Try a New P2P Challenge: Tips to Move Beyond Run-Walk-Bike Events

Do you ever get stuck with your event planning? Is your organization firmly attached to only “tried-and-true” events? If you want to get unstuck, consider expanding your peer-to-peer fundraising strategy beyond the traditional run, walk, or bike event.

To help you explore alternatives to been-there-done-that events, this post will highlight some truly creative and slightly quirky P2P experiences. The fun factor is high, and so is the amount of money raised. But I want to do more than just inspire you. I’ll also provide useful tips for launching and promoting your unique P2P challenge, everything from enabling solo DIY fundraisers to achieve their sometimes zany personal goals to making sure your app makes donating easy for their supporters.

And most important, we’ll cover the real-world outcomes of next-gen P2P events—truly impressive results. Let’s get to it!

Not That There’s Anything Wrong with Run-Walk-Bike Events

Traditional run-walk-bike events remain popular with nonprofits because they’re still very popular with fundraisers and the communities that donate to their causes. In fact, walks have grown in popularity since 2020, according to the Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Report, and still produce the most revenue of any event type.

So, there’s nothing wrong with run-walk-bike events. However, we do know that donor demographics and fundraising methods are always changing. To keep pace with the times and to ensure future engagement and results, strategy-focused nonprofits are no longer concentrating their resources solely on legacy P2P events; they are also seeing success in four fast-growing categories:  

• DIY campaigns: Self-driven fundraising without direct organizational involvement
• Social fundraising: Campaigns that exist solely on social media, unconnected to a larger event
• Streaming/gaming: Fundraising events presented on streaming platforms with no connection to a separate campaign
• Competitions/challenges: P2P events with leaderboards and incentives for top performers, with “ambassador” fundraisers competing to raise the most money, sometimes tied to social events and galas, but often they’re stand-alones.

Alternative P2P Events

Even if your run or ride is a slam-dunk event every year, expanding your engagement opportunities to include non-traditional P2P events can build new social networks and boost your organization’s visibility with untapped supporters. That can be a smart strategic move for your mission. Let’s take a look at some inventive new events that could freshen up your P2P strategy.

Instead of a Walk, Try Gaming

Streaming services that showcase gamers are huge right now. Creating live-stream fundraising events can help you connect with younger audiences, providing an invaluable opportunity to get the next generation of supporters involved in your mission. Hit pause, though, if you’re thinking gaming is just for kids:

• 35 years old is the average age of a gamer
• 83% of parents play video games with their kids, with 51% playing with their kids at least weekly

Like gaming participants, gaming events run the gamut. Sometimes, they’re a one-off, DIY fundraiser, like a well-known Canadian gamer, Jonny Warren, turning his avid followers into donors for Parkinson’s Canada. He kept their interest with challenges and gimmicks, such as shaving his head. He raised thousands for the organization.

Want to build relationships with live streamers? Listen to our podcast.

Gaming events also can be planned and managed by the organization itself, such as Sinai Live, a 13-hour gaming event featuring NHL players and other celebrities, who raised more than $64,000 for the Mount Sinai Foundation in Canada.

Make-A-Wish knows that children with critical illnesses often feel isolated. Gaming can help them stay connected to their friends. The organization is so committed to gaming, they have a fundraising section of their website dedicated to streaming and encourage the gaming community to make a critically ill child’s wish come true by hosting their own fundraisers for the organization.

Make-A-Wish uses techniques that could work for any nonprofit: They provide P2P resources—a toolkit with brand logos, messaging, overlays, and tips—plus lots of inspiration, with videos and graphics telling the story of how a specific gift amount could bring delight to a Make-A-Wish kid who loves gaming.

• Results: Make-A-Wish focuses on gaming in two ways: Gaming as a wish (it has granted 300 gaming-related wishes this year) and gaming as fundraising vehicle. An example of an org-sponsored P2P gaming event: the esports production company Blue Mammoth Games organized the Brawlhalla World Championship live-stream broadcast. Incentives throughout the tournament rewarded players with in-game items like avatars when they made a donation to Make-A-Wish. In 2023, the live-streamed event raised more than $8,200 for Make-A-Wish Georgia.

If you’re interested in producing (or encouraging) gaming events for your nonprofit, JustGiving® from Blackbaud offers free software that allows P2P fundraisers to highlight fundraising pages on their Twitch channel, plus how-to guidance to launch a gaming event.

Instead of a Ride, Try an Icecycle

Ride events remain popular because they’re such a vibe. Bike enthusiasts are there for the fellowship of the road (or the spin studio) and the grind of the physical challenge. The money raised for your cause is a bonus. But traditional rides are not the only way to roll. Check out how one New York organization is reinventing the wheeled event.

Roswell Park’s Alliance Foundation Icecycle to End Cancer shifts gears on the bike experience by making it harder—a spinning event in the snow in upstate New York—and by making it a real community experience, appealing not only to bikers but also to cancer survivors and those who love them.

• Results: In 2024, 1,300 Icecyle participants raised $685,000 for research, clinical trials, and quality-of-life programs for cancer patients and their families.

Instead of a Run, Try a DIY (Fill-in-the-Blank) Event

Self-motivated supporters don’t want to wait around for your run event. They have ideas! Like Jamie Campbell, running the London Marathon dressed in a shrimp costume to benefit BASICS Essex emergency care. Yes, it’s still a run, but it’s something else, too, something distinctly his own.

DIY could be almost anything: skydiving for your cause or donating the proceeds of a bake sale. DIYers want to give their energy and personality to their fundraising experience, so they create their own little movement. Mobilizing support online and on social media, they get behind your cause in their own way—sometimes without you even knowing they’re doing it.

“Each of them clearly has a powerful motivation to do good,” said Jamie Parkins, Senior Product Manager for JustGiving. “And that motivation started with them. It didn’t start necessarily with an affiliation to the cause. Those motivations can’t simply be engineered by an organization.”

How can your organization participate in such a personal effort? You can amplify the message of individuals blazing their own fundraising trail by responding enthusiastically to their social media posts and reaching out to congratulate them when their challenge has been completed.

Ed Pratt’s Source to Sea Challenge: To raise awareness about the health of rivers in the UK, this adventurer completed a solo challenge to paddle the length of the River Thames. He recorded his 19-day journey and uploaded videos to YouTube. Along the way, he set social media challenges for his followers, such as naming his watercraft (Thamesy McThamesFace won).

Pratt was a good bet for a quirky DIY distance challenge: He became a bit of a sensation in 2015 by unicycling 22,000 miles around the world, raising more than £300,000 for charity.

• Results: By wading, swimming, and paddling the busiest river in Britain, Pratt raised about £22,000 for The Rivers Trust.

Tips to Make the Most of Non-Traditional P2P Events

Now that you’re inspired by the creativity and amazing outcomes of outside-the-norm P2P events, let’s look at three techniques that will help your supporters become successful fundraisers for your cause.

1. Go Mobile

People check their phones 60 times a day. Provide a mobile app for your P2P events. It’s where and how you’ll drive the most awareness and engagement. An app makes it easy for P2P fundraisers to update their personal pages and stories. They can send messages and thank-you notes and connect to their social media posts in the app.

JustGiving found that fundraisers engaging with a mobile app raise 89% more than fundraisers who don’t use an app to fundraise for their event or DIY challenge.

2. Gamify the Experience

Everybody loves a challenge, so add activity tracking or leaderboards for fundraisers to track their progress. Activity tracking is a great way for fundraisers to challenge themselves or compete with others. Fundraisers who engage in activity-tracking and gamification raise 10% more than those who don’t.

3. Add Push Notifications

This content delivery mechanism sends communications with a sense of urgency, such as a reminder or a challenge. Push notifications keep your P2P fundraisers focused on their goals and motivated to connect with donors. And they’re likely to get read. Roughly 2% of emails are opened vs. 20% of push notifications.

Start Diversifying Your P2P Events

Rigidity and inflexibility will not be rewarded in today’s fundraising environment. This is the time to embrace new ideas, however big or small. Test out strategies for non-traditional P2P events. Your costs and risks are small relative to hosting a run, walk, or bike. Done well, your P2P fundraising event can deliver massive year-over-year returns and cultivate lasting memories for participants.

Want to learn more strategies for dynamic P2P events? Check out our webinar: Level Up Your Participant Engagement—It’s More Than Just a Run/Ride/Walk.