Peer-to-Peer Texting: Enhancing Your Nonprofit Fundraising

More and more nonprofits are taking a page out of political campaigns’ books and ramping up their text fundraising efforts, tapping into the immediacy and accessibility of SMS. But while mass fundraising texts are great for urgent campaigns and large-scale updates, supporters can quickly become tired of generic text appeals if you overuse them.

That’s where peer-to-peer (P2P) texting comes in. One-to-one text messages sent by a staff member or volunteer are more genuine than mass texts and open the door for engaging conversations. Plus, they’re easy to send with the right nonprofit software.

In this quick guide, we’ll discuss how you can use peer-to-peer texts to transform generic text-to-give appeals into meaningful, relationship-building conversations.

The Power of P2P Texting

Rather than automating a broadcast text message, peer-to-peer texting involves a staff member or volunteer sending individual messages to supporters with the goal of starting a conversation. Supporters can text back in real time with questions, feedback, or casual responses, just like they would with any other peer. By doing so, your nonprofit deepens its relationships in a natural, accessible way.

Along with increasing connection and strengthening your donor base, P2P texting can help your organization:

• Make more personal appeals. Text messages feel more personal than emails in the first place, but this is especially true when it’s a staff member or volunteer talking directly to a supporter. They can use first names, past giving data, and genuine emotional appeals over text to inspire donations.
• Answer important donor questions. If a supporter wants more information about a specific campaign or has a question about how you used their last donation, they can receive quick answers in a text conversation.
• Collect more individualized donor data. When donors respond directly to your text messages, you can learn much more about their preferences than you would from just open and click-through rates. For instance, they may share their opinions on your latest event or express interest in a certain program.
• Identify engaged supporters to steward. Supporters who take the time to respond to your texts may be more likely to give, volunteer, or take other actions to support your cause. The texting software you use should enable you to automatically flag those who respond for additional stewardship.

Plus, you can still include links that direct supporters to your nonprofit’s website. Share links to your donation page, event sign-up forms, or campaign pages to inspire action naturally during peer-led conversations.

4 Fundraisers You Can Enhance with Peer-to-Peer Texts

The fundraising use cases for text messaging are endless, but here are a few campaigns that peer-to-peer texts work particularly well for:

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Events

Any time you host a peer-to-peer fundraiser, you want to give extra attention and support to the participants raising money on your organization’s behalf. Text messages help you provide that support in small ways, without overwhelming participants with too much information.

For example, you might have one staff member in charge of texting participants ahead of your walk/run/ride event. As participants collect donations, this staff member can check in with them individually, send reminders and fundraising tips, and answer questions as they come up.

Matching Gift Challenges

When a major donor or corporate sponsor commits to matching all donations to your nonprofit for a limited time, you need to get the word out fast. After sending a mass text to announce the match challenge, use peer-to-peer texting to make individual appeals with personalized ask amounts based on donors’ most recent contributions. Emphasize the donor’s impact in these conversations, and encourage them to act quickly to make an even greater difference.

Giving Days

Urgent fundraisers like GivingTuesday and other 24-hour campaigns require you to send out a lot of messages in a short timeframe. Balance generic announcements and mass update texts with more personal appeals made by volunteers throughout the day.

To make these asks even more compelling, have volunteers identify themselves and speak to their own experiences. For example, one text might read:

Hey, this is Darla with [Nonprofit]. Like you, I believe it’s our responsibility to support immigrant communities, especially in trying times like these. That’s why I’m donating $75 this GivingTuesday and encouraging others to do the same. Can we count on your support?

Donor Reactivation Campaigns

Your donor database can help you identify donors who are at risk of lapsing and need a friendly nudge to stay involved. For instance, Bonterra explains how its donor management software enables dynamic segmentation and intelligent engagement scoring, allowing you to target supporters with the lowest engagement for reactivation campaigns. Peer-to-peer texts are a great way to reach out to these donors with personalized messages that inspire reengagement.

Integrating P2P Texting Into Your Larger SMS Strategy

You don’t have to choose between peer-to-peer texts and broadcast messages. The best social good solutions allow you to do both, helping you access the benefits of one-to-one conversations and quick, mass SMS blasts. Incorporate both types of messaging into your strategy to meet different fundraising and engagement needs.

For example, Infinite Giving’s donor-advised fund (DAF) guide recommends promoting DAF giving opportunities via SMS. Here’s how you might use each type of texting to reach that goal:

• Mass texts: Announcing to your donor base that you now accept donor-advised fund grants, sharing a blog post about how to request DAF grants for your nonprofit, celebrating when you receive a major gift from a DAF
• One-to-one texts: Reaching out to individual donors who you know have DAFs to inform them about the opportunity, sharing information about the benefits of DAFs with an interested major donor, reminding DAF holders to request grants before the year ends

Additionally, keep in mind that any mass text you send could turn into a one-to-one conversation if a recipient directly replies. One donor might get your DAF announcement message and respond with a question, opening the door for a longer peer-to-peer exchange.

Adding Texts to Any Nonprofit Fundraiser

Now that you understand the benefits and use cases of peer-to-peer texting, you can leverage it for virtually any campaign. Want to show your appreciation for volunteers after an event? Update a supporter on the impact of their last gift? You can drive efficiency and impact with peer-to-peer texts.