Many U.S. and Canadian fundraising cycling events are expected to be held in person in 2021, fueling ... [+]
COVID-19 turned 2020 into a dramatically down year for traditional peer-to-peer revenue, but we predict that the pandemic year will ultimately be an outlier – rather than a sign of things to come.
In fact, the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum is predicting that peer-to-peer fundraising revenues will increase in 2021.
We polled hundreds of P2P professionals about their 2021 expectations at the virtual March Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum Conference and roughly 60 percent said they expect revenues to increase this year. Only about 10 percent forecast declines.
These sunny expectations were the norm across all campaign types from walks to virtual/DIY programs.
Some incredible early-year results reinforce that optimism:
- Canada’s Coldest Night of the Year – held annually in February – reported revenues of nearly $9.9 million this year. By comparison, its 2020 effort raised $6.3 million – and that event was held before the pandemic struck.
- Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals reported that its Extra Life video gaming program came out of the gates strong in 2021 – with early-year revenues up 90 percent compared with the same time last year.
- American Cancer Society’s Dan Thorpe predicts that its virtual challenge series – piloted during the pandemic – will grow into a new Top 30 program this year.
Coming Out of a Deep Hole
Peer-to-peer fundraising is the practice of having a nonprofit’s supporters take part in an activity such as a bike ride, walk, or video gaming challenge and reach out to their friends, family members, colleagues and followers for donations.
Even with increased revenues in 2021, nonprofits that run peer-to-peer programs will have a big hill to climb after the disruptions of 2020.
COVID-19 caused fundraising revenues for the 30 largest U.S. programs to drop by 33.9 percent – plummeting from $1.36 billion in 2019 to $900.1 million – according to the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum’s annual survey of the top 30 peer-to-peer programs.
The impact was even more severe for top programs in Canada, which reported a drop of 43.5 percent.
COVID-19 created a perfect storm for peer-to-peer programs of all sizes, especially those that relied heavily on in-person programs. Nonprofits were forced to scrap long-planned events and move quickly to stand up and stage virtual replacements.
And the damage wasn’t confined to the largest programs.
New data by Cadence Sports on U.S. cycling campaigns showed that combined revenues for 45 programs was down 37 percent – a drop that mirrors the declines reported in our survey of the largest programs.
A New Normal
But now that peer-to-peer professionals have time to prepare to market virtual programs – and experience hosting them – optimism is high that 2021 will yield much stronger results.
This is especially true now that vaccines are rolling out in full effect and that it is possible to resume some form of in-person events.
The Cadence Sports report found that 39 of the 45 cycling programs surveyed plan to host some form of physical event this year.
And many organizations we have spoken with expect to give their supporters the option of participating in-person and virtually in 2021 – which will likely help jump start revenues.
Clearly, our industry will never look the same as it did pre-pandemic.
But given the early signals about fundraising in 2021, we’re confident it will emerge stronger and more diverse than before.
