Globally, Millennials account for 84% of charitable donations. Most donors between the ages of 17 – 68 are constantly connected with smartphones and other devices, ready and willing to be engaged in new online campaigns where they can express their support.
Working together towards a common goal, and doing something people love for charity, helps philanthropic organisations all over the world raise significant funds and awareness for their cause. Peer-to-peer fundraising has been a winning online tool for not-for-profits in the last decade, but as generations evolve & new technologies appear, there is a constant need for innovation. Something progressive that drives supporters to join forces and multiplies their efforts is Peer-to-Peer Team Fundraising.
Combining advanced technology, one-click payment methods, and ease of connecting with the right social channels, Peer-to-Peer Team Fundraising is an amazing online fundraising tool for organisations to engage younger generations in a whole new way.
Think of Corporate, Community, Schools or Friendship groups, anyone wanting to work towards a common goal for charity needs the right digital solution in place to support them. With iRaiser’s new peer-to-peer fundraising solution, you can easily offer supporters a new, collective experience with Team fundraising.
Today, one in three organisations in the world has a peer to peer fundraising strategy. In Norway, almost all organisations are using peer-to-peer to engage their supporters, run a variety of fundraising events and advocate their causes. It is vital to include this form of online collection in your digital fundraising strategy as there is a larger online presence of young people, demographically making up the largest proportion of donors, who tend to engage, share and support these types of socially-driven campaigns.
Norway is notoriously one of the largest donor countries in the world ranking seventh, in 2020. Over 55% of Norwegians give to charity every month, which makes them arguably one of the most generous and socially conscious populations. With that said, it is also one of the few that has the means and access to technology to do so. With Vipps, and Vipps’ subscription, for example, paving the way for flexible charitable giving, conveniently from your smartphone, anywhere you are.
However, there is fierce competition amongst organisations to capture this donor base, and these millions of donations. These have traditionally been captured through street fundraising, newspaper & mail advertising, cold calling and advocacy efforts. But steadily, over the course of the last few years, online fundraising has become one of the most important revenue streams for not-for-profits because more and more people are spending their time online, and on their smartphones.
The Covid-19 pandemic further perpetuated that trend, and those organisations that had donation pages and digital solutions to collect donations online, benefitted immensely. In a recent report, Giving in Norway found that over 50% of donations in the country went to large organisations. However, during and after the pandemic an increased number of smaller and mid-sized organisations strategically placed themselves online and captured new audiences.
Furthermore, Giving Tuesday, recently published in their annual report, that in Q1 of 2021 new donors increased by 6%, the most they’re seen in the last 10 years. Thus, they found that the donor retention rate improved by 34.5% (donors who gave last year, and again in 2021).
So who are these new donors? – Millennials, of course.
As we mentioned, Millennials account for the majority of charitable donations. They understand & adopt new technologies, are spending most of their time on their phones and social media, use mobile payment methods, and have a deep rooted understanding of sustainable development, which they are driven to promote & support. They are a generation with some of the highest levels of education, and when they see an advertisement for a cause that they are passionate about and can relate to, they are most likely to give. 
However, to keep acquiring new donors and to maintain a high retention rate, organisations have turned to targeted ads on social media. This strategy is not only expensive, but fundamentally dictates that all the work lies within the organisation.
With the shift in donor demographics, organisations should embrace online tools like peer-to-peer fundraising, to have their supporters lead their campaigns. And millennials are the perfect target group.
Peer-to-peer fundraising has been around for a decade, and there are many types of peer-to-peer. Our experts at iRaiser explored how to take it to the next level to offer more engaging and social options for organisations to reach those millennials and their network, and inspire them to participate in online peer-to-peer campaigns.
Introducing, Team Fundraising: a new collective approach
Peer-to-peer team fundraising is the future of strategic and resourceful digital fundraising. Check out our article on how to build a peer-to-peer fundraising strategy with some easy steps.
Essentially, your supporter can now:
- Set up a team fundraising page and identify a common goal
- Invite friends, family, work colleagues and even strangers to join the team
- Each team member has their own unique online fundraising profile, linked to the overall team goal
- Share the profile far and wide via email and social media to spread and increase awareness & donations.
This means that multiple people can now set up profiles and new peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, to collectively support that initial fundraising goal.
This is incredibly impactful. Imagine one of your ambassadors or social influencers creating a team fundraiser and how many individual fundraisers and donations they could attract!
If you think as an organisation, and are thinking of donor acquisition, team fundraising allows for an exponentially higher outreach than traditional individual fundraising campaigns.
For instance, if we were to quantify the donations received by 1 person, who sets up an individual collection, on average they receive 10 donations. Now, 1 person who has five team members can gain up to 50 donations. With every new donor, your organisation grows. And your supporters are doing the growth part for you.
Another aspect, apart from the new profile set up journey of the donor, is that internally and via the system or via email, the team leader and the organisations can now directly interact with the donors and communicate encouraging messages, highlights or achievements.
Having automated emails, triggered emails and these personalised communications, nourish the organisation/donor relationship and improve visibility and transparency. You are essentially providing your supporters a peer-to-peer fundraising platform that you trust them to run. But most importantly, you still have full control.
Team fundraising is extremely powerful for:
At iRaiser, we're excited to see more and more uses of team fundraising and peer-to-peer fundraising across all types of charities!