Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION4

1 | WHY YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON

FUNDRAISER RETENTION 5

People Give to People 5

2 | SET GOALS FOR FUNDRAISER RETENTION EFFORTS7

3 | PROVIDE THE BEST FUNDRAISING EXPERIENCE8

Easy-to-Use Software 8

Tap Into Personal Networks 8

4 | HOW CLASSY FOR FACEBOOK

HELPS YOUR FUNDRAISERS RAISE MORE10

How It Works 10

Two Campaigns for the Work of One 10

Set Up Automated Milestone Emails 11

Increase Motivation Through Peer Engagement  12

Switch Up the Ask  12

Create a Community  13

Steward Facebook Donors Through Your Fundraisers  13

5 | ENGAGE AND COACH YOUR FUNDRAISERS14

Fundraisers Who Have a Facebook Fundraiser  14

Fundraisers Who Don't Yet Have a Facebook Fundraiser  15

6 | ASSESS YOUR EFFORTS

WITH STREAMLINED REPORTING16

Synced Campaign Progress  16

Controlled Timing  17

Deeper Insights  18

Easier Reconciliation  19

7 | CONCLUSION20
Introduction
Peer-to-peer fundraisers are among your nonprofit’s most valuable supporters. A successful

fundraising strategy focuses on building a sustainable peer-to-peer program that keeps

fundraisers coming back.

One of the simplest ways to help retain these valuable supporters is to make sure they have a

positive and meaningful fundraising experience. You need to give your fundraisers the tools to

easily create their own personal fundraising pages, share those pages through multiple channels,

and keep them motivated to reach their goals.

This guide will demonstrate why your nonprofit should focus on fundraiser retention and how

you can leverage Classy and Facebook together to spread your mission through your supporters’

networks, raise more money, and ultimately improve fundraiser retention rates.

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1 | Why You Should Focus on
Fundraiser Retention
Peer-to-peer fundraisers tap into their networks to raise more for your organization than what

they could give out of their own wallets. When they come back and fundraise again, they actually

multiply in value. Classy platform data found that return fundraisers are three times as valuable

as one-time donors, and that those return fundraisers typically raise over twice as much

(126%) as one-time fundraisers.1

Return fundraisers are likely passionate about your mission, have seen success in their past

fundraising, and found it rewarding to spend their time and energy making an impact—especially

if the fundraising process was simple and easy. Each experience adds to their fundraising

savvy, and the more you encourage them to come back, the more they’ll be able to raise for

your organization.

To give first-time fundraisers a similar advantage, create a set of resources and

examples to set them up for success. As with any first-time experience, a positive result
will motivate them to come back and do it again.

People Give to People

Another reason your peer-to-peer fundraisers are so valuable is that people are most likely to

subscribe to a cause that affects their loved ones. Classy’s report, Why America Gives, surveyed

1
Classy, "The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019." https://go.classy.org/reports/the-state-of-modern-
philanthropy-2019

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consumers on their giving habits ahead of Giving Tuesday and year-end fundraising and found

that almost half of respondents (46%) said they are prompted to give unexpectedly if a family

member or friend asks them to do so.2

Additionally, 50% of those survey respondents stated that a friend or family member being

personally affected by a cause would motivate them to routinely give. So while

you may have historically viewed peer-to-peer fundraising and recurring donor

efforts separately, there is data to suggest these two are closely related. By

investing in your fundraisers, you are also opening yourself up to a network of

potential return or recurring donors.

Only 14% of fundraisers return, however.3 So the

question is, how can you increase your average

fundraiser return rate to 50%, 60%, 70%?

Increase it by giving your first-time fundraisers a seamless, intuitive fundraising experience. This

won’t just help them raise more money for your mission, but it will also give them the satisfaction

of success and feeling of making an impact. They’ll remember these positive emotions when you

send an appeal asking them to fundraise again.

Before we dig into strategies to help your fundraisers be more successful, let’s find out how your

team can lay the groundwork for a fundraiser retention strategy.

2
Classy, "Why America Gives: How Current Events, Technology, and Seasonality Impact Donor Plans."
https://go.classy.org/why-america-gives-special-report
3
Classy, "The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019." https://go.classy.org/reports/the-state-of-modern-
philanthropy-2019

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2 | Set Goals for
Fundraiser Retention Efforts
In order to evaluate your success and improve your fundraiser retention, you need a goal to

work towards, metrics to track, and an ideal outcome to measure against.

There are a few ways to measure your fundraiser engagement. Use the following questions to

help your team set specific, measurable, ambitious/attainable, relevant, time-based (SMART)

goals to work towards.

1 How many return fundraisers do you have?

2 On average, how many new fundraisers do you acquire per campaign?

3 What is your fundraiser activation rate/How many $0 fundraisers do you have?

4 What is the average amount raised by your fundraisers?

5 How many power fundraisers do you have per campaign?

Once your team has gathered the above stats to set your benchmarks, you can set goals to

improve these metrics. The main theme we’re going to focus on is how you can provide the best

overall fundraising experience by leveraging Classy and Facebook together.

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3 | Provide the Best Fundraising Experience
It’s up to your team to make the fundraising experience as smooth (and fun) as possible for your

peer-to-peer fundraisers. One way you can do this is by making it nearly impossible for them to

not raise any money.

Easy-to-Use Software
The first step to provide that stellar experience is to use the right fundraising software. A

fundraiser should be able to easily create a page and start raising money; otherwise, you risk

them feeling frustrated and abandoning their effort before they even get started.

Since Classy is built with supporters in mind—offering mobile-first fundraising pages with

advanced editing, sharing, and management tools—we are confident in our ability to give your

first-time fundraisers that ideal, easy experience.

Another important factor of fundraiser retention is the experience had by third-party donors.

Are these donors able to easily give to fundraisers’ personal fundraising pages? If the donation

process is clunky and that feedback is shared with the fundraiser, the fundraiser may be less

likely to raise money on behalf of your nonprofit again.

Luckily, Classy’s focus on user experience, intuitive design, and customer feedback ensures we

are giving donors a seamless, quick, donation experience.

Tap Into Personal Networks

As we mentioned earlier, people tend to give more often to friends, coworkers, family members,

or even acquaintances. This may be enhanced by social proof, the concept that a person will

follow suit in the thoughts or actions already validated by others. The clearest example of social

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proof is the heavy influence of ratings, reviews, and referrals in today’s market. When

was the last time you made a purchase, booked a hotel, or tried a restaurant without looking

for a review?

It’s a similar train of thought when a potential supporter sees their friend or family member

fundraise on behalf of a cause. Not only is the individual more inclined to donate because of

their personal connection to the fundraiser, but they are also inherently more trusting of their

friends and family than an ad or appeal served up by an unfamiliar nonprofit. Classy platform

data even shows that 76% of all donations to a peer-to-peer campaign are made to

individuals’ fundraising pages, not to the organization’s campaign page.4

Your nonprofit can tap into this behavior by encouraging your fundraisers to share their pages

with their entire networks.

This is where Classy for Facebook comes in.

We developed this integration to give nonprofits a tool that allows their fundraisers to connect

their Classy fundraising pages with their Facebook fundraising efforts. Classy for Facebook syncs

your fundraisers’ efforts across platforms, enabling you to easily expand your reach, multiply

your fundraisers’ impact, and ultimately motivate and retain more fundraisers.

Below we’ll go over how your nonprofit can leverage this integration to give fundraisers what

they want (easy fundraising), while getting what you want: streamlined reporting, donor

stewardship opportunities, and the ability to engage your fundraisers.

4
Classy, “The State of Modern Philanthropy: Examining Online Fundraising Trends.” https://go.classy.org/reports/
the-state-of-modern-philanthropy

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4 | How Classy for Facebook
Helps Your Fundraisers Raise More

How It Works
The Classy for Facebook integration can be used for peer-to-peer or registration with fundraising

campaigns created on Classy. Once a fundraiser creates a personal fundraising page on Classy,

the integration allows them to duplicate their Classy page to Facebook. This pushes over their

personal story, hero image, and fundraising goal to create a new “Facebook fundraiser,” allowing

them to receive donations on either channel and keep the giving experience seamless for donors.

The individual’s fundraising progress stays completely in sync between Classy and Facebook.

Two Campaigns for the Work of One

After creating a personal fundraising page on Classy, fundraisers can easily stretch their efforts

and their reach by pushing their personal fundraising page to Facebook, creating a Facebook

fundraiser with no extra work. This immediately opens them up to receive possible donations

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from distant family, fringe friends, and people they might not feel comfortable reaching out to

but might give after seeing their fundraising activity. Remind your fundraisers that this is the

beauty and power of Facebook; you never know who among your distant connections might

donate to your effort.

Meanwhile, fundraisers should still email their immediate networks and share their Classy

fundraising pages. When friends and family donate through these Classy pages, your nonprofit

receives valuable donor information (such as email addresses), enabling you to reach out to say

thank you and nurture these third-party donors into lifetime supporters.

Set Up Automated Milestone Emails

Since the fundraising progress stays in sync on both platforms, your nonprofit can set up

automated emails through Classy that trigger once fundraisers hit certain milestones during

their campaign. For example, when they reach 50% of their goal, you can share a note of thanks,

an encouragement to keep going, and tips on how to communicate their progress in their next

round of social media posts, emails, or texts to their network. When they receive their first

donation over $50, you can send them a silly GIF of your team cheering them on.

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By writing and setting up automated emails ahead of time through Classy Manager, your

nonprofit can easily share tips and motivate individual fundraisers to hit their goals, while giving

your team more time to address feedback and focus on your communications strategy.

Increase Motivation Through Peer Engagement

Fundraisers can easily lose motivation if they create personal fundraising pages but don’t quite

know how to promote them and fail to see any response. This can be especially true for first-time

fundraisers who don’t know where to start, or might not take further steps beyond creating a

fundraising page.

The easy step of pushing their page onto

Facebook guarantees an audience, and even

before they receive a donation, the likes,
comments, or encouragement that come in can
provide the validation and push they need to
keep going.
Switch Up the Ask
Additionally, if fundraisers have already tapped
their immediate networks for donations once
this year, it might be time to expand their reach
and change their ask.
Last year, I created a personal fundraising page
for my birthday and aimed to raise $1,050 from
friends and family in one week. I set a personal
goal to receive $35 from 30 different people, and
on the last day of my campaign, I had received 29
donations from my friends and family.
Since I had already tapped my social network,
my mom decided to share my fundraising
page on her Facebook page. Because of this, I
received a donation from a woman she went
to elementary school with and had not talked
to in over a decade. Through my mom sharing
my fundraising campaign, I was able to exceed
my goal (because more people saw her post and
donated) and it reached people I would not have
been able to reach on my own Facebook page.

Beyond raising funds for the organization,

By sharing their campaign on Facebook, they
can reach more people and also switch the
appeal by asking their network to share their
my fundraiser brought in 34 new individuals that
the nonprofit was able to add to their donor base!
Brooke McKiernan
Classy Account Executive

Like Comment Share

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page instead of making a direct donation. Asking for a share is one of the core concepts that

makes peer-to-peer fundraising so powerful because it stretches the reach of your campaign

exponentially. With each share, your nonprofit increases awareness while tapping a new pool of

potential donors or fundraisers.

Create a Community
Facebook can also keep fundraisers motivated by creating a place for them to connect with

one another. Your nonprofit team can create a Facebook group for its fundraisers and facilitate

conversations, or allow your power fundraisers or team captains to take the lead. Once the

groups are created, your staff can jump in to share tips, ideas, feedback, encouragement, and

celebrate your fundraisers’ successes.

Steward Facebook Donors Through Your Fundraisers

Encourage your peer-to-peer fundraisers to use Facebook’s pillar functions (the like button,

shares, comments, and messages). If they are thanking their donors, liking their comments, and

showing gratitude when someone shares their campaign, they can act as your agents of donor

stewardship.

You may not be able to interact with your fundraisers’ Facebook donors directly, but by training

your fundraisers to proactively engage with their networks, you can help create that positive

experience for the donor—which can bring them back to donate.

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5 | Engage and Coach Your Fundraisers
Through the Classy for Facebook integration, donation data coming through Facebook

fundraising pages that are connected to Classy will populate right inside your Classy account.

With Classy you can instantly identify those who have or have not pushed their fundraising pages

to Facebook. This allows you to segment your fundraisers and send them tailored emails that

either encourage them to connect their fundraising pages to Facebook or congratulate them for

doing so, all within Classy Manager.

Here are a few ways you can take advantage of Classy for Facebook’s segmentation and filtering

to improve your fundraiser communications.

Fundraisers Who Have a Facebook Fundraiser

Filter by those who have already pushed their fundraising page through to Facebook and
congratulate them for taking that next step. Consistent communication and encouragement
go a long way in stewarding your fundraisers and helping them feel valued, so make sure
your team is reaching out from the beginning.

This is also a great way to demonstrate how encouragement can impact a supporter’s
experience and remind your fundraisers to engage and thank their donors throughout the
process. Your fundraisers can learn from your example how to engage their donors, connect
with their audience, and demonstrate the impact that each donation has on the campaign.

Share best practices, tips, and examples of how your fundraisers can engage their audiences.
For example, you can share links to your nonprofit videos, beneficiary stories, and other
materials you use in your own outreach so they can supplement their asks with engaging
information about your work. This can help their audience learn more about your mission
and demonstrate that your fundraiser is committed to the cause.

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 Fundraisers Who Don’t Yet Have a Facebook Fundraiser

Create a segmented list of fundraisers who haven’t yet pushed their Classy fundraising page
to Facebook to encourage them do so, reminding them it only takes a few clicks to duplicate
their Classy fundraising campaign to Facebook. Since both their Classy campaign and
Facebook fundraiser will automatically update with each donation made, they’ll be able to
easily track their progress.

If a few weeks go by and you want to give fundraisers extra motivation to push their
campaign to Facebook, have your executive director email them saying he or she will make
a $10 donation to the first 10 people to create a Facebook fundraiser through their Classy
campaign page.

Decrease your number of $0 fundraisers by encouraging them to push their campaign to

Facebook to get that first donation. As we mentioned above, simply sharing on Facebook
can help motivate them through increased engagement, immediate responses, and positive
feedback from friends and family.

This is also a good time to invite them to any Facebook groups that your team or power
fundraisers have created to make sure they feel like a valued part of your community. They
can gain tips and insight from seasoned fundraisers and feel more empowered to continue
working towards their goal.

illustration

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6 | Assess Your Efforts
With Streamlined Reporting
In addition to creating a seamless and positive experience for your fundraisers, the goal of Classy

for Facebook is to help you spread your reach and arm your team with the tools to measure your

success.

Many nonprofits have had reservations about investing more in fundraising on Facebook

because the reporting process has been manual, disjointed, or cumbersome for their team.

That’s why we focused on creating a convenient integration that will alleviate some of these pain

points.

Synced Campaign Progress

Whether a fundraiser receives a donation through Classy or Facebook, their progress-to-goal and

donation total remain in sync on both fundraising pages. This will give your team a holistic view

of how your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are performing across both platforms. You can

also identify power fundraisers and understand how Facebook plays into their success.

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Controlled Timing
One of the benefits of Classy for Facebook is that your team can control if and when you turn on

the integration for each of your peer-to-peer or registration with fundraising campaigns.

For example, you may encourage your fundraisers to share their Classy fundraising page first

so that you get as much donor data as possible, before using Facebook to get donations. If your

annual 5K campaign runs for three months you can wait until there’s one month left to turn

on Classy for Facebook. Then you can encourage fundraisers to tap into those larger networks

during the last month when they have a sense of urgency and are closer to reaching their goal.

This helps fundraisers raise as much money as possible, while allowing your nonprofit to acquire

donor data that will let you steward these third-party donors beyond the individual campaign.

This ability to control when your fundraisers leverage Facebook also helps you set benchmarks

and pivot your strategy based on when your fundraisers are seeing the most impact with

Facebook. Maybe it’s the most useful to help them get their initial donations, and you turn it on

at the onset of a campaign. If your team sees that the true power comes when fundraisers have

a rush of energy leading up to the close of a campaign and they need that push over the finish

line, you can wait to turn it on closer to the campaign end date.

This flexibility also allows your team to establish your own best practices and pivot your strategy

in real time. For example, if you find that your fundraisers who push their pages to Facebook

raise 20% more than fundraisers who don’t push a campaign to Facebook, your team can

prioritize sending communication and resources around Facebook fundraising. Or, if your first

campaign with Classy for Facebook acquires so many third-party donors through Facebook that

you’re concerned about the lack of stewardship opportunity (since only a small percentage

opt in to share their email address when donating through Facebook), you can choose

to turn on the integration closer to your campaign end date for a donation boost.

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Deeper Insights
When you activate Classy for Facebook, you will have access to a dedicated Facebook

transactions report to see a holistic view of how your fundraisers are using Facebook

to fundraise.

This dedicated report, along with the ability to add Facebook data to any of your standard or

custom reports, will help your team easily uncover insights about fundraisers who are

receiving donations through Facebook. The ability to view transactions and totals for all of

your fundraising pages for a given campaign, either individually or combined with Facebook

transactions, makes it simple for your team to analyze the success of your fundraisers and gauge

the most successful channels.

These reports will also help you quickly compare results of fundraisers who leveraged Facebook

versus those who didn’t. With these actionable insights automatically uploaded into Classy

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Manager, your team saves the time it previously would have spent manually inputting Facebook

transaction data.

Easier Reconciliation
Allocating Facebook funds to specific programs can be a tedious and manual process. You may

not currently know which program to which you should allocate Facebook funds because it all

comes in one lump sum. With Classy for Facebook, your fundraisers create personal fundraising

pages for an existing peer-to-peer campaign set up by your organization.

When fundraisers push their fundraising pages to Facebook, you'll easily be able to identify and

allocate the donations coming through Facebook to the appropriate program.

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Conclusion
If your fundraisers are happy, they will come back. Leverage easy-to-use fundraising software,

offer consistent communication and engagement, and coach them on how to efficiently

fundraise, so you can create a network of power fundraisers who are ready to support your

nonprofit time and time again.

We hope you use the data and tips in this guide to evolve your team’s peer-to-peer fundraising

strategy into a sustainable source of funds. Make the most of your first-time fundraisers and

increase their likelihood of coming back by providing a meaningful and rewarding fundraising

experience—because your fundraisers’ success is your success.

#1

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 Improve Your Fundraiser
Retention Rates
Learn more about Classy for Facebook and how it can evolve your strategy.

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