As you’re planning your 2019 peer-to-peer events, it’s a good time to give consideration to increasing the role teams play in your success. DonorDrive stats show events that rely on teams raise 28% more than those that don’t. We looked deep into the numbers to better understand why.
Teams don’t have to be big, and maybe they shouldn’t be
The average team size is six: a captain and five members. We’ve seen this as both the average and median team size year after year. A captain and five team members seem to be the optimal numbers for success. A captain can effectively manage and motivate five people without getting overwhelmed.
Takeaway: You may find pushing your captains to sign more team members may not be productive. It could be overwhelming for them and discourage them from fielding a team next year. A better strategy is to register more teams and encourage captains to motivate their current team members to fundraise.
Captains and the top team member fundraise more than half of the team total
So who’s really raising the money on a team? Looking at the team pie, captains raise the most, but barely edging out the top team member. The two together raise 52% of the dollars.
Takeaway: Consider creating a fundraising environment where the top team members is empowered as a co-captain to help motivate the rest of their teams. This grooms the co-captain to take over if the captain ever leaves or to start their own team.
Teams minimize inactive fundraisers
Individual participants are 19% more likely to be zero-dollar fundraisers than team members.
Takeaway: Getting your inactive fundraisers to join a team, can help reduce your inactive fundraiser problem. Teams motivate members to fundraise.
Captains self-donate more
Captains self-donate 74% more dollars than individual participants. It’s the same motivation for becoming a team captain in the first place: They’re more committed to the cause.
Takeaway: The team members joined up because the captain asked. Encourage your captains to also ask their team to self-donate. It’s a great way to jumpstart success of the team as a whole.
Captains are more likely to come back
Captains are 75% more likely to return than individual participants. It’s likely they get a feeling of accomplishment that some individuals may not get from fundraising or the event experience.
Takeaway: When you include their team members, a team captain is responsible for 10 times the dollars of an individual participant. Even though a captain is more likely to come back, devote more effort to retaining them.
Teams can be a powerful part of your peer-to-peer event strategy. Focusing on teams can be key to improving event revenue and participant retention in 2019.
