The Engage P2P conference by Fundraising Success took place this past week, October 21, with the theme of Redefining Peer-to-Peer. With almost 200 people representing a variety of nonprofits, the one day conference was a huge success. I was there, and broke down the key takeaways from the conference:
- Online Observation. In order to retain and convert peer-2-peer donors online, every organization should be on top their website’s Google Analytics. If you aren’t keeping track of page views, visitors and total time onsite, you could be missing a big piece of the puzzle. These tools will help you to see where people are abandoning the registration process, or leaving parts incomplete. Chances are you may need to simplify your U/X. It’s always good to remember, the fewer paths to complete a registration or donation, the better.
- Focus on the over-achievers. Too often, fundraisers are trying to crack the code of getting those who aren’t fundraising, to fundraise. However, you could be ignoring those who already interact and donate regularly with your organization. By focusing on these donors, you can empower them to do even more, which in turn will help you reach these donor’s extended networks.
- Have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). These don’t have to be a standard metric, like numbers of participants or dollars raised, just an overarching goal that your organization can strive for throughout the year. We recommend choosing a BHAG once a year, something like “trying to be innovative in the world of peer-to-peer,” and having that serve as inspiration for your team to find new solutions and methods.
In addition, the conference had breakout sessions full of conversation about IFE’s, the current hot topic in the peer-to-peer world. We recently hosted a webinar that takes a deeper look at IFE’s, and breaks down industry trends by vertical. This webinar, now available for viewing on demand on our website, can help show you where to start a new IFE program or how to enhance your current one. You can find the webinar here. Remember, if your organization uses peer-to-peer, observe your online data, focus on the over-achievers and have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.