Peer-to-peer fundraising and matching gifts are the two most powerful — and most underused — features on any giving day platform. Nonprofits that activate both consistently raise 3–5x more than those that don’t.
Introduction
Every year, thousands of nonprofits show up to their giving day with a donation page and a prayer. They post on social media, send a few emails, and hope for the best. Then they wonder why results feel flat.
Here’s the hard truth: most nonprofits leave their biggest giving day tools completely untouched.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising and matching gifts aren’t bonus features. They’re force multipliers. And yet, most organizations either skip them entirely or set them up so late that they never gain traction.
This post breaks down both features — what they are, why they work, and what the best giving day platforms do to make them easy to use. We’ll also look at how Mightycause, Funraise, OneCause, Neon One, and Donorbox each handle these tools so you can make an informed choice.
Quick Takeaways
- Peer-to-peer fundraising turns your supporters into fundraisers and reaches donors your nonprofit could never find on its own.
- Matching gifts create urgency and increase average gift size — 84% of donors say they are more likely to give when a match is on the table.
- Campaigns that use donation matching raise 3–5x more than those that don’t.
- Mightycause gives you both features built directly into its giving day infrastructure — no workarounds, no third-party patches.
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Part 1: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising on a Giving Day
What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?
Peer-to-peer fundraising lets your supporters raise money on your behalf. Instead of just donating, they create their own personal fundraising pages and share them with their friends, family, and followers. Your cause reaches people it never could on its own — all through trusted personal connections.
It sounds simple, but the impact is massive. Nearly 39% of Americans say they’ve donated to charity because a friend or family member asked them to. That’s not a nice-to-have stat — it’s the foundation of why P2P works.
Why It Works: Social Proof, Expanded Reach, and Conversion
P2P fundraising works for three clear reasons.
Social proof. When someone sees their neighbor, coworker, or college roommate fundraising for a cause, it signals that the cause is worth supporting. Trust is transferred from the fundraiser to your organization.
Expanded reach. Your email list only goes so far. P2P fundraisers tap into networks you’ve never had access to. Each new fundraiser brings a fresh audience.
Higher conversion. People are more likely to give — and to give more — when asked by someone they know. Fundraisers who set up personal pages raise an average of $391 each. Even a small team of 20 active fundraisers can add nearly $8,000 to your giving day total.
On top of that, the top 30 peer-to-peer fundraising programs in the U.S. raised over $1.17 billion in 2025, according to the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum. P2P isn’t fringe. It’s the backbone of modern nonprofit fundraising.
What Good P2P Tools Look Like on a Giving Day Platform
Not all P2P tools are created equal. During a giving day, speed and simplicity matter. Supporters need to get a fundraising page live in minutes, not hours. The best platforms offer:
- Pre-built fundraiser templates so supporters don’t start from scratch
- Real-time progress tracking so fundraisers stay motivated
- Social sharing tools built into the page — one click to share on social media
- Team fundraising so groups of supporters can compete and collaborate
- Mobile-optimized pages since most sharing and giving happens on phones
- A centralized dashboard so your team can track all fundraiser activity in one place
Mightycause
Mightycause was built for giving days from the ground up — and its P2P tools show it. Supporters can launch personalized fundraising pages in minutes using Mightycause’s fundraiser templates. Every page supports photos, videos, personal stories, and real-time progress tracking.
The platform also includes a full Teams and Events tool that lets nonprofits run team-based giving day campaigns with unlimited participants. Live leaderboards keep competition fun and donors engaged. Social sharing is built into every page, so fundraisers can spread the word across Facebook, Instagram, and more in a single click.
Mightycause’s centralized campaign management dashboard lets administrators track every fundraiser’s performance, send automated messaging, and pull comprehensive reports — all without leaving the platform.
Funraise
Funraise offers strong P2P tools and positions itself as a broad fundraising platform. It supports customizable fundraising pages, team campaigns, and social sharing. Funraise also integrates with Salesforce and other CRMs, which helps larger organizations with existing data infrastructure. That said, its giving day functionality is less purpose-built than Mightycause’s, and it doesn’t offer the same dedicated giving event management and support model.
OneCause
OneCause is best known for mobile bidding and in-person events. It supports peer-to-peer campaigns, but its core strengths are in auctions and galas — not community giving days. Nonprofits looking for a robust giving day P2P experience may find OneCause’s tools less tailored to that specific use case.
Neon One
Neon One (via Neon Fundraise) offers solid P2P capabilities with good CRM integration through its connected suite of products. It’s a strong option for organizations already using other Neon tools. However, Neon One’s giving day infrastructure isn’t as purpose-built or scalable for multi-organization community events the way Mightycause is.
Donorbox
Donorbox supports P2P fundraising through customizable pages and social sharing. Its tools are easy to set up, which makes it a reasonable choice for smaller campaigns. That said, Donorbox’s P2P offering lacks the giving day-specific features — like leaderboards, team fundraising, and dedicated giving event support — that more advanced platforms provide.
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Part 2: Matching Gifts on a Giving Day
What Are Matching Gifts and How Do They Work?
A matching gift is a pledge — usually from a corporate sponsor, major donor, or community foundation — to match every dollar donated during a giving day up to a set amount. For example, a $25,000 match pool means every gift you receive is doubled until that pool runs out.
Matching gifts work because they change the donor’s math. Your $50 gift doesn’t feel like $50 anymore. It feels like $100. That shift in perception drives action.
The 3-5x Multiplier: Why This Stat Matters
Campaigns that use donation matching raise 3–5x more than those that don’t, according to research from Double the Donation. That’s not a small improvement. That’s a category difference.
Here’s why the numbers climb so fast:
- 84% of donors say they’re more likely to give when a match is available.
- 1 in 3 donors say they’ll give a larger gift if matching is applied.
- Mentioning a match in your fundraising appeals increases response rates by 71% and average donation amounts by 51%.
Despite this, more than $4–7 billion in available match funds go unclaimed every year. The biggest reason? Most donors don’t know the match exists — or they don’t see it prominently enough to act on it. That’s a platform problem as much as it is a communications problem.
What Great Matching Gift Infrastructure Looks Like
The best giving day platforms don’t just let you add a match — they build the match into the donor experience in real time. Here’s what to look for:
- Real-time display: Donors should see how much of the match pool is left as they give. Urgency drives action.
- Flexible match structures: Platforms should support challenge matches, time-based matches, and multi-sponsor match pools — not just a flat match.
- Sponsor management tools: Administrators need to set match caps, track usage, and report to sponsors with ease.
- Prominent placement: The match should be visible on donation forms, leaderboards, and campaign pages — not buried in a footer.
Mightycause
Mightycause has native matching grant functionality built directly into its giving day platform. Giving day administrators can configure matching grants with custom rules, track match usage in real time, and display live match progress to donors on the campaign page. Real-time leaderboards incorporate match activity, keeping donors and fundraisers energized throughout the day.
Mightycause also supports prize-based incentive structures alongside matching grants — a combination that top giving days use to drive participation surges during slow hours. The analytics dashboard lets administrators monitor how matching grants are affecting giving patterns so they can make adjustments on the fly.
This level of integration — where the match is baked into the giving experience rather than bolted on — is what sets Mightycause apart from platforms that treat matching as an afterthought.
Funraise
Funraise supports matching gift integration primarily through its connection with Double the Donation, a third-party matching gift database tool. This gives Funraise access to employer matching programs, which is valuable for individual donor matching. However, for giving day-style challenge grants — where a sponsor pledges to match all gifts up to a cap — Funraise’s infrastructure is less purpose-built than Mightycause’s.
OneCause
OneCause supports matching challenges as part of its event-based fundraising tools. Its matching features are visible to donors, which is a plus. That said, OneCause’s platform is built around events and auctions, so its matching gift tools feel most at home in gala settings rather than multi-nonprofit community giving days.
Neon One
Neon One supports matching gift campaigns through Neon Fundraise and integrates with Double the Donation for employer match searches. Its strength is in CRM-connected matching gift tracking — following up with donors post-event to encourage employer matches. Real-time, in-day match display during a live giving day is less central to its approach.
Donorbox
Donorbox integrates with Double the Donation for employer matching gifts, which helps nonprofits surface corporate match opportunities to their donors. However, Donorbox doesn’t currently support donor-to-donor or sponsor challenge matching natively — meaning a community-style challenge grant during a giving day isn’t supported out of the box. This is a meaningful gap for nonprofits running structured giving day match campaigns.
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Why Both Features Together Change Everything
Running P2P without matching gifts leaves energy on the table. Running matching gifts without P2P means fewer people ever see the match. Together, the two features create a feedback loop:
- P2P fundraisers share the campaign with new audiences.
- New donors arrive and see the match.
- The match motivates larger first-time gifts.
- Progress on the match pool creates urgency for P2P fundraisers to keep sharing.
- Leaderboards keep everyone competitive throughout the day.
This is how giving days go from "decent" to "record-breaking." And it’s exactly what Mightycause’s platform is built to support — with both tools integrated, trackable, and visible to donors in real time.
Ready to Put Both Features to Work?
If your giving day isn’t using P2P fundraising and matching gifts together, you’re competing with one hand tied behind your back. Mightycause gives you both — built in, not bolted on — along with a dedicated support team to help you launch with confidence.
Request a Mightycause Giving Day demo and see exactly how these features can transform your next campaign.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do matching gifts work on a giving day platform?
A matching gift on a giving day platform is a pledge from a sponsor or major donor to match incoming donations up to a set amount — displayed in real time so donors can see how their gift multiplies impact.
Do peer-to-peer fundraisers really make a significant difference in giving day results?
Yes — P2P fundraisers expand your reach to entirely new donor networks, and participants who set up personal pages raise an average of $391 each, which adds up fast when dozens of supporters are active.
How hard is it to set up a matching gift campaign before a giving day?
With the right platform, it’s straightforward — Mightycause lets giving day administrators configure matching grants with custom rules, caps, and real-time tracking in just a few hours, well before the campaign goes live.
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