Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Empower your supporters to create personal fundraising pages that roll up to your campaign goal — birthday fundraisers, walkathons, and challenge campaigns.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising turns your supporters into fundraisers. Instead of reaching donors directly, you equip your community to create personal fundraising pages, share them with their networks, and drive donations back to your campaign. It is the most scalable way to expand your reach.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is included for all GiveLink organizations at the standard 1% platform fee. There are no additional charges for fundraiser pages, and no limits on the number of fundraisers per campaign.
How Peer-to-Peer Works
Create a parent campaign
From your dashboard, create a new campaign and enable Peer-to-Peer mode. This parent campaign serves as the central hub — it displays the aggregate goal, total raised, and a leaderboard of individual fundraisers.
Supporters create fundraiser pages
Share your campaign link with supporters. They click "Start Fundraising" and create their own personal page with a custom story, photo, and individual fundraising goal.
Fundraisers share with their networks
Each fundraiser gets a unique URL to share via email, social media, and messaging apps. Donations made through a fundraiser's page are attributed to that fundraiser and roll up to the parent campaign total.
Track progress in real time
Both fundraisers and admins see real-time progress. Fundraisers track their individual page performance. Admins see the full picture — every fundraiser, every donation, and the aggregate campaign progress.
Parent Campaign Setup
The parent campaign is the foundation of your P2P initiative. It defines the overall goal, branding, and rules for the fundraising effort.
Parent Campaign Configuration
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Campaign goal | The aggregate fundraising target across all fundraiser pages |
| Campaign dates | Start and end dates for the P2P campaign. Fundraiser pages can only accept donations during this window |
| Default fundraiser goal | Suggested individual goal for new fundraiser pages (fundraisers can adjust) |
| Cover image and description | Branding and messaging displayed on the parent campaign page |
| Fundraiser approval | Choose whether new fundraiser pages are published immediately or require admin approval |
| Minimum fundraiser goal | Optional minimum goal amount for individual fundraiser pages |
Set a realistic default fundraiser goal. Research shows that fundraisers with achievable goals (typically $200-$500 for individual pages) raise more than those with goals that feel out of reach. Fundraisers can always increase their goal after they start.
Fundraiser Pages
Each supporter who joins your P2P campaign creates their own fundraising page — a personalized, branded page that tells their story and collects donations on behalf of your organization.
What Fundraisers Customize
Personal Story
Fundraisers write their own appeal explaining why they are raising money. Personal stories from peers consistently outperform organizational messaging in conversion rates.
Profile Photo
A personal photo that appears at the top of the fundraiser page. Humanizes the ask and builds trust with potential donors.
Individual Goal
Each fundraiser sets their own target amount. A progress bar shows how close they are to reaching it, creating urgency and social proof.
Custom URL Slug
Fundraisers can customize their page URL (e.g., /campaign/walkathon/sarah-jones) for easy sharing and personal branding.
Fundraiser Page Features
- Progress bar — Visual indicator showing amount raised vs. goal, updated in real time
- Donor wall — List of donors who have given through this fundraiser's page (with optional anonymity)
- Social sharing buttons — One-click sharing to Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and email with pre-populated messages
- Donation form — Standard GiveLink donation form embedded on the page, supporting one-time and recurring gifts
- Organization branding — Your logo, colors, and campaign branding appear alongside the fundraiser's personal content
Fundraiser Management Dashboard
Fundraisers have their own lightweight dashboard to track their page's performance and manage their campaign.
Fundraiser Dashboard Includes
Fundraiser data privacy is maintained throughout. Fundraisers can see donor names and amounts on their page, but all contact information (email, phone, address) and payment details are only accessible to organization administrators.
Campaign Leaderboard
The parent campaign page displays a leaderboard that ranks fundraisers by total amount raised, creating healthy competition and motivating supporters to push harder.
Leaderboard Features
- Ranked list — Fundraisers sorted by total raised, showing name, photo, amount raised, and progress toward their individual goal
- Top fundraiser spotlight — The leading fundraiser is highlighted with a special badge and expanded display
- Team support — If teams are enabled, the leaderboard can toggle between individual and team rankings
- Real-time updates — Rankings update instantly as new donations come in
- Minimum threshold — Optionally hide fundraisers from the leaderboard until they reach a minimum amount (prevents empty pages from cluttering the display)
Leaderboards are one of the most powerful drivers of P2P fundraising performance. Campaigns with visible leaderboards raise an average of 25% more than those without. Consider sharing leaderboard screenshots on social media to fuel competition.
Ambassador and Referral System
GiveLink includes a built-in referral system that rewards your most effective advocates and helps you identify top supporters for future campaigns.
Referral Codes
- Unique codes per fundraiser — Every fundraiser automatically receives a referral code they can share alongside their page link
- Recruitment tracking — When a new fundraiser joins the campaign using a referral code, the referring fundraiser gets credit for the recruitment
- Referral leaderboard — A secondary leaderboard tracks which fundraisers have recruited the most additional fundraisers
- Multi-level attribution — Donations made through recruited fundraisers are attributed to both the direct fundraiser and the recruiter (for reporting purposes only — funds are not split)
Ambassador Tiers
Define ambassador tiers to recognize and reward top recruiters:
| Tier | Criteria (example) | Recognition |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Recruited 3+ fundraisers | Badge on fundraiser page |
| Silver | Recruited 5+ fundraisers or raised $1,000+ | Featured on parent campaign page |
| Gold | Recruited 10+ fundraisers or raised $2,500+ | Custom thank-you from your team |
Ambassador tiers and criteria are fully customizable per campaign. Set them up in the parent campaign's P2P settings.
Fundraiser Approval Workflow
For organizations that want editorial control over fundraiser pages, GiveLink offers an optional approval workflow.
New fundraiser pages are published immediately when created. This is the fastest path to getting fundraisers active and sharing. Best for trusted supporter communities, internal campaigns, and time-sensitive initiatives.
Admins can still review and unpublish pages after the fact if content is inappropriate.
New fundraiser pages are saved as drafts and require admin approval before going live. Admins receive a notification when a new page is submitted and can approve, request changes, or reject it from the dashboard.
Best for public-facing campaigns where brand consistency and content quality are critical.
Approval Dashboard
When manual approval is enabled, admins see a queue of pending fundraiser pages with:
- Fundraiser name and contact information
- Preview of the page content (story, photo, goal)
- One-click Approve or Request Changes actions
- Optional feedback field to communicate with the fundraiser about what needs to be updated
Long approval delays can kill fundraiser momentum. If you enable manual approval, commit to reviewing submissions within 24 hours. Fundraisers who wait days for approval are significantly less likely to actively promote their pages.
P2P Analytics
The P2P analytics dashboard gives you a comprehensive view of your campaign's performance across all fundraisers.
Aggregate Metrics
Total raised, number of donors, number of active fundraisers, average donation size, and overall conversion rate across all fundraiser pages.
Fundraiser Performance
See which fundraisers are driving the most donations, which have stalled, and which are trending upward. Identify top performers to recognize and underperformers to support.
Channel Attribution
Track which sharing channels (email, Facebook, Twitter/X, direct link) drive the most traffic and donations to fundraiser pages.
Recruitment Funnel
Visualize the funnel from campaign page visit, to fundraiser page creation, to first donation received. Identify where potential fundraisers drop off.
P2P Emails
Peer-to-peer campaigns trigger several automated emails:
- Team member invite — When an admin or fundraiser invites someone to join the campaign, the invitee receives a branded team invite email with a one-click link to create their fundraiser page.
- Donation receipt — Donors who give through a fundraiser page receive a donation receipt that references both the fundraiser and the parent campaign.
- Campaign update — Organizations can send campaign update emails to all donors across all fundraiser pages in the P2P campaign.
All P2P emails use GiveLink's unified design system. See the full Email & Communications guide for template details.
Last updated on 4/5/2026