Nonprofits expend a lot of energy encouraging people to donate one at a time. Less energy goes to convincing one motivated supporter at a time to become a fundraiser by sharing news of a cause with peers, and even less toward what happens when fundraisers join forces.

Team fundraising combines these efforts and is more powerful than the sum of its parts. For nonprofits using peer-to-peer (P2P) tools, team fundraising is an effective way to organize P2P supporters. It can be added to existing P2P campaigns to deepen engagement and reach further into supporters’ networks.

Key takeaways

• Team fundraising unites individual peer-to-peer fundraisers into a team, with every dollar raised rolling up to a larger campaign total.
• Teams extend a nonprofit's reach by tapping into several networks at once instead of just one.
• A distinct team identity, from a team name to a shared color, gives supporters something to rally around beyond the “ask” itself.
• Specific, time-bound “asks” and visible progress tracking help team leaders recruit and retain members.
• Boards, staff and volunteers can form their own fundraising team, modeling the kind of peer-to-peer participation nonprofits already ask of individual supporters.

What is team fundraising?

Team fundraising empowers individual P2P fundraisers to work together as a team, uniting each member's page under one banner and consolidating the donations received into a team total.

In practice, a team usually forms around a leader who establishes a team page, gives the team a name, sets a shared goal and invites others to join. As team members collect donations from their own networks, those donations count toward the team goal.

4 benefits of team fundraising for nonprofits

Layering a team structure onto P2P fundraising comes with several potential benefits:

• Extend reach through built-in networks: Each P2P team member brings a personal circle of friends, family and colleagues who might never otherwise encounter a nonprofit's other fundraising appeals. A team of 10 fundraisers can introduce a cause to 10 new and trusted networks at once, amplifying exposure well beyond that of a single campaign page.
• Turn fundraising into a shared, motivating experience: A common fundraising goal gives supporters a reason to check in with each other, compare progress and celebrate milestones together. At the Sophia Ruggieri Memorial Foundation, team leaders leaned into friendly competition, helping push its inaugural Sophia’s Stroll past $56,000 raised.
• Simplify coordinating large groups of supporters: Nonprofits managing hundreds or thousands of individual fundraisers can group them into teams. MEDLIFE's Moving Mountains campaign organized more than 6,500 fundraisers into over 300 teams and raised nearly $750,000, giving both the nonprofit and its supporters a clearer view of collective progress.
• Help campaigns surpass their goals: A team target pushes all members past their individual goals. Brigade Boys & Girls Club raised $128,000+ against a $100,000 goal with its Great Futures team campaign.

Team peer-to-peer fundraising ideas

The following ideas can help nonprofits get more out of a team fundraising structure, from initial recruitment through ongoing engagement.

1. Inspire supporters to build a team

The clearest way to build a team is to ask directly, but that works best when it comes with a concrete picture of impact. A recruitment message to a potential team leader should name the campaign and describe how the funds will be used. A similar message from that leader to prospective team members should include a direct link to join a team. 

Existing P2P fundraisers, board members and long-time volunteers are often the strongest first recruits, since they already understand the mission and can speak to it convincingly.

2. Give each team a distinct identity

A team name, logo and color scheme turn an otherwise basic fundraising page into something supporters rally around. Austin Farm Sanctuary organized its GivingTuesday campaign around themed teams such as Team Moo and Team G.O.A.T., a lighthearted structure that helped raise more than $36,000. 

The theme does not need to be elaborate to work, just memorable enough that team members want to share it.

3. Support team fundraisers

Team leaders manage their own pages, though nonprofit assistance still goes a long way. A toolkit with campaign photos, suggested messaging and a clear fundraising goal gives team leaders a running start. A private group chat among team members can also help maintain momentum between updates.

4. Make the request specific and time-bound

Vague requests tend to produce vague results. A recruitment message from a team leader urging team members to reach out to five contacts by a set date gives everyone a concrete target. This helps new team leaders and their recruits feel less uncertain about where to start.

5. Let a leaderboard do quiet motivational work

A public leaderboard that ranks teams and individual fundraisers can motivate supporters without any additional outreach from nonprofit staff. MEDLIFE’s Moving Mountains leaderboard displayed more than 300 teams, allowing every fundraiser a view of where things stood. A leaderboard does that work passively, simply by showing everyone’s progress.

6. Keep teams engaged from kickoff to close

Momentum can fade without regular check-ins. Team leaders can post public or private updates as a campaign progresses, celebrate milestones as they happen and send a final thank-you message once fundraising closes. Nonprofits can reinforce that close too. Luv Michael thanks every donor to its team-driven campaign with handmade granola and a handwritten card.

Meaningful ways to use fundraising teams

Teams do not have to be generic fundraising groups. A team can be built around a nonprofit’s own people or mission, which gives members a deeper reason to join.

• Board members: Board members are often asked to fundraise individually, each with a separate P2P page and a personal goal. Grouping board members into a team fundraising page gives them a shared target and a visible way to demonstrate individual and collective commitment to supporters watching from outside the organization. This approach models for supporters the same P2P participation nonprofits ask of them, just organized around one page.
• Staff and volunteers: Luv Michael built its team around staff and volunteers advocating for autism acceptance, tying fundraising to a broader community service program that connects members well beyond a single push.
• Mission-tied teams: Brigade Boys & Girls Club organized 65 fundraisers into 16 vocational teams tied to the career goals of specific young people.

How does Give Lively support team fundraising?

Give Lively's Team Fundraising product lets any group of supporters find strength in numbers and make collective appeals to the generosity of friends and family through one page.

Team Fundraising is a ready-made tool that propels the practice described in this post. A team leader creates one Team Fundraising page with its own name, logo and fundraising goal. The leader then invites others to join, adding their individual fundraising pages to the mix. Every donation a team member collects rolls up automatically to the team total, and every team's total rolls up to the campaign.

Team leaders can customize their page's imagery and messaging, communicate with team members through public or private updates, set individual goals for each member alongside the team's overall target and watch progress via a connected Leaderboard. An unlimited number of teams and team members can throw their weight behind a campaign. 

For nonprofits comparing peer-to-peer fundraising software or weighing a standalone team fundraising software purchase, Give Lively’s Team Fundraising functionality is built into Give Lively's broader platform, which is free for nonprofits. Give Lively also provides a best practices guide for team leaders, covering everything from page setup to ongoing communication.

Put team fundraising to work with Give Lively

Team Fundraising gives supporters tools to raise more together. Explore our Team Fundraising product or see it in action with a live demo.