

Pro Tip #4: Maintain your fundraising incentive program
Fundraising clubs are a compliment to fundraising incentive programs, not a replacement. The fundraising club exists to motivate and cultivate your event’s fundraising elite. In contrast, incentive programs motivate the entire participant base to fundraise. You need to be catering to both groups as part of your holistic fundraising strategy.

The BP MS 150 continues to offer fundraising incentives to the general fundraising population based on their level of fundraising, including the always popular top fundraiser jersey.

This year’s BP MS 150 will be taking place next weekend. I wish all the best to the 13,000 cyclists, 1000′s of volunteers and of course, the staff who will be participating in the 2013 event. I hope you have great weather and more importantly, that you exceed your $18 million goal on the path to finding a cure for MS!

Interested in hearing some other fundraising tips from some of the leading #NPExperts in the field? Download our free eBook, NPExperts: Fundraising Ideas and Marketing Insights for Nonprofits.

Perception is reality, right? Meaning my reality is based on my perception of life, of the world, of fundraising.  Here’s the first question, because I perceive the situation to be one way is that the truth?  Is that how people feel?  Is my perception the reality?  I don’t know.  That’s why I turn to data.

Most of us in the peer-to-peer fundraising world would consider our walks, 5ks and rides a fundraiser. They also raise awareness for the cause and the profile of the organization but, at the end of the day we host these events to raise money. Do your participants think your event is a fundraiser? Yes, right?  I mean how could they not know it’s a fundraiser, it’s all over my website and emails.

Would it surprise to you learn that some participants didn’t know they were supposed to fundraise.  I know you’re thinking this is totally wacky.  How do people not know the event is a fundraiser, I’ve included it in all my communications? Here’s the thing, sometimes what may seem obvious to us isn’t so clear to others.  Ergo the lesson of the socks.

The Lesson of the Socks:

Five years ago, I ran my first ½ marathon, VA Beach Rock n’Roll, it was a blast! And I learned a very important lesson while “training” – if I was telling you this story in person, I’d place air quotes around training… I’m not sure you can call my VA Beach prep – training- but, I digress.  I did learn that in addition to good running shoes you need good socks.  Cotton socks won’t do… you need special running socks.

Since VA Beach I’ve continued running and buying lots of different socks.  I’m always trying new socks, looking for right ones to cut down on shock, prevent blisters and provide added arch support. Did you ever think buying socks could be so difficult?  I didn’t. There are times I feel like Goldilocks trying to find the right porridge.

One day I opened up a new pair socks and laughed.  In case I couldn’t tell which sock was for which foot – they helped me out my kindly labeling the socks with R and L.  Talk about stating the obvious!  It’s pretty clear by the construction of these technical running socks which one was for my right foot and which was for my left foot.  But, to make sure there’s no confusion these sock makers added an R and L.

Thus the lesson of the socks was born: just because something is obvious to you, it doesn’t hurt to state the obvious for others.

Peer-to-Peer Consumer Survey

What do socks have to do with fundraising? Sometime you need to remove yourself from the situation to understand your audience’s needs.  For the past three years, Blackbaud and the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council have conducted a peer-to-peer fundraising consumer survey.  We wanted to go right to participants, ask them questions and get their perspective on fundraising.  This year instead of writing a white paper about the survey results, I thought I’d share them through a variety of blog posts.  One of my favorite questions we ask is “Why didn’t you fundraise?”  As a former fundraiser, I’m intrigued by the responses (see chart to the right).

Here’s what I’ve learned from this questions: 

1. As we learned from the lesson of the socks, it never hurts to state the obvious.  And, in this case it’s needed as 26% of respondents didn’t know they were supposed to fundraise.
2. We need to make sure we’re asking people to fundraise. Along with making it clear this is a fundraiser, let’s make sure we’re asking people to raise money.
3. While fundraising isn’t as challenging as it used to be some folks still aren’t comfortable asking for donations.  This group needs a little extra coaching to help them feel more comfortable asking for donations.

I’m realizing this post is getting long.  I have a lot more to stay about non-fundraisers.  I’m noticing some opportunity within this group… and I was about to give up on them completely! Wow, data… you constantly amaze me.  Stay tuned to for Part II: Why didn’t you fundraise?

If you want to get caught up on past studies check out: 2012 Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Consumer Survey and 2011 Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Consumer Survey

On Wednesday April 17, 2012 I will be hosting the Peer to Peer Fundraising: How Do You Measure Up webinar and sharing tips for leveraging, adapting, and using the report to increase the number of participants and funds raised through peer-to-peer fundraising events.  During the webinar will I will be presenting the key findings in the report and explore trends that will define the P2P industry this coming year. Here is a sample of what we will be discussing:

5 Key Trends to Explore for Your 2013 Campaign Strategies:

1. Emails Sent: Emails being sent decreased in every event type, as much as 16%. What are you doing to ensure your fundraisers have the tools they need to be multi-channel in their outreach efforts?
2. Online Gift Average: The average online gift increased in every event type ranging from 2 – 6%. How are you optimizing your donation forms to increase your online gift average?
3. Returning Participants: Returning participants continue to raise more than new participants. What is your retention plan and how is it different than your recruitment plan?
4. Team Captains: Team Captains are your most valuable participants in every category. Do you have a program to recruit and cultivate Team Captains?
5. Third Party Events: Third Party Events outperform all traditional events, including participants raising up to 4 times more than some traditional events. Do you provide online resources for your constituents to create their own fundraising events?

Comparing your data to events similar to yours enables you to determine what current strategies are working and define goals to improve upon the ones that are not.  Register today for The Peer to Peer Fundraising: How Do You Measure Up webinar and be sure to download and read Blackbaud’s 2012 Peer to Peer Fundraising Benchmark report before hand so you are ready to start comparing your data and creating winning strategies for 2013 and beyond.

For years fundraisers needed to run, walk or ride to show their donors their commitment to the mission and non-profits hosted events to collect the donations. Peer-to-peer fundraising events were the best vehicle to reach thousands of fundraisers and tens of thousands of donors, and looking at the numbers they still are. According the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council, America’s Top 30 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Events engaged almost 12 million fundraisers and raised $1.68 billion in 2012.

What about the rest of non-profit supporters that don’t participate in events? How do non-profits engage this population in a meaningful way that inspires them to ask their networks to support the non-profit’s mission too? Fundraising events built the foundation for peer-to-peer fundraising strategy, now it is time to take it to the next level. Non-profit advocates, donors and volunteers are passionate about the mission of the organizations they support, don’t you think if they were asked to fundraise any way they wanted to, they would?

According to the 2012 Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Benchmark Report, fundraisers who raise money by this form of peer-to-peer fundraising raise significant more per person than those that participate in traditional events. Traditional events recruit more fundraisers, so while they raise less per fundraiser they are raising more for most non-profits. If non-profits could engage all of their constituents to fundraise, think of how much could be raised.

The Non-Profit Technology Conference, produced by NTEN, brings nonprofit technologists, decision makers, and nonprofit leaders together to find new and better ways to use technology more effectively. Join me for Where did the Event Go in Peer to Peer Fundraising Friday April 12 from 3:30 – 5:00 PM.

Bringing event donors into your fundraising mix can be a bit tricky. For starters, event donors are not directly connected to you. Their first thought while donating isn’t, “I love this organization! I want to support it.” Instead, they’re thinking, “I love [insert friend's name]! I want to support her.”

But does that mean you give up on them? Absolutely not.

Event donors give you a perfect opportunity to invite people to your organization. Think about it. They already know a little bit about you because of their friends. Your cause likely already resonates with them because they have people close to them involved.

For example, my friend, Kelsie, has Type 1 Diabetes, and every now and then, I’ll do events with her. I also donate on her behalf at those events. Given the correct communication or cue, I’d become a sustaining member, simply because I love my friend and I want her to be cured. Now, I know you’re wondering why I haven’t become a sustaining member, anyway, regardless of being contacted. I don’t know. Maybe I’m looking for some love. Some acknowledgment. I couldn’t tell you. I know I think about it all the time, and if someone would just remind me while I have my credit card out, I’d probably do it. But no one has done that.

Additionally, you may have donors that are just waiting for the right moment to do something. I have cousins who are very involved in cancer-related events because their brother had cancer as a child. I always wanted to join them, but they live a few hours away. Instead, I support them when they ask. But when a family member passed away from cancer last year, and I received a direct mail piece the next day from the same organization that my cousins support, I wasted no time writing that check. It was just the right time and the right place, and they nailed it because they were still working on cultivating me.

And sometimes, a little reaching out simply reminds people that they need to get off their butts and do something. Why waste a perfect opportunity to remind them that it doesn’t take much to help?

Can’t think of ways to do that? You could:

1. Try to convert them to participants.
2. Remind them of an upcoming event and let them know what a difference their donation made last year (and ask them to donate again).
3. Personally thank them three months after the event and let them know how their donation helped.
4. Ask them to become more involved through volunteering or supporting you on a regular basis.

Your event donors are as integral to your organization as your participants. If they’re not interested or don’t have time to join their friends at an event, let them know that you’ll take support however you can get it. Who knows – maybe they will forward your awesome email to your next major gift sponsor. Or maybe they’ll be part of the P2P Guide next year, as a participant.

This week, my boss gave me some pointers to improve a presentation I was working on.  He said “your slides are good, but you might want to think of a better way to illustrate that idea.  You shouldn’t need a circle on around a metric to make your point.” Of course constructive criticism can be hard to take, we all want to believe our work is perfect with no room for improvement… but come on… we know this is not the case. And, you know what? My boss was right. I was open to his feedback and I’ve been playing around with my slides all week to create a more compelling way to make my point.  The lesson here is that no matter where you are in your career there’s always something to learn and improve on; but you need to be open to feedback.

The second Noble Truth: Question

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Asking questions is not a sign of weakness or inferiority; it’s an important step in moving forward. What should you question?  You should question everything, don’t be afraid to ask the most basic questions.  But, be sure your asking them in the right way.

For example: what’s my goal?  That’s a pretty basic question, but it’s one we tend not to ask.  When you ask this question, don’t answer it with “our goal is to raise $500,000 with this event, program, campaign, etc…” Instead answer it differently, be more thoughtful answer: our goal is to increase participation – we want more people who care about our cause to be involved with our organization.  The next step is to identify if your strategies and tactics will help you meet this goal.  We’ll continue this discussion in later posts.

The third Noble Truth: A Coin Has Two Sides

What?  I know, this sounds very fortune cookie-esk.  But, it’s true.  Often when you look at data you’ll immediately see something.  But, are you seeing the whole story.  It’s best to step back and take a second look.

The fourth Noble Truth: Change

This is most difficult of the noble truths.  Mostly people don’t like change and are scared of change.  I love change, with change is opportunity. Change is scary, but it’s also exciting. As many have said before me, change is constant.  It’s the only constant in life.  If you’re open to change; to new ways of operating and new ways fundraising you can begin a trend of growth vs. continuing the current trend of flat fundraising.

I hope you’ll continue with me on this journey to fundraising enlightenment.  Talk to you next week.

In the episode, Holmes and Watson – were having a moment – a.k.a a heated discussion about the case.  Watson was doubting herself because of a mistake she made.  Holmes said to her “I find self doubt very distracting, please wallow in the privacy of your own room.” Then he said “Can I remind you that you made a discovery today that may solve the both cases?” But here’s the kicker… Holmes asked Watson “Do you wish to mourn the former or celebrate the latter?”  Was Watson going to focus on her mistake or move forward with her discovery? Watson chose to solve the case.

At the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Conference Jeff Shuck asked us a similar question – do you want to be extraordinary or average? I choose extraordinary! But, how do you become extraordinary?

In my session at the Run Walk Ride, I shared my path to fundraising enlightenment.  When I think of enlightenment, I think of Buddha.  Buddha teachings about transformation – with the goal to transform your suffering into peace and joy.  While Buddha’s can show you the path to peace, I hope to show you the path to fundraising enlightenment. My teachings are also about transformation – but, my goal is to transform your current thoughts on fundraising.  It’s a tough task, but I think I’m to it.

My fundraising journey began at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, my next stop was the Alzheimer’s Association and then I moved on the Share Our Strength.  These three wonderful organizations provided me with a great fundraising foundation. They taught me how to fundraise and how to build meaningful relationships. But, my path to enlightenment began at Blackbaud.  I’m able to look at fundraising using a different lens – looking at things differently is the key to enlightenment.  I don’t have all the answers and I’m not here to give your answers. I’m here to guide you on your path to enlightenment.  Buddha didn’t give his followers answers instead he gave them the tools they needed to find their own answers – I hope to do the same.

How will I do this?  It starts with the Four Noble Truths of Fundraising.  Buddha has his Four Noble Truths and I have mine.

The First Noble Truths of Fundraising of is Open.  You need to be open to ideas, to new ways of looking at your fundraising program, to data, to measuring your results, to managing your staff… okay; you basically need to open to everything.  Charles Kettering an American inventor and engineer once said “There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.”  I love that quote.  When you’re open; possibilities are endless.

I’ll be back next week the rest of my Noble Truths, for now marinate on Open.  What does open mean to you?  Do you have an example of being open to a new idea?  If so, share it with us.

That’s all for now, talk to your next week.

Before I leave… I’d like to give special thanks for my friends who were at RWR.  I was on a blog hiatus, but I’m back now with tons to share.  Thank you for your encouragement and for being faithful readers.  Also thanks and a shout out to Terri Lynn Foods, I’m obsessed with the Trail Mix you gave us!