---
name: "peer_to_peer_fundraising"
description: "Run peer to peer fundraising campaigns end to end: set a goal from active fundraiser math, recruit captains first then teams, ship a toolkit with page prompts and copy, coach by segment on a fixed cadence, and close with thanks and a diagnosis so teams return next year. Use when planning a P2P campaign, walk or challenge fundraiser, birthday or giving day peer campaign, or fixing a campaign with many sign ups and little raised."
---

# Peer to Peer Fundraising

## Purpose

Turn supporters into fundraisers who actually raise money, not just sign ups who stall. This skill ships the full system: goal math based on active fundraisers, a captains first recruitment plan, a ready to send toolkit, a week by week coaching cadence, and a close that protects next year.

The central fact of this format: most money comes through personal pages, so the work is coaching people, not polishing a hub page. A campaign with fewer, well supported fundraisers beats a larger list left alone.

## Workflow

1. Set the goal backwards, never forwards. Start from average raised per active fundraiser in your last similar campaign and an honest activation rate, meaning active fundraisers divided by registrants. Run `bin/p2p_plan.py` to get active fundraisers needed, registrants needed, captains needed, and low, plan, and strong activation scenarios. Example: `python3 bin/p2p_plan.py --goal 25000 --avg-per-active 400 --activation-rate 0.5 --team-size 6 --campaign-start 2026-11-03 --weeks 4` returns 63 active fundraisers and 126 registrants at 50 percent activation. If you have no history, derive the average from average gift times donors per active fundraiser and label it an estimate in the plan.

2. Lock one anchor, one story, one deadline. Pick the date the campaign ends: an event day, a giving day such as GivingTuesday on Tuesday December 1, 2026, or an anniversary. Write the case in one paragraph: one problem, one program or person, one outcome, one ask, with a concrete unit for what a set amount covers. Every page, email, and post pulls from that paragraph.

3. Test the platform on a phone before recruiting anyone. Register, build a page, add a photo, share, donate, and receive a receipt, all on a phone, and time it. Fix or work around any step that stalls. Confirm branding, team pages, leaderboards with consent controls, and receipt wording approved by the finance lead before launch.

4. Recruit captains first. Ask past captains and top past fundraisers personally, one to one, 3 to 4 weeks before launch. Captains recruit their own teams. Staff recruiting every individual directly does not scale and skips the peer pressure that makes teams work. After captains, recruit in this order: board members, volunteers, recurring donors, program community members where appropriate, staff, corporate teams. Open public registration last, about a week before launch.

5. Ship the toolkit before the ask to join goes wide. No fundraiser should face a blank page. The toolkit in `references/toolkit-templates.md` contains a page story prompt, launch, update, and final message templates, five short social posts, a how to ask guide built on a list of 10 named people, a captain huddle script, and a paste ready FAQ. Add graphics sized for phone sharing and a named help contact with a response time.

6. Onboard every registrant within 48 hours. Send a personal nudge, not only an automated receipt: add a photo, write the story with the prompt, set a personal goal, list 10 names. Hold a 30 minute kickoff that builds a page live and ends with pages published. Activation is won here. Campaigns that rely on a broadcast post and give no onboarding see far lower activation than campaigns with a kickoff, a toolkit, and personal asks.

7. Coach on a fixed cadence, segmented by state. Follow `references/campaign-calendar.md`: launch week, settle week, mid point push, final week. Send captains a parallel prompt the same day you coach fundraisers, so they push their teams while the message is fresh. Segment every coaching round: zero gift fundraisers get the first ask script, one gift fundraisers get a push to 5 donors, fundraisers close to goal get their exact gap number and a date, fundraisers who hit goal get thanks and an optional stretch. Never raise a personal goal silently.

8. Run the live window with visible progress and consent. Publish the total, donor count, and pages live each week. Show leaderboards only for fundraisers who consented. Highlight new fundraisers and concrete units funded, not only top totals. In the final week state the deadline with date, time, and timezone in every message, and test the donate path again on the final morning.

9. Close fast and thank in layers. Within 24 hours of close, thank every fundraiser with their personal total and team total, and thank every donor. Within a few days send the results report and a short survey. Within a week send the impact note using the same concrete units as the campaign. See `references/metrics-and-diagnosis.md` for the report outline.

10. Diagnose before you plan next year. Compute registrants, active fundraisers, activation rate, average per active fundraiser, donors, and average gift. Name the one limiting lever: recruiting volume, activation, or average per active. Build the return list now: captains and top fundraisers get a personal note and early notice of next year dates months before public recruiting opens.

## Output Contract

A campaign plan must contain: money goal with the planner math and assumptions stated, anchor date and live window length, the one paragraph case with a concrete giving unit, captain list with owner for each ask, recruiting targets by pool, toolkit checklist, coaching calendar with dates, receipt and disclosure check, and the thanks and report dates set before launch.

A toolkit delivery must contain: the page story prompt, the three message templates personalized for the campaign, social posts, graphics, FAQ with finance approved tax wording, and the named help contact.

A post campaign report must contain: total versus goal, the full funnel from the diagnosis reference, team results, the limiting lever with evidence, survey summary, stewardship completed, and no more than three changes for next year, each tied to a number.

## Operating Rules

- Plan on active fundraisers, always. Dividing a goal by registrants, or quoting an average without its denominator, produces a plan that looks fine and misses.
- Outside benchmark averages describe the programs they came from. Large national walks and marathon programs run different math from a first local campaign. Use your own history first, outside numbers only as a labeled sanity check, never as a promise.
- Personal asks recruit and activate. Broadcast posts support them. If a step in the plan is only a public post, add the personal follow up that closes it.
- Keep the live window focused. Four to eight weeks suits most campaigns. Shorter gives fundraisers too little time to work their list. Longer needs a planned mid point push or energy fades.
- Consent controls recognition. No leaderboard, photo, story, or quote use beyond the campaign page without the fundraiser agreeing to it.
- Donor data stays inside the organization systems and platform. Fundraisers thank their own donors through the platform. Do not export or share other teams donor lists with fundraisers.
- In the US, a single gift of 250 dollars or more needs a written acknowledgment with the organization name, the amount, and a statement on goods or services provided. A payment over 75 dollars that is part gift and part purchase needs a written disclosure that only the excess over value received counts, with a good faith estimate. Finance approves exact wording before launch. Outside the US, verify local receipt and solicitation rules from a qualified local source before launch and do not reuse US wording.
- Match offers need written terms before anyone teases them: cap, window, what counts, and who announces it.
- If sign ups are strong and raising is weak, fix activation before recruiting more people. More volume into a broken onboarding path burns the warmest list you have.
- Style for all campaign copy: plain, specific, short. Name the unit, the date, and the next action. Skip hype words and pressure tricks that the facts do not support.

## References

- Fundraiser toolkit with copy templates: `references/toolkit-templates.md`
- Day by day campaign calendar, including a one day giving variant: `references/campaign-calendar.md`
- Metrics definitions, diagnosis, privacy and receipt checklist, report outline: `references/metrics-and-diagnosis.md`
- Goal and calendar planner CLI: `bin/p2p_plan.py`, run with `--help` for all options. Test a plan with `--format json` when another tool needs the numbers.