Your peer-to-peer fundraisers, volunteers, and event participants are doing something remarkable. They are giving their time, their energy, and their personal networks to advance your mission. They are having conversations with friends and family on your behalf. They are showing up, often without any real expectation of recognition or reward.
And yet, in many organisations, once someone signs up to volunteer or registers for an event, the communication they receive is largely administrative. A confirmation. A reminder. A thank-you that arrives a week later when the moment has passed.
The gap between what these supporters deserve and what most teams have capacity to deliver is not a values problem. It is a systems problem. This article is about closing it.
What supporters actually need from you
The research on peer-to-peer fundraising consistently points to the same conclusion: fundraisers who feel supported raise more money, are more likely to complete their campaign, and are more likely to return for your next event.
The same pattern holds for volunteers. Those who receive timely communication, clear guidance, and genuine acknowledgement are more likely to return, recommend your organisation to others, and deepen their involvement over time.
What does support actually look like in practice? It comes down to three things:
Practical guidance at the right moment. A fundraiser who does not know how to share their page effectively does not need a motivational message. They need a social media template and a two-line explanation of how to use it, delivered at the point when they are most likely to act on it.
Acknowledgement that reflects their actual progress. A generic "keep going!" email means far less than a message that says "you have raised $320 so far and you are 64% of the way to your goal." The difference between these two messages is access to real data tied to the individual.
Recognition that feels earned. Celebrating a milestone when it happens, not days later in a bulk newsletter, is what creates the sense that someone is paying attention. Automated journeys informed by real-time data make this possible at scale.
The tools that make this work
Capture
Ortto's capture tools let you create forms, pop-ups, embedded widgets, and surveys that appear at meaningful moments in the supporter journey. Critically, every response flows directly back into the CDP, updating the supporter's profile in real time.
This matters because capture is not just about collecting information. It is about creating two-way touchpoints that make supporters feel seen and heard, while simultaneously giving you data that makes every future interaction more relevant.
Some practical applications:
A poll or survey embedded directly on your campaign page that asks supporters a quick question, like "what motivated you to give today?" Responses are captured as activity data in the CDP.
A post-registration survey for event participants that asks about their motivations, their fundraising experience, and what kind of support would be most helpful. Responses inform which journey they enter and what messages they receive.
An NPS widget that measures supporter sentiment with a simple 0 to 10 rating. Deploy it after a key moment, like an event or a milestone in a campaign, and use the results to understand how your supporters feel about their experience.
A campaign announcement that shares a milestone or urgent update with site visitors. When your appeal hits 75% of target or a matching gift period opens, a capture notification can surface that news to anyone on your site in real time.
A preference centre that lets supporters tell you how often they want to hear from you, which programs they care most about, and what communication channels they prefer. This information sits in their profile and shapes every automated message they receive from that point forward.
Multi-channel communication
Different supporters respond to different channels. Some open every email. Others respond faster to an SMS. Some are most engaged when they see something in a push notification while checking their phone between meetings.
Ortto lets you combine email, SMS, and campaign notifications within a single journey, with each channel playing a specific role rather than simply duplicating the same message across formats.
A practical example for a peer-to-peer campaign:
Email for longer, story-driven content: setup guides, fundraising inspiration, impact updates
SMS for time-sensitive nudges: a reminder the day before the event, a prompt when a fundraiser's score drops, a congratulations message the moment they receive their first donation
Push notifications for real-time moments: milestone achievements, goal completions, last-minute campaign updates
The channel mix does not need to be complex to be effective. Even adding a single SMS touchpoint at a high-stakes moment in a journey can meaningfully improve completion rates.
Talk
Ortto's Talk feature adds another layer to supporter communication, giving supporters instant answers to common questions through a simple chatbot on your campaign site powered by your own FAQ knowledge base, while also enabling live chat so your team can engage with people directly on the day.
For organisations running large peer-to-peer events or volunteer programs, this means supporters can get answers to common questions without those questions landing in your team's inbox. A well-structured knowledge base that covers the most frequently asked questions about event logistics, fundraising page setup, donation processing, tax receipts, payment updates, refunds, and contact details can absorb a significant volume of inbound queries.
The knowledge base articles feed the Talk AI assistant, so supporters get instant answers without waiting for a team member to respond. When someone does need to speak with a real person, the conversation is captured and connected to their supporter profile, giving your team full context without needing to ask for it.
On your campaign site, a chat widget can pop up giving supporters instant access to your FAQ knowledge base and live chat. This is particularly valuable on event days, when supporter questions spike and your team is already stretched thin.
Putting it together: a volunteer event journey
A practical example of how these tools work in combination:
Sign-up confirmation (immediately): A warm confirmation email that confirms their registration, tells them what to expect, and sets the tone for the experience ahead.
Practical preparation email (three days before the event): What to bring, where to go, who to contact with questions, and a link to a short knowledge base article covering the most common pre-event queries.
Day-of SMS reminder (morning of the event): A brief, friendly message that builds excitement and confirms the key logistics in two or three lines. On your campaign site, the Talk chat widget gives them instant access to your FAQ knowledge base if they have last-minute questions.
Thank-you email (within 24 hours after the event): Genuine acknowledgement of their contribution, a specific detail or two about what the event achieved, and a clear sense that their time made a difference.
Feedback survey (two to three days after the event): A short, well-designed capture form that invites their honest reflections. You can also use capture tools to run a quick poll or survey directly on the page, gathering insight from supporters in the moment. Based on their responses, they are either invited back to volunteer at the next event or moved into a different engagement pathway that better matches what they told you.
None of this requires manual effort after the journey is built. The right message reaches the right person at the right time, regardless of what else your team is working on.
The data that makes it personal
What separates a supported supporter from one who just receives a sequence of automated messages is relevance. And relevance comes from data.
Because everything in Ortto connects back to the CDP, every capture response, every channel interaction, every milestone reached updates the supporter's profile and can inform what happens next in their journey. A volunteer who indicates in their post-event survey that they would like to get more involved is automatically moved into a deeper engagement pathway. A fundraiser whose score drops below a threshold receives a check-in message rather than a standard progress update.
This is the practical payoff of the data work done in Wins 1, 2, and 3. The unified profile, the engagement scores, and the dynamic audiences built earlier in the platform are what make every communication in Win 5 feel personal rather than generic.
Try it in your 14-day trial
In the 6 Step Guide to Ortto at the end of the playbook, Win 5 has two parts. First, you create a capture widget on your campaign site. Choose a popup or notification and add a content component like a poll, survey, NPS, or announcement. Set your display rules, style it to match your brand, and switch it on. Then test it on your campaign website by visiting your campaign page in an incognito or private browser window to make sure it displays correctly and the experience feels right for your supporters.
Then, you build a FAQ bot with the knowledge base. Start by creating a new collection and uploading your existing FAQ document. If you already have a FAQ page, support document, or information sheet, paste the content directly into a new article. One solid article covering your most common supporter questions is enough to get started. Enable the Talk messenger widget on your campaign site and the knowledge base articles will surface automatically when visitors search for help.
Watch how capture responses flow into the CDP and update supporter profiles in real time. From there, explore adding a capture touchpoint to one of the journeys you built in Win 4. A short survey after a milestone moment or a feedback prompt at the end of a sequence adds a layer of two-way engagement that makes the entire journey feel less like a broadcast and more like a conversation.
Next in the series: Win 6: Make decisions with clarity, not guesswork. Learn how to build dashboards and reports that give you and your leadership team a live, accurate view of what is working across every campaign, audience, and channel.
