Peer-to-Peer fundraising has always been part art, part science. Success depends on balancing creativity with data, inspiration with execution. But as acquisition costs rise, digital platforms evolve and supporter expectations continue to change, getting that balance right has never been more important.

Speaking at F&P’s Digi.Raise conference in May, Meredith Dwyer, Director of HomeMade Digital Australia, shared what she described as the “essential list for Peer-to-Peer event success” – the 5 Ps of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising.

Drawing on years of experience managing and growing some of Australia’s most successful P2P campaigns, Meredith’s framework focuses on five critical areas: Products and Proposition, Platform, People, Participation and Performance.

While each of these topics could easily fill an entire masterclass, Meredith focused on the practical actions that are moving the dial right now for charities facing increasingly competitive fundraising conditions.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Products and Proposition – start with what supporters actually want to do

One of Meredith’s strongest messages was that successful Peer-to-Peer events begin with understanding supporter behaviour – not organisational preferences. Too often charities develop event concepts based on what internal stakeholders enjoy rather than what participants are most likely to embrace and scale.

“The product” is simply what you’re asking people to do.

When evaluating a potential event concept, fundraisers should ask:

• Is there evidence our supporters already enjoy this activity?
• Is the activity accessible to a large audience?
• Can we afford the acquisition costs?
• Does it connect naturally to our cause?
• How crowded is the market?
• What is the broader participation trend? (eg, we know walking is an activity participated in by a huge proportion of the population)

Organisations considering a new event should begin by analysing existing DIY fundraisers, community fundraisers and third-party events. What are supporters already doing? Where are the clues about activities they naturally gravitate towards?

The data reveals some interesting patterns. Walking-based events remain highly attractive because they are accessible, inexpensive and appeal to a broad audience. Cycling and swimming events often generate higher average fundraising totals ($450–$550 and $340–$380 respectively, compared to walking’s $150–$250), but can be significantly more expensive to recruit participants into.

The image below provides useful benchmark data on activation rates, fundraising averages and retention across different event types.

Next, the proposition matters as much as the product.

Once you’ve identified the right activity, the next challenge is packaging it in a way that inspires action.

A strong proposition should be:

• Inspirational and aspirational
• Fun (or at least rewarding)
• Simple to understand
• Relevant to the cause
• Community-oriented
• Easy to explain in a single sentence
• Challenging

On the last point – participants raise money because they’re asking others to support them in doing something meaningful. The more significant the challenge feels, the stronger the fundraising opportunity.

A compelling example shared by Meredith of product and proposition ‘done right’ is Mission Australia’s “Sleep In Your Car” campaign. The concept successfully connects participant experience to the reality of hidden homelessness.

But… even the best ideas need finessing! Mission Australia began working with HomeMade Digital in 2025, who quickly identified the proposed creative softened the challenge too much, making the experience appear comfortable rather than confronting. By repositioning the campaign with darker imagery, stronger emotional cues and a clearer reflection of the reality participants would experience, the campaign became significantly more compelling – you can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ creative below. The event’s 2025 results (with the new creative) were impressive – more than 4000 participants, exceptionally low acquisition costs, and fundraising results that exceeded expectations.

Another example came from Australian Conservation Foundation’s Australia’s Biggest Bushwalk. By shifting the messaging from a functional description of activity towards the more aspirational “Be a Hero for Nature” positioning, the campaign significantly improved performance and fundraising outcomes.

From this…

… to this:

The lesson? Don’t just ask what supporters will do. Ask why they’ll want to do it.

2. Platform – every click counts

With digital reach becoming harder to achieve, charities can no longer afford to waste the traffic they generate.

This is where platform optimisation becomes critical.

Many organisations focus heavily on acquisition campaigns but neglect what happens after someone clicks. “If they lose the will to live trying to fill out a form, they won’t register,” Meredith joked (kind of).

The objective is simple – maximise the percentage of interested prospects who complete registration.

Landing pages outperform homepages

One of Meredith’s clearest recommendations was to stop directing acquisition traffic to generic websites or registration forms. Instead, build dedicated landing pages with a single purpose.

Effective landing pages:

• Have one primary call-to-action
• Remove distracting navigation
• Provide social proof
• Include impact messaging
• Address common objections
• Guide visitors towards registration

Meredith shared campaign testing that demonstrated significant improvements in conversion rates when participants were directed through dedicated landing pages rather than standard website journeys. The examples below show streamlined registration journeys and optimised landing page experiences.

Personalisation is becoming more powerful

For Starlight Super Swim, HomeMade Digital tested dynamic landing pages that changed according to the advertisement that brought users to the site. Male swimmers who clicked on creative featuring male participants landed on pages reflecting that experience. Female swimmers saw equivalent female-focused content.

The result? Conversion rates increased significantly and acquisition costs fell well below those achieved by the control page – as shown in the table below.

For fundraisers, the takeaway is clear – consistency between advertising and landing page experience matters. The closer the alignment between expectation and experience, the higher the likelihood of conversion.

Registration forms deserve attention too

Registration flows should be continually tested and refined. Even small adjustments can deliver substantial gains.

Examples included:

• Asking participants to commit to a distance early in the journey (see below example from The Big Swim)
• Keeping information requests to a minimum
• Offering self-donation opportunities during registration
• Reducing friction at every step

3. People – stop marketing to everyone

While P2P fundraising often focuses on events, success ultimately comes down to people. Different audiences participate for different reasons and respond to different messages. Successful campaigns understand and reflect those differences.

With Meta steadily reducing the audience targeting options available to advertisers – making it harder to rely on precision targeting alone – understanding people has become more important than ever, and creative relevance has become a primary driver of performance.

Meta’s own research suggests that creative influences 56% of ad auction outcomes. Meredith illustrated this shift through HomeMade Digital’s work on Starlight Super Swim, where audience-specific creative and landing page experiences delivered conversion rates of up to 5.94% while reducing acquisition costs by as much as 42%.

Rather than creating a single campaign experience for everyone, organisations should take a more audience-centric approach to acquisition. This doesn’t necessarily mean building dozens of different campaigns. It means recognising that participants have different motivations and ensuring that creative, messaging and user experiences reflect those motivations.

In other words, when platforms know less about who to target, fundraisers need to know more about who they’re trying to reach.

4. Participation – activation beats acquisition

To state the obvious, a participant who never fundraises is not the same as a participant who raises money. This is where the art of activation comes in.

Recruiting participants is great, but only the first step. The real challenge is getting them fundraising. That means making participation easy, rewarding and supported from the moment someone registers.

Strong technical foundations that influence participation rates include:  

• Email deliverability
• Domain authentication
• Sender reputation
• Dedicated sending infrastructure
• Consistent supporter communications

While these topics may not feel as exciting as creative campaigns or major events, it’s a unignorable fact that technical issues can quietly undermine participation performance. If participants don’t receive onboarding emails, fundraising tips or milestone reminders, activation rates inevitably suffer.

For many organisations, improving participation may not require new campaigns, but simply fixing the systems that support existing participants. To help fundraisers assess their own setup, Meredith shared a simple checklist of technical considerations that can have a significant impact on participation rates:

5. Performance – measure what actually moves the dial

The final P is Performance. And Meredith’s message was refreshingly practical. Don’t get distracted by vanity metrics.

The best-performing campaigns aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the boldest ideas. They’re the ones that continually refine every stage of the supporter journey.

Focus on the measures that genuinely influence fundraising outcomes. Then use testing, optimisation and evidence-based decision-making to improve them.

That means tracking:

• Registration conversion rates
• Cost per acquisition
• Fundraising activation rates
• Average fundraising totals
• Retention rates
• Self-donation rates

Every stage of the funnel matters. A small improvement in conversion can generate significant participant growth, substantial fundraising gains, and long-term event sustainability.

The most successful organisations are no longer treating events as annual campaigns. They’re treating them as products that are constantly being improved.

The bonus P – (don’t) panic

The fundraising environment is challenging (this is not new news, we know!). Acquisition costs are changing. Platforms are evolving. Competition continues to grow.

But the overall message from the session was surprisingly optimistic – the fundamentals still work. Strong products. Compelling propositions. Frictionless platforms. Audience-centred experiences. Relentless optimisation. These remain the building blocks of successful Peer-to-Peer fundraising.

For organisations willing to test, learn and refine, there is still significant growth to be unlocked. As Meredith demonstrated through example after example, success rarely comes from finding a silver bullet – it comes from consistently improving the fundamentals.

And that’s exactly what the 5 Ps are designed to help fundraisers do.

You can contact Meredith at letschat@homemadedigital.com or +61 412 653 202.