10 Super-Easy Steps to Launch Your K–12 School’s Peer-to-Peer Text Event

When Jeffrey Starrett, Director of Advancement Services for the Pine Crest School in Florida, decided to modernize the K–12 school’s phonathon program, their annual gifts totaled just $32,000. In 2016, they took the leap to text-to-give and the results have been extraordinary. Since launching the Panther Giving event built on peer-to-peer text, the school has raised $5.3 million.

How did they do it? They built a robust campaign page on JustGiving® from Blackbaud that synchronizes with Raiser’s Edge NXT, the school’s CRM platform. Working with a text service provider and two staffers, the school’s total for 2022 alone was $1.3 million.

“It has become very simple for us,” Starrett said. Simple K–12 fundraising? We’ll opt-in to that! forward.

1. Create a fantastic campaign page for your event.

While it’s possible to use a P2P platform as your yearlong fundraising page, Starrett launches a fresh donation page dedicated just to the Panther Giving event. It includes a scrolling donor banner, high-energy videos, running tally, social media feed, and school colors.

2. Pick a day with emotional pull for your supporters.

Like many K–12 schools, Pine Crest launched its event with a Giving Tuesday campaign. Now, though, it is scheduled around homecoming. And because one day was such a success, they shifted to multiple days, with the first communication landing on homecoming Friday, when supporters are feeling proud of the school and happy to be involved in #panthergivingweek.

3. Target a selective segment.

Pine Crest is a large school with 8,500 alumni, so the team connects with that segment in separate campaigns, focusing the Panther Giving event on families of current students. Their goal is 100% participation. And they don’t necessarily filter out every major donor.

“A lot of them like to be involved, to be part of it,” Starrett said. “So they get the texts, too.”

4. Line up matching gifts, but pace them.

Starrett processes pledges and matching gifts from major donors off-line ahead of the event, updating the tally only after a video email is sent each day of the campaign.

“We don’t want everyone to wake up on Wednesday morning to $1 million,” he said. “We like to go slow and steady, to keep the energy up.”

5. Give newbies a heads-up that a text campaign is coming.

Families new to Pine Crest receive direct mail and email about the upcoming text campaign so they know to expect it. In just six years, the school has created a culture of giving centered on the simplicity of text-to-donate and adoption has been seamless.

“”Respond by clicking,” Starrett said. “JustGiving makes it easy.”

6. Write your first text with an “automatic” opt-in.

Starrett can count on one hand the people who have opted out of texts over the years. How does he do it? Text No. 1 has a friendly, irresistible opt-in Here’s how Pine Crest words it:

• “I’m in for #panthergivingweek, are you? New, increased $, matched. May I send you the link?”

7. Respond personally to every text.

The beauty of automating a text-first campaign is that it frees up your staff and volunteers to truly make your event a peer-to-peer outreach. Starrett and one other staffer send out batches of 500 bulk texts every 20 minutes starting at 9 a.m. Monday morning of their campaign week. The rest of Monday is spent responding to every single text.

“All of our people can concentrate on that one-to-one interaction,” he said. Calls, emails, and social media are also part of the high-touch follow-up to the low-stress text kickoff.

8. Consider a one-and-done campaign.

Parents know that Panther Giving Week is the school’s biggest fundraiser. More important, they know it’s the only one. Complaints about too many texts are rare because they’re limited to this single fundraiser, and Starrett does not keep pushing for more gifts.

“They know we won’t hit them up again at basketball games later in the year.”

9. Use your school’s area code.

It can come across as corporate if your texts originate from an unfamiliar number. On your text platform, set it up so your texts are sent from the same area code as your school.

10. Integrate your text campaign with your CRM.

Make your P2P text-centered fundraising event simple for your staff with synchronized systems that allow you to batch gifts and see results in real time on dynamic dashboards.