How do I create a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campagin?

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a crowdfunding method that allows community and volunteers to raise money on behalf of your organization, using their very own fundraising page under your organization (known as a “sub-campaign”). 

Most organizations choose the peer-to-peer fundraising model when they have fundraisers participating in an event, either individually or as a team. Those organizations not running an event, but still wanting outside fundraisers to raise money for them, may want to check out the Do-It-Yourself fundraising model instead.

Step 1: Create Your Campaign

Prior to selecting the Peer-to-Peer Fundraising model, you need to set up a campaign. Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to create one.
Once you've created a campaign, follow these remaining steps!

Step 2: Select the Peer-to-Peer Campaign Option

a) Select EDIT from the left hand side of the page.

b) Click Layout > Peer-to-Peer event > Save

Congratulations! Now you have a Peer-to-Peer campaign.

Step 3: Master Story vs Sub-campaign Story

Campaign stories contain valuable information; however, you will likely want different information posted in your master campaign than what will show in your fundraisers’ sub-campaigns.

Master Campaign Story

There are two types of people you are speaking to with this story: your potential donors and your potential fundraisers. Your donors can contribute to your master campaign if they want to support you but don’t want to fundraise or participate in your event. The story you tell them is the one you want all donors to hear and you will want this story in all sub-campaigns as well.

Your fundraisers, on other hand, will need a bit more information:

1. Why should they fundraise for you? Explain how they are helping you even further, as well as how they themselves can benefit from the event.
2. How do they register? Include any guidelines or special tips they’ll need to know during the registration process (e.g. Start by hitting the “Register” button!)
3. Logistical details about the event itself, such as date, time, and location.
4. Miscellaneous information like prizes, fees, rewards given for participating, etc.

Looking to edit your master campaign story? Click the pencil icon near the Story section of your campaign, or select EDIT from the menu on the left hand side and then STORY. 

Sub-campaign Story

The story written for your sub-campaign will be seen mostly by donors – i.e. your fundraisers’ communities. Your fundraisers can and should add onto the campaign story with their personal content (refer to Step 8: Setting your registrants up for success), however you should still populate your organization’s story about why this campaign is running.

The extra information about fundraising and event details aren’t necessarily needed here; donors want to know why their friend/family member is raising money and how the funds will be used.

To change the story viewed on all sub-campaigns, click Multi-tier in your sidebar menu and then Sub Campaign Content in the sidebar. 

You will then see in the main window an option to include a master story with each sub-campaign. To make this a different story, click on Yes, with custom story and a new editor will pop up. Just remember to click SAVE!

Step 4: Customizing sub-campaign titles

Under the category Multi-tier, select Sub-campaign Content that also provides the option for you to dictate what each fundraiser’s sub-campaign title will be.
The default will carry over the master campaign’s title, but if you click Use Custom Title, you can have the title customized to include each individual or team’s name.

Choose {{first_name}} to only pull an individual’s first name and choose {{name}} to pull their first and last names. Either option will always pull team names as “Team (whatever they choose their team name to be)”.

Step 5: Setting Your Goals

You will have already set your master campaign goal when you set up the campaign itself. However, you still have options for setting the goal(s) for your fundraisers’ sub-campaigns.

There are two different types of goals you can set in a peer-to-peer campaign:

1. Sub-campaign goal – the overall goal of an individual or team’s sub-campaign
2. Team Member goal – the goal set by each member of a team sub-campaign

A. Setting the Sub-Campaign Goal
Go to Multi-tier and then select Multi-tier settings. Scroll down the page until you see Sub-campaign goal.

Static goal - the sub-campaign’s goal will remain the same no matter what the members of a campaign set their personal goal to. If you do NOT want your fundraisers to be able to change this goal, make sure you lock it.

Dynamic goal- means the sub-campaign’s goal will change depending on what each team member sets. If you do NOT want your fundraisers to be able to change the goal on the sub-campaign, make sure you lock it. If you don’t lock it, the goal can be changed, however if another team member joins afterwards, the goal will automatically reset to the new dynamic number.

B. Setting the Team Member Goal

Go to Multi-tier and then click Team Settings. Scroll down the page to Team member goal. You cannot lock this goal; fundraisers will always be able to change it. However, you can set a minimum and only a higher goal will be accepted. If you put in a number and do not make it a required minimum, the amount will show up as a suggestion during the Registration process.

How do I know which combination to choose?

Between these two settings, you have many options. Here are two of the most popular scenarios:

Scenario 1: Each sub-campaign requires one specific goal, no matter how many team members are part of it or what their personal goals are.
• Set the sub-campaign goal as Static and locked.
• A Team member goal is not required, however it is still recommended (no need to make it a required minimum) as guidance for your fundraiser.

Scenario 2: Each individual participant requires a specific goal, no matter if they are part of a team or not.
• Set the sub-campaign goal as Dynamic and locked.
• Set the Team member goal and make it a required minimum.

Tip: When writing about the registration information in your master story, be sure to indicate to your fundraisers if reaching their goal – personal or sub-campaign – is required to participate in your event and describe any 'consequences' of not reaching that goal.

Step 6: Setting up your Registration Form

To register for a peer-to-peer campaign, your potential fundraisers will first be taken through the process to start a CharityVillage Crowdfunding Profile (if they don’t already have one).
Once they have a profile, your fundraisers can register to your peer-to-peer campaign. Without customization, the registration process with take each fundraiser through the following two screens:

Screen 1

Screen 2

CharityVillage only asks for a person’s full name and email upon profile set up. If you do not require any further information from your participants, there is no need to customize the form.

Tip: We don’t recommend asking for information you don’t actually need. This creates a roadblock; if someone is hesitant to provide that information, they may change their mind about signing up.
To see the customizable registration options, click Registration in the sidebar menu:

a)  Individual vs Team

Fundraisers can sign up to participate by themselves (Individual) or as part of a group (Team).
A team allows for multiple profiles (fundraisers) to have membership in one sub-campaign. This allows for competition within a team as well as between teams and individuals.

If you do not want either individuals or teams to be able to register, click Registration in the sidebar menu, and then under Registration settings, optimize your registration for either “Individuals” or “Teams”. Default is both; this is recommended if you don’t have a reason to only want one or the other. Remember to click Save!

b) Endorsement Message

This message will appear on each fundraiser’s page when shared from their personal profile. Even if a fundraiser is part of a team that has only one sub-campaign, their endorsement message will appear when they personally share the campaign from their profile.

Each registrant is asked to write and/or record a personal message during the registration process:

If you would like to turn this feature off, in the Registration menu click Registration form and then select No for Collect Endorsement?

Tip: Disabling this feature is NOT recommended. It allows each fundraiser to add a personal touch, even if they’re part of a team.

c) Customizing your form

Header
Customize your registration form to fit your brand and campaign. A good place to begin is the header. In your Registration menu, click Header content to customize your welcome message and add in some logos and colour in the Custom form.

Registration form
Next is the content of the Registration form itself. Again, the platform only collects the names and emails of each person. However, if you require more information, you can add fields to the form. In your Registration menu, click Registration form, then click Yes on Use custom registration form? You customize your form in the field below.

Play around with the different options in the custom form field to find what suits your needs.

Tip: The ID will be the header for this field’s column in a spreadsheet download, so name it something relevant, with no spaces.

Compliance Message
If you require participants in your event to sign or acknowledge a waiver or compliance message, click Compliance message in your Registration menu, then turn Show compliance message to Yes.

Scroll down for further options. You can require a signature from your registrants, otherwise, they will simply click a button to Accept the terms. You can also link to an outside waiver, which will take the registrant off CharityVillage's landing page and open another tab with your form.

Confirmation message
Customize the confirmation message that appears at the end of the registration process by clicking Confirmation message in your Registration menu and editing in the main menu:

The customized message will appear at the end of the registration process:

Fees and Rewards
If you require fundraisers to pay a fee to enter your event, and/or if you have a reward (e.g. t-shirt) they will receive upon registering, you can incorporate that into the registration process here.
First click Fees & rewards in the registration menu, then Add a fee or reward:

Enter as much information as you need. Each item (fee and/or reward) will be visible to each registrant, no matter if they choose to register as an individual or start/join a team. Fees will be mandatory for the registrant, however, rewards/perks/wish-list items are optional.

If there are multiple fees and rewards, registrants can choose more than one option as well as a quantity (unless you limit them to one per registration). Be sure to include details in your descriptions of the fees and/or rewards so your registrants have all the information they need to choose correctly. As always, make sure you save on the top right!

Tip: If you would like to test how your registration flow looks with these fees and rewards added, you will have to launch your campaign first. Fees, rewards, and donations cannot move forward without launching the campaign. You CAN launch to test, then ‘Pause’ the campaign afterward if you aren’t yet ready to move forward.

Step 7: Gallery

Uploading pictures and videos to your gallery is a wonderful way to add personality and content to any campaign. In a peer-to-peer campaign, it can help your fundraisers feel connected to each other and your cause. You can set your master campaign to congregate all pictures and videos uploaded onto fundraisers’ sub-campaigns into one place. Your gallery is front and center on your campaign.

To have all media from your sub-campaign galleries congregate into your master gallery, go to your Multi-tier menu and click Multi-tier settings, then scroll down to Show aggregate story updates on master? and click Yes:

If a video or picture shows up on your gallery that you do not want included, you can delete it in the gallery itself. Click Add pictures or videos on the bottom-left hand side of the cover photo:

Click on the image you want to delete, and then delete on the bottom-right hand side:

Step 8: Setting your fundraisers up for success

Your fundraisers’ success is your success, therefore we recommend taking some time to help your fundraisers utilize the features available to personalize their sub-campaigns.

As part of your master campaign story, or in a separate communication email sent once a fundraiser registers, encourage your fundraisers to customize the following:

1. Endorsement message – welcome the reader to your campaign and add a line or two summarizing why the cause matters to you. Record a video (a candid one from your mobile device is encouraged!) to really enforce your message.

2. Add in a personal story – every individual or team can personalize the story, above the story from the master campaign:

3. Add photos and videos to the gallery – add relevant photos of yourself and/or your team. Match the tone and feel of the master campaign. Change the cover photo itself to something relevant to you/your team.

4. Change the background photo/colour – the pencil icon at the top-right hand side of the campaign page will take you to the right menu:

5. Update your campaign – update with anything relevant to the campaign (e.g. photos and information on how you are training for a bike race). There isn’t a hard rule on how often this should be done, however once or twice a week is a good guide. You should not simply be asking for donations over and over again; these should be real updates with new information and media.

Step 9: Attributing donations
In the checkout flow, a donor can choose who to attribute their donation to if there is more than one member on a team. If a donation has been made and has not been attributed to the proper fundraiser, or if a fundraiser needs to drop out of your event and wants to change who their funds are attributed to, you can do that in your Transactions report.

In the master campaign, click Transactions in the sidebar menu.

Click on the person’s name under the Attributions column to change to another individual or team.
Tip: Not all the options show automatically, so you may have to type in the name you want.

If you want to change an attribution to the master campaign overall, and not an individual fundraiser, please email help@charityvillage.com.

Tip: If you cannot see the Attributions column in the Transactions list, zoom out of your browser, or click the square arrow icon to view all table options.

Step 10: Retrieving fundraiser information

The details you request from your fundraiser in your custom form will be found in the Fundraisers Report. To get here, click Multi-tier from your master campaign and then Fundraisers in the sidebar menu.

When you download the form, you will find columns containing your customized requests (Note: These are the column headers you entered as an ID field in Step 6 of this guide).

How Can a Fundraiser Join a Team?

There are two ways to join a team. The first is in the registration process; a registrant can pick “Join a team” and choose the team from a dropdown list:

The second is directly from the team’s page. The option is to the right of the Story section:

 

Have questions? Please email help@charityvillage.com