10 weeks to promote

your peer-to-peer
fundraising event on
social media
Introduction
A lot of hard work goes into a successful nonprofit peer-to-peer event, including its
promotion plan. In this guide, we will dive into how a nonprofit organization can plan
and execute a social media campaign to engage supporters, boost cause awareness,
and generate funds.

You’ll learn how to set goals and prioritize different social channels, along with how to
implement your campaign before the event. Finally, to help you cover your bases when
it comes to social media, we’ve created a simple, clear and helpful 10 weeks plan that's
ready to be put into action!

Remember, with your community spending more time at home and online, social media
remains a powerful channel to reach your audience and promote your campaign. Many
of us are seeking ways to connect with others and feel a sense of community during
this time, and through social media, you can offer this to your supporters.

Happy planning!

As we all know, the nonprofit world has felt the impacts of Covid-19 hit close to
home. So you may ask yourself how to manage the transition from “physical
fundraising events” to “virtual fundraising events”. To get useful information
about how to revamp your traditional peer-to-peer events, we invite you to
look at our dedicated webinar we hosted in March 2021.

2
01
PLANNING
Even though social media is often seen as a very timely and instant
marketing channel, preparation always makes a huge difference in
your success. Before you jump into publishing and engaging with
supporters, you need to have a solid strategy that covers what you
want to achieve and how you are going to do it.
01 planning

Goal Settings
Like any fundraising campaign, the first step to
success is setting the right goals. With social
media, however, it can seem complicated. What
should you focus on? Sale tickets? Social
engagement? Getting your hashtag trending? It's a
good idea to take a step back and think about
your goals for the event itself. From there, ask
yourself how your social media campaign can
support these goals.

For example, an organization hosting a virtual 5k run might set the following objectives:
• Acquire 100 registered attendees.
• Generate $10,000 in sponsorship revenue.
• Increase the public's awareness of the organization and their cause.

They would then ask how social media could support these goals.
Acquire 100 registered attendees:
• Social media can drive online registration.
• Social media sharing can recruit attendees from your supporters’ social networks.
Generate $10,000 in sponsorship revenue.
• Social media presence can be an attractive quality for potential sponsors.
• Social media can promote sponsorship opportunities to businesses.
Increase the public's awareness of the organization and their cause.
• Social media can drive awareness for the cause, around the virtual event.
• The virtual event’s social media campaign can generate new followers, which can be
reengaged.

Once you've considered how social media can support the overall goals of your event, the
next step is to take these opportunities and turn them into specific, quantifiable goals.

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01 planning

For this, you should ask yourself if these goals are “SMART” :

S
Specific (simple,
M
Measurable
a
Achievable (agreed,
r
Relevant
T
Time-bound (time-based,
sensible, significant). (meaningful, attainable). (reasonable, realistic time limited, time/cost
motivating). and resourced, limited, timely,
results-based). time-sensitive).

Here’s an example of a typical goal an event organiser might have:

“ I want my event to be more successful.”

This is a worthy goal, but the problem is that it’s essentially impossible to know if and when
you’ve completed it successfully. The solution is to structure your goals to be as specific
and clear as possible, using the SMART framework as a guide. This has been around for a
while, because it works.

1 Specific
Your goal should be as specific as possible. Using our example of “I want my event to be
more successful”, what does that actually mean? There are many ways for an event to be
more successful: more attendees, higher customer satisfaction, more profitable, etc. Be as
specific as possible in defining what you want to do.

Instead of: “I want my event to be more successful”

Use: “I want my event to generate more revenue than last year.”

2 Measurable

How will you know when you’ve actually achieved your goal? It needs to be as measurable
as possible. A good guide here is that goals shouldn’t be binary (yes/no, success/failure),
but instead should allow a range of outcomes.

Instead of: “I want my event to generate more revenue than last year”

Use: “I want my event to generate 100% more revenue than last year”

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01 planning

3 Achievable
This may sound obvious, but it’s important to set a goal that you can actually achieve with
the resources you have available. Stretch goals can be helpful to keep you and your team
motivated, but a goal that’s totally unrealistic will have the opposite effect.

Instead of: “I want my event to generate 100% more revenue than last year”

Use: “I want my event to generate 30% more revenue than last year”

4 Relevant

Your goals need to be relevant to you and what you want to achieve. If you have a goal that
you feel isn’t currently a top priority for you or your business, consider either dropping it or
refocusing elsewhere.

Instead of: “I want my event to generate 30% more revenue than last year”

Use: “I want my event to generate 30% more revenue than last year, from ticket
sales”

5 Time-bound

Your goals need a deadline. Setting an end point that isn’t too far in the future will help
keep you motivated, and will turn the goal into something actionable.

Instead of: “I want my event to generate 30% more revenue than last year, from
ticket sales”

Use: “I want my event to generate 30% more revenue than last year, from ticket
sales, in the next 6 months”

Now you have a SMART goal. Rather than the vague “I want my event to be more
successful” you have the much clearer and far more motivating “I want my event to
generate 30% more revenue from ticket sales in the next 6 months”.

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01 planning

Prioritizing Platforms
Unless you have a large social media team that
is constantly testing new platforms, you can’t
succeed on every social channel. There are
simply too many and they change too quickly.

The good news is that you don’t need to master

every social platform to create an effective social
media campaign. In fact, your best bet is to focus
on one or two channels and create a long-term,
comprehensive plan.

Your most important platforms will probably be

among these top four:

Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter

69% of adults 37% of adults 27% of adults 22% of adults
67% of age 18-29 37% of age 30-49 38% of age 18-29
51% of college
graduates

Depending on your audience, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok or some other channel might be
appropriate. The important questions to ask are “Where is my organization most
successful?” and “Which platforms does our audience use?”

For example, when planning a social media campaign for an upcoming event, maybe you
choose to focus on Facebook and Instagram promotions based on your supporters'
browsing interests. Instagram lets you post graphic-heavy content that engages them from
one side while Facebook opens the doors for more fleshed out content they can't get on
Instagram.

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01 planning

Content Creation
Social media is ultimately a tool for creating and
sharing content, so content creation is a key
component of planning your event’s social media
campaign. Much like when choosing your platforms,
consider what kind of content has performed best for
your organization, and ask yourself what kind of
content opportunities this event presents. The most
common types of social media content are: text,
images, graphics and videos.

While visual content can require more resources,

smartphones now allow almost anyone to take
high-quality pictures and videos. A carefully produced
promotion video might get lots of views and shares on
Facebook, but a short, unedited video of a memorable
moment might perform just as well.

While simple or spontaneous content can be a

valuable part of a social media campaign, this planning
stage is the perfect time to create some basic visual
assets or text copy you can use again and again. If your
event has a logo, resize the image to fit on your social
media profile. Create a few taglines and brainstorm
ideas for announcements, appeals, and other
promotional posts.

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01 planning

Start with the following assets:

• Images for your social media profiles
(both your avatar and background
image)
• Logos you can add to images or videos
to establish your brand
• Your unique event hashtag and a few
related hashtags to help your posts get
discovered
• Some basic copy to announce,
describe, and promote the event.

Of course, since social media is constantly moving, you probably won’t be able to create all
your content ahead of time. But you can make a plan for how you will collect content during
the campaign.

These prior steps will put your organization in a great position when you begin promoting
your event. In chapter two, we’ll cover how to generate awareness, excitement, and
content in the weeks leading up to the big day.

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02
PRE-EVENT
PROMOTION
Successful event promotion starts long before the big day. Your
event’s social media presence should start way before the event itself.
In this chapter, you’ll learn what objectives you should focus on before
the event, how to plan your calendar around major announcements,
and how to continually engage your audience to spread the word and
generate excitement.
02 pre-event promotion

Pre-Event Objectives

While you will probably have several

goals for your event’s social media
campaign, your initial focus will be on
overall awareness and registration/ticket
sales. Your big virtual running event won’t
be much fun if no one knows about it or
buys a bib.

Once supporters are on board with your event, they become valuable partners in
promotion. Even after someone has registered, engage with them on social media to help
your event get noticed by others.

Pre-event social media activity can also recruit and engage sponsors. If you’re still looking
for sponsorship partners, it’s always best to go through an in-person connection, but
showing a company some love on Twitter can also go a long way.

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02 pre-event promotion

The tentpole marketing strategy

What is a tentpole marketing strategy?
Think of a movie that hasn’t come out yet. A big movie, that’s making a lot of noise at the
moment. This is a movie that’s probably already cost a lot of money to make and it’s a good
bet that the studio is expecting to turn a pretty healthy profit from it. In fact, this is exactly
why they want you to know about it weeks, or even months, before it goes on general
release. And it is the same for your peer-to-peer fundraising event.

For those of you still wondering what any of this has to do with tents, the “tentpole”, in
tentpole marketing, actually refers to the pinnacle of buzz generated before and after an
event, highlighted by a curve on a graph which looks similar to the shape of a circus tent.

Pre-Buzz The Event Post-Buzz

Metaphorically, you can use major announcements and milestones as the tent poles of
your social media campaign. For instance, an event’s promotion will usually start with
the announcement of the event or, in the case of annual events, the announcement of
this year’s event date. Content immediately after that can describe the event and give
context to your audience about who should attend.

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02 pre-event promotion

The next tent pole might be the announcement that tickets are on sale or registration is
open. From there, your social media posts could focus on driving people to the registration
page.

The idea is to have one main message at a time and to repeat it, rephrase it, and add more
details until it’s time for the next announcement or message.

Some important announcements you can use to guide your messaging could be:
• Initial announcement of the event
• Registration/ticket sales announcement
• Entertainment announcement
• Pricing changes
• Deadlines for entry/registration/participation

Use these announcements to outline your content calendar and plan what to post as the
event approaches.

Repetition and Reinforcement

Repetition may sometimes become annoying,
but it’s often necessary to get things done.
Many nonprofit professionals worry that they
will post too much or that repeating a
message or appeal will bother supporters
and drive them away. But on social media,
particularly on fast moving platforms like
Twitter and Facebook, repetition isn’t just
necessary, it’s expected. Your supporters will
understand that you are promoting your
event because it ultimately supports your
mission, a mission that they also care about.

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02 pre-event promotion

In fact, what your followers experience probably isn’t as repetitive as you think. Only a
fraction of your social audience will actually see any particular one of your posts, and
even fewer will engage with it by clicking, liking, or sharing. So don’t be afraid to post
about your event often.

It is a good idea, however, to vary the way you

present your message. If you are currently focused
on getting people to register online, you could
promote this on Facebook in a number of ways:

• A straightforward ask for people to register

• A fun image showing an event highlight with a link
to the registration page
• Text or image posts that show particular activities
or features of the event

As long as you include a link for potential attendees, you can vary your delivery while
keeping a fairly consistent message.

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02 pre-event promotion

Additional ways to generate engagement

Along with simply getting your message out, building excitement and supporter
participation is an important part of your pre-event social media campaign. Here are
several strategies you can use to generate engagement and spread the word about your
event by getting your followers involved:

HASHTAGS

#
If you want people to post about and promote your
event, it’s a good idea to have a designated hashtag.
This will allow you to easily track and promote posts
related to your event. Start using your event hashtag
early on to make sure people know about it and use it.

INFLUENCERS
On social media, almost anyone can build a large
following and become influential in their field. Influencer
engagement is a great strategy for your nonprofit’s
overall social presence, but it can also be deployed
specifically to promote your event.

CONTESTS
You can also incite tons of engagement on social media
through simple contests. For example, you could ask
supporters to post a favorite picture or memory from
last year’s event and choose a winner to receive a free
ticket this year. You can also ask supporters to like and
share your post and choose a winner from those who
do. Another strategy is to ask your followers to tag
friends they think would be interested in the event.

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03
YOUR 10
WEEKS PLAN
Now that you’ve understood all key elements of your strategy, it is
time to act. So we’ve created this helpful 10 weeks checklist.
Rather than follow it week by week, you can work ahead and use
this for helpful reminders along the way.
 03 your 10 weeks plan

WEEK 1
Meeting. Start weekly meetings with your marketing team;
Monday
define your goals.

Tuesday Select platforms, specify goals on each of them.

Wednesday Determine staff/volunteers needed for social media support.

Create a spreadsheet listing all posts that need to be scheduled

Thursday to go out before, during, and after your event. Think about your
tentpole strategy.

Friday Define and create your content.

WEEK 2
Meeting: Review event timeline and the cadence of your social
Monday
posts before, during, and after event.

Determine design assets needed to go out before, during, and

Tuesday
after the event.

Pass off all event-related requests to design team or begin

Wednesday
working on design assets yourself.

Write the detailed copy for all content that will go out during and
Thursday
after the event.

Schedule all pre-planned content that will go out before, during,

Friday
and after the event

Notes

17
 03 your 10 weeks plan

WEEK 3
Meeting: Discuss posts about event sponsors to go out before,
Monday
during, and after the event

Write copy for all posts acknowledging sponsors to go out

Tuesday
before, during, and after the event

Wednesday Schedule out all posts related to sponsors

Tweet directly to your followers or other influencers, invite them

Thursday
to your event, and share details

Friday Create a Facebook Event for your event and post here weekly

WEEK 4
Meeting: Discuss supporting roles for social media
Monday
monitoring/posting during the event

Reach out to current volunteer base or volunteer-matching

Tuesday
organizations for social media support during the event

Create a schedule outlining volunteer responsibilities across all

Wednesday
social channels during the event, hour by hour

Update your social media profiles and information to promote

Thursday
the event

Find relevant LinkedIn Groups and invite group members to

Friday
event

Notes

18
 03 your 10 weeks plan

WEEK 5
Meeting: Consider your event timeline and decide when you will
Monday
supplement pre-scheduled content with live content

Tuesday Update calendars to reflect when live posting is needed

If you have the budget, invest in paid social media ads; this is
Wednesday
one place to use design assets

Tweet directly to your followers or other influencers and invite

Thursday
them to the event

Update all of your social media profiles with applicable design

Friday
assets to promote the event

WEEK 6
Meeting: Discuss how to activate your donor base and
Monday
volunteers on social media

Interview all volunteer candidates for social media support

Tuesday
during the event.

Create document listing all speakers and important attendees

Wednesday
and their Twitter handles

Email donors, fundraisers, and current attendees to promote the

Thursday
event on social media

Select social media volunteers for the event and send

Friday
confirmations

Notes

19
 03 your 10 weeks plan

WEEK 7
Meeting: Discuss social media language guidelines for staff and
Monday
volunteers during the event.

Create a staff/volunteer guidelines document with suggestions

Tuesday
on how to post on social media during the event

Update your speaker document (if needed) with any changes to

Wednesday
speakers, important attendees, and their Twitter handles

Create documents detailing roles and responsibilities for all

Thursday
social media contributors during the event

Email staff the social media event guidelines, role descriptions,

Friday
and responsibilities

WEEK 8
Meeting: Discuss how you will monitor your social media during
Monday
the event (social media desk, phone app, management tool, etc.)

Touch base with social media volunteers to discuss onsite roles

Tuesday
and expectations

Update your speaker document (if needed) with any changes to

Wednesday
speakers, important attendees, and their Twitter handles

Email all current donors and fundraisers asking them to help

Thursday
promote the event on social media

Friday Finalize your monitoring plan during the event

Notes

20
 03 your 10 weeks plan

WEEK 9
Meeting: Discuss your final week-of social media push on all
Monday
channels to create buzz leading up to the event

Ensure you have all assets needed from the design team and
Tuesday
schedule out all remaining posts using designed images

Update your speaker document (if needed) with any changes to

Wednesday
speakers, important attendees, and their Twitter handles

Email all current event supporters/attendees asking them to

Thursday
help promote the event on social media

Begin your final social push; schedule countdown posts for each
Friday
day from now until event

WEEK 10
Meeting: Discuss any final details and run through the event
Monday
hour by hour with your social media schedule

Double-check all of your pre-scheduled posts to go out during

Tuesday
the event for accuracy

Change passwords to your social media profiles and send them

Wednesday
to all volunteers and staff who need access

Thursday Email the document list to your speakers

You did it! Take a breath, get a good night’s sleep, and gear up
Friday
for your event

Notes

21
Empower World-Changers

contact@iraiser.eu