How do you start a peer-to-peer fundraiser with zero donor history?
Building an individual giving program from scratch without prior donor history or volunteer management experience leaves staff paralyzed by impossible fundraising goals and no institutional playbook. This lack of a baseline prevents organizations from launching peer-to-peer campaigns successfully, forcing solo fundraisers to navigate board disengagement and heavy budget constraints entirely on their own.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1relying strictly on grants, fees-for-service, and a subsidy from a fiscal sponsor school district
- 2brainstorming virtual peer-to-peer campaigns tied to high school volunteer hour requirements
- 3focusing heavily on institutional grants as a coping mechanism to hit revenue goals
- 4searching online resources like AFP for templates and guides
- 5school drives
- 6knocking on peoples doors for gently used shoes
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I've been carrying fundraising single handedly and my ED is rightfully overwhelmed with steering programmatic side.”source ↗
“Presentations were made with the board but I've mostly gotten ghosted. I get an 1800 budget total and a 60k fundraising goal but other than that I am on my own and expected to execute... yesterday.”source ↗
“Since July I've been 'working on individual giving strategy and materials.' Quotations are npt implying I'm NOT working on it but its been a whirl and as a deadline driven grant professional I find I'm struggling with decision paralysis and cold feet.”source ↗
“However, we are running out of ideas for collecting these shoes.”source ↗
“Also the amount of shoes yield from these events isn’t a very significant number, so we’re trying to find more efficient ways that lead to more footwear.”source ↗
“I’m just coming on here to ask people with student lead nonprofits, how were you able to raise the money?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to get people to join a non-profit without giving swag
- 3How to handle inappropriate donation requests from individuals
- 3Is it normal for a nonprofit to ask employees for donations?
- 2How to ask for money instead of gifts without looking rude
- 6Funding my business out of my own pocket
- 5How do I get people to actually read project update emails?