Recently, nonprofit industry thought leader Angie Moore interviewed eleventy president Ken Dawson for her Fundraising Success blog. The topic of their conversation was peer-to-peer fundraising. Ken is very familiar with this area of nonprofit marketing strategy, and he shared a lot of great insights in the piece (you can check out the full interview here).

Ken has over a decade of experience helping organizations leverage the power of peer-to-peer to develop deeper relationships, recruit new volunteers and donors, and increase fundraising income. In that time, Ken has learned a lot about what works when it comes to peer-to-peer campaigns—and what doesn’t.

Today, we take a look at the latter. Here are the top DON’Ts of peer-to-peer fundraising, along with the corresponding DOs for a successful campaign.

Top Four DON’Ts of Peer-to-Peer Marketing

Here is eleventy marketing group president Ken Dawson’s list of things an organization should NOT do when running a P2P campaign:

DON’T: Measure the campaign’s impact and long-term value in a silo.

DO: Think ahead—far ahead. Historically, peer-to-peer programs were completely in a silo and measured for their ability to achieve a single goal (acquire donors, reactivate donors, etc.). But organizations have discovered peer-to-peer donors provide a greater lifetime value than donors acquired through traditional marketing campaigns. The key is to think of peer-to-peer fundraising as a way to acquire and engage donors for future involvement with the brand.

DON’T: Expect a commitment to fulfill without a well-conceived touch strategy to keep volunteers on track and motivated.

DO: Keep in contact with your volunteers throughout the process. Just because someone says “I will volunteer” on the phone or online doesn’t mean they won’t be distracted through everyday life. A successful P2P program has a well thought out and planned strategy to stay in touch with their volunteers from start to finish.

DON’T: Repurpose other campaign creative and messaging and expect it to resonate with prospective donors.

DO: Give each peer-to-peer campaign a unique look and message. With so many organizations and campaigns, you have to make your peer-to-peer campaign stand out. Craft your campaign to best reach and engage your target audience.

DON’T: Treat the campaign one-dimensionally.

DO: Remember you are launching a campaign intended to reach two audiences across different channels. It is imperative to understand you are running a complex marketing program that includes full integration of all channels. This applies not only to the recruitment of a volunteer but then also crafting a completely different campaign within that environment to solicit funds from the peer group. You are truly running a multi-level campaign within a campaign.

Get more of eleventy marketing group president Ken Dawson’s thoughts on the power and evolution of peer-to-peer fundraising by reading the full interview on Angie Moore’s Navigating Off The Napkin blog.