If your organization runs a walk, a birthday fundraiser program, or any campaign where supporters raise money from their friends, you’re probably acquiring more new donors digitally than you realize.
Research from GoFundMe Pro and GivingTuesday, reported by NonProfit PRO, found that about 40% of first-time donors to the nonprofits studied came through peer-to-peer campaigns between 2022 and 2025. And 77% of peer-to-peer donors were new to the organization, compared with 56% of donors from other kinds of campaigns.
That’s a lot of new names. The problem is what happens next. Most of those donors gave because someone they know asked. They weren’t giving to you, exactly. They were supporting their friend. If you treat them like any other new donor, or don’t treat them at all, many of them will drift away.
Why peer-to-peer donors are different
A donor who finds your website and gives has made a decision about your organization. A donor who gives to a friend’s fundraising page has made a decision about their friend. They may barely remember your name.
That shapes everything about how you follow up. Your first message can’t assume they know your work or care about your mission yet. It has to acknowledge why they gave (to support someone they care about) and then gently introduce why that person cares about your organization.
The same research found that peer-to-peer donors are most likely to give again within the first 90 days after their first gift, with repeat giving dropping off after that compared to other channels. So you have a short window. After three months, the connection to the friend’s campaign fades, and you’re starting over.
Make sure you actually have their information
Before you plan any follow-up, check what your peer-to-peer platform gives you. Does it pass donor names, email addresses, and the name of the fundraiser they gave through into your CRM? Did donors agree to hear from your organization, or only to receive a receipt?
This sounds like a technical detail, but it’s where follow-up plans can fall apart. If donor records arrive weeks late, or without the fundraiser’s name attached, you can’t send a timely, personal message. Fix the data flow before the campaign starts, not after.
A 90-day plan for peer-to-peer donors
Here’s a simple sequence a small team can run. Imagine a literacy nonprofit whose annual walk brings in 600 donors through participants’ fundraising pages, and most of them have never given before.
Within two days: thank them for supporting their friend. Mention the participant by name. “Thank you for supporting Maria’s walk for literacy. Your gift helped her reach her goal and helps kids in our after-school program learn to read.” Keep it short. Don’t ask for anything. Speed matters here for the same reasons behind the 48-hour follow-up rule.
Around week two: show what the whole campaign did. Share the total raised, the number of walkers, and one concrete result. Donors who gave to one person’s page often have no idea it was part of something bigger. This is your first chance to make your organization the main subject instead of their friend.
Around week four: tell one story. One child, one tutor, one specific moment. This is where a donor starts to connect with your mission directly. Our ultimate guide to peer-to-peer fundraising has more on keeping participants and their networks engaged.
Between weeks six and ten: make a clear, modest ask. Invite them to give directly. Keep the ask amount close to what they gave before, and consider a low monthly option. The same research found that only 0.4% of peer-to-peer donors chose to make their gift recurring. It also found that lowering suggested recurring gift levels could increase revenue from peer-to-peer-acquired donors by more than 30%. A $10 a month option may feel small, but it’s a realistic next step for someone who gave $25 to a friend.
After 90 days: move them into your regular program, tagged. Keep a field showing they came from peer-to-peer and which campaign. You’ll want to compare their retention to other new donors.
Ask your participants to help
The person with the strongest relationship to these donors isn’t you. It’s the participant who asked them.
Send each fundraiser a short note after the campaign with a suggested thank-you message they can forward to their own donors. Something like: “Thanks again for supporting my walk. I wanted you to see what our team accomplished,” followed by a link to your campaign results page. A message from a friend is much more likely to be opened than one from an organization the donor barely knows.
You can’t control whether participants send it. But some will if you make it easy, and every one that does extends the relationship you’re trying to build.
What not to do
Don’t add peer-to-peer donors straight into your general appeal schedule. A stranger who gave $25 to their coworker’s fundraiser probably doesn’t want your year-end appeal letter and four emails the following week as their first real introduction to you.
Don’t judge the campaign only by the dollars raised either. A peer-to-peer campaign is also an acquisition campaign. Count how many new donors it brought in and, a year later, how many of them gave again outside the event. That second number is the one that tells you whether your follow-up is working.
Set this up before your next campaign
Pull last year’s peer-to-peer donors. How many were new to your organization? How many gave again within 12 months outside of the event? If you don’t know, that’s your first project.
Then write the five messages above before your next campaign launches, and confirm your platform will deliver donor records with the fundraiser’s name within a day or two. When the gifts start arriving, you’ll be ready to use the 90 days instead of watching them pass.
