Charity Insights: How social media P2P fundraising thrived in the pandemic

Jobelle Santos
Editor
4
Min to read

Crises often have a detrimental impact on charitable giving. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an unexpected silver lining for digital peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising on social media. This blog explores how social media platforms like Facebook not only sustained fundraising efforts during the pandemic but, in many cases, helped them thrive.

The problem: A history of declining donations in crises

Traditional fundraising typically suffers during economic downturns. For example:

  • The 2008 financial crisis saw a decline of over 11% in UK charitable giving.
  • Similar reductions occurred globally, particularly in the arts and culture sectors.

Given this historical precedent, many nonprofits feared a similar outcome during COVID-19. However, social media fundraising bucked the trend.

The Insight: The resilience of social media P2P fundraising

Research revealed that the number of campaigns on platforms like Facebook surged during the pandemic:

  • In the US, the number of campaigns rose dramatically by March 2020, peaking mid-month.
  • German campaigns followed a slower but sustained increase, remaining above pre-pandemic levels.

This counterintuitive growth highlights the role of relationships in social media fundraising. Campaigns driven by personal connections proved more resilient to external shocks than traditional altruistic appeals.

Why it worked: Key drivers of success

Several factors explain why social media P2P fundraising thrived during COVID-19:

  1. Emotional Connection: Campaign organisers leveraged personal ties, driving donations despite economic uncertainty.
  2. Increased Digital Activity: With lockdowns in place, individuals spent more time online, fostering engagement.
  3. Strategic Nonprofit Behaviour:some text
    • Active social media presence, such as frequent posts and engagement with followers, correlated with higher campaign success.
    • Smaller nonprofits often outperformed larger organisations by maintaining vibrant online communities.

Practical takeaways for nonprofits

For nonprofits looking to optimise their fundraising strategies, here are key lessons:

  • Focus on Engagement: Prioritise community activity over follower count. Frequent posts, user interaction, and campaign calls-to-action matter most.
  • Leverage Relationships: Encourage supporters to create campaigns. Personal connections remain a powerful driver of donations.
  • Experiment with Platforms: Social media provides a cost-effective way to reach donors, making it accessible for organisations of all sizes.
Key information United States Germany Multiplicator United States vs. Germany
Nonprofit organizations with a Facebook profile page 97 96 1.01
Nonprofit organizations with activated social media p2p fundraising 70 50 1.40
Number of campaigns 43,568 31,419 1.39
Number of donors (mean number per campaign) 266,394 (6.11) 75,975 (2.42) 3.51 (2.52)
Amount donated (mean amount per campaign) €14,277,124 (€327.70) €1,821,768 (€57.98) 7.84 (5.65)

Methodology and Data

Understanding how nonprofit organisations navigated the challenges of the pandemic requires a close examination of their fundraising efforts. This section outlines how the study gathered and analysed data from top NPOs to uncover key patterns and strategies. By leveraging public data from Facebook campaigns and employing robust statistical tools, the researchers explored the factors that shaped campaign success during an unprecedented global crisis.

Data Collection
The study used public data from Facebook campaigns by top nonprofit organisations (NPOs), identified through Forbes and the Deutsches Institute für Soziale Fragen (DZI). Campaign details were manually extracted from Facebook pages and organised using JSON files. Metrics such as social media engagement and organisation size were also included.

To address visibility limits—Facebook only displayed campaigns with donations over $50 pre-2020—the analysis focused on campaigns above this threshold. Validation with German NPO data showed over 87% of donations were captured.

Methodology
The researchers used statistical tools to identify patterns and examined how fundraising campaign volumes deviated from pre-pandemic trends.

The authors used two main steps to understand how the COVID-19 crisis affected peer-to-peer fundraising on social media. First, they looked at trends in how many fundraising campaigns were started each day, using a method (called ARMAX) to check for any big, unexpected changes when the crisis hit. They chose the start of the crisis by tracking a big spike in Google searches for “Corona” in the United States and Germany.

Next, they used an “event study” method to see how each nonprofit organisation’s fundraising changed once this crisis started. This involved comparing what actually happened with what would usually be expected, allowing them to see which organisations did better than others.

Finally, they dug deeper by running additional tests that looked at things like the organisation’s size, cause, and social media engagement, to figure out what made some groups more successful than others during that time.

This analysis revealed which organisations outperformed others and explored the reasons for their success.

Conclusion

COVID-19 proved that not all crises dampen generosity. By understanding the dynamics of social media P2P fundraising, nonprofits can future-proof their strategies and continue to thrive in challenging times. The key lies in fostering strong digital communities and leveraging personal relationships—lessons that remain relevant far beyond the pandemic.

Read more

This blog post is based on the study "When a Crisis Has a Silver Lining: Social Media P2P Fundraising at the Start of COVID-19" by Beatrice Martin and Christian Schlereth, originally published in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Volume 53(5), in 2024. The article can be accessed here.

For those interested in exploring the full study, additional details are available in the working paper version provided by the authors.

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