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.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1relying strictly on grants, fees-for-service, and a subsidy from a fiscal sponsor school districtDid this help you?
- 2brainstorming virtual peer-to-peer campaigns tied to high school volunteer hour requirementsDid this help you?
- 3focusing heavily on institutional grants as a coping mechanism to hit revenue goalsDid this help you?
- 4searching online resources like AFP for templates and guidesDid this help you?
- 5school drivesDid this help you?
- 6knocking on peoples doors for gently used shoesDid this help you?
- 7Doing online googling to find basic documentation and outlines of goalsDid this help you?
- 8Looking for basic templates for emails and scriptsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm part of a music nonprofit in my city that is looking to start doing their own fundraising.”source ↗
“I don't have any background in fundraising and I have no idea where to start or how to reach out to local businesses.”source ↗
“I am just in completely unfamiliar territory here and I feel a bit overwhelmed being thrown in the deep end”source ↗
“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
- 6Is it normal for a nonprofit to ask employees for donations?
- 3How to show donor impact when you aren't on the ground
- 7How to ask for money instead of gifts without looking rude
- 8How to get business funding with no history