Charity insights: What makes peer fundraisers successful in nonprofit–business collaborations

Only 44.8% of peer fundraisers raised any donations at all. That’s one of the stark takeaways from a new study examining the Workout for Water campaign – a global peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising partnership between UNICEF New Zealand and the fitness company Les Mills. 

By analysing real-world data from 1,899 individual fitness instructors, researchers Laura Hesse and Silke Boenigk have pinpointed which factors most strongly predict success – and which don’t – in a corporate–nonprofit P2P setting.

While the campaign context is the fitness sector, the implications apply across causes. If your charity runs P2P drives in partnership with businesses, this is essential reading.

Why this study matters

Most previous P2P research has focused on donor behaviour in private networks – friends, family, and colleagues – or treated all fundraisers as equally capable once they’ve set up a page. This study flips the focus to the fundraisers themselves, including those who raised nothing.

It’s also rare in using direct observable data rather than surveys. The team web-scraped every public fundraiser page from the 2019–2021 campaign, then matched them to professional rank data from LinkedIn, Instagram and Les Mills’ own website.

The analysis used a two-part statistical model:

1. Part one: What makes a fundraiser get at least one external donation?
   
   
2. Part two: For those who do, what drives the total amount raised?
   

This separation matters, because more than half of participants (55.2%) failed at stage one.

The three big drivers of success

The researchers found three clear categories of success factors – all of which are under a charity’s or fundraiser’s control to some extent.

1. Personalising the fundraising page

Fundraisers who went beyond the platform defaults did better:

• Personalised text: +8.2% higher chance of getting a donation; +$61.60 average lift in funds raised.
  
  
• Personal photo: +24.6% higher chance; +$70.14 average lift.
  
  
• Setting a personal target: Even small increases mattered – each 1% rise in target linked to a 0.09% higher success probability.
  

The statistical standout was the amount of the personalised target, which had the strongest effect of all page-customisation variables.

Practical tip: Provide templates, but push fundraisers to edit them. Setting a realistic but stretching target sends a strong signal to potential donors.

2. Putting in extra effort

Beyond page tweaks, active effort paid off:

• Running an extra event or challenge: +13.8% higher chance of getting a donation; +$154.67 average lift – the single largest effect in the model.
  
  
• Self-donating: Surprisingly, this lowered the chance of getting any donations (likely because some pages had only a self-donation), but once donations came in, it boosted totals by $63.77 on average.
  

Practical tip: Encourage fundraisers to layer activities – e.g., an in-person challenge plus the online page. On self-donations, coach them to make one but not leave it as the only visible gift.

3. Having professional standing in the community

Professional reputation – here, being a Les Mills “champion” instructor – was powerful:

• +27.8% higher chance of raising a donation.
  
  
• +$164.84 average lift in funds raised.
  

Only 9.1% of fundraisers held this status, but they brought in 51.6% of all donations.

Practical tip: If working with a corporate partner, identify and recruit their most visible, respected staff or members early. They’re the anchors of the campaign.

Key statistical results

How this compares to BetterNow’s own findings

BetterNow’s own data – drawn from over 35,000 fundraisers and 300,000 donations – strongly echoes the study’s main points, but also highlights additional nuances .

• Self-donations: We have shown (full analysis here) that the size of the self-donation matters. Amounts below €35–€40 have little effect; above €40, they start to positively influence non-self donations. Hesse & Boenigk’s finding that self-donations can be a double-edged sword fits: too small or alone on the page, they don’t help much.
  
  
• Page personalisation: Our data confirms (analysis here) that long, personal descriptions – especially those significantly different from the default – lead to better results. Adding a profile image matters, though we’ve found group photos can outperform solo shots in some contexts.
  
  
• Guidance and stewardship: We see a clear link between stewardship activity (emails opened) and fundraising outcomes, with a “magic number” of around five opened stewardship emails. The Les Mills/UNICEF study didn’t measure this, but their emphasis on personal effort aligns closely.
  
  
• Momentum: Early donations in the first week are a major predictor in our own model, something the academic study didn’t capture directly but which likely overlaps with their “extra action” effect.
  

In short, the new research backs up our own machine learning insights: fundraising success isn’t random – it’s predictable, and it can be influenced.

How our AI Fundraiser Coach targets these success factors

Our AI Fundraiser Coach is designed to nudge fundraisers towards the behaviours shown in both our data and this study to increase success rates:

• Early activation: Prompts fundraisers to secure first donations quickly, building momentum.
  
  
• Self-donation advice: Recommends optimal self-donation size to maximise peer giving.
  
  
• Personalisation nudges: Suggests changes to text, images, and targets based on what’s worked before.
  
  
• Extra activity ideas: Encourages offline and online challenges, with examples.
  
  
• Stewardship reminders: Recommends thanking donors and following up to keep them engaged.
  

By automating these prompts, we aim to scale what a dedicated campaign coach would do – ensuring more fundraisers cross that first-donation threshold and grow their totals.

Final word

If your charity is partnering with a business on P2P fundraising, don’t assume enthusiasm will translate into donations without guidance. The strongest results come when you combine visible credibility signals (page personalisation, professional standing) with active engagement (extra events, self-gifts) – and recruit people who can deliver both.

This study and our own data show exactly how much difference those factors make, in hard numbers. Use them to design your next campaign with eyes wide open.

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This post is part of our ongoing series bridging academia with practical fundraising experiences. See all the posts here.

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