With plenty of peer-to-peer fundraising platforms to choose from, nonprofits may feel overwhelmed when it comes to figuring out which one fits best. No one platform is perfect for every organization—thus all that competition. But each platform is perfect for certain nonprofits. You just have to find the right one. But, how?
In this post, we outlined five criteria nonprofits can use to evaluate P2P fundraising platforms:
- Participant Engagement
- Donor Engagement
- CRM Integration
- Reporting and Admin Support
- Email Communications
Charity Dynamics recently put those criteria to the test and evaluated four proven veterans in the P2P market, plus one up-and-comer, to provide a snapshot view of what kind of nonprofit organizations they can be ideal for. First, let’s look at two of the veterans: TeamRaiser and Classy.
A heavy hitter in the nonprofit world, TeamRaiser is ideal for larger, national affiliated nonprofits that host multi-city, multi-level events. A prime example is the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Muscle Walk, which is held in more than 150 cities across the country every year. While TeamRaiser easily checks all the boxes on the scorecard, the platform particularly excels with its email communications and reporting capabilities. These are available within the software so no plugins are needed.
The platform’s communications functionality allows organizations to set up autoresponders, coaching emails and milestone emails in advance to ensure supporters remain engaged throughout the event or campaign. Extensive reporting tools on the back-end can help event managers evaluate standard email performance metrics such as opens, click-through’s and unsubscribes. As well, you are able to pull a full suite of event performance data to measure against benchmarks.
On the scene since 2011, Classy has proven it can be ideal for nonprofits of any size that focus on one fundraising call to action as well as for DIY fundraising programs. Classy was born from a perceived need for a better online fundraising experience and a more meaningful connection between nonprofits and their supporters, so not surprisingly, in our evaluation, the company’s platform showed particular strengths in participant and donor engagement.
The Classy platform provides a responsive, smooth user experience across devices, with built-in tools that allow for quick and easy registration for campaigns or events. Competitive transaction fees also make it a good choice for organizations with smaller budgets.
Go to Part 2 for our analysis of three other P2P platforms—Donor Drive, RallyBound and the newcomer, Great Feats.