How Union for Reform Judaism’s annual Giving Day grew peer-to-peer participation by 733% year over year
Mission
To create, connect, and inspire diverse congregations, camps, and other Jewish communities to pursue its vision
Challenge
Engage camps to bring past and new supporters into the organization’s modern data system
Solution
Leverage GoFundMe Pro’s peer-to-peer platform to facilitate a camp-based “Giving Day” and turn passionate alumni and camp families into dedicated fundraisers
“Peer-to-peer is such a beautiful way to bring in new supporters to our organization and connect with those who have been impacted by our programming.”
– Gabi Kirsch, Director of Grassroots Fundraising at URJ
Annual Giving Day results year over year*:
733% increase
in active peer-to-peer fundraising pages
805% increase
in new contacts
190% increase
in first-time donor households
9.5x
total raised through fundraising pages
*Based on 2025 GoFundMe Pro data and Union for Reform Judaism-provided data
Powering peer-to-peer fundraising for 14 camps
Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)’s annual Camp Giving Day is a peer-to-peer fundraising competition across URJ’s 14 camps. After experiencing challenges with a previous platform that was great for gamification but had gift processing limitations, URJ decided to use GoFundMe Pro’s peer-to-peer fundraising technology for its second annual Camp Giving Day. GoFundMe Pro provided the reliable infrastructure needed for a large-scale, multi-entity fundraising competition, ensuring seamless and dependable gift processing.
One of the reasons that I love this campaign is that it makes fundraising fun. If you can engage your supporters in a moment of community, that’s going to take your fundraising strategies even further.
Cultivating an engaged community of fundraisers
Camp Giving Day harnessed participants’ deep, lasting connection to their summer camps, turning passionate alumni, staff, and donors into engaged advocates. The campaign was driven by several key strategies:
- Setting achievable goals: URJ asked each camp’s development director to commit to finding five individual peer-to-peer fundraisers. Because this felt like an achievable lift, all 14 camps and their committees were inspired to start.
- Offering incentives to fuel friendly competition: The URJ team created a prize board, which boosted excitement and participation.
- Highlighting best practices: Successful camps served as case studies, demonstrating how effective communication plans, unique incentives, and leveraging major donors’ networks could lead to growth.
URJ Camp Giving Day has been a powerful catalyst for strengthening our community’s culture of giving, particularly among alumni. While we initially invited several board members to serve as ‘Camp Champions,’ we were both surprised and inspired when 36 alumni, parents, staff, and community leaders independently created their own fundraising pages. Together, they raised nearly 30% of Eisner and Crane Lake’s 2025 Camp Giving Day revenue. More than the dollars, this peer-to-peer model reaffirmed that alumni of all ages are our most meaningful partners and ambassadors in building a sustainable philanthropic future.
By empowering and mobilizing all 14 camp communities, URJ saw year-over-year growth across critical metrics, demonstrating the power of its peer-to-peer strategy.
- Active P2P fundraising pages: 9 → 75 (733% increase)
- New contacts: 44 → 398 (805% increase)
- First-time donor households: 179 → 519 (190% increase)
- Total raised through P2P pages: 9.5× growth
These incredible results translate to meaningful impact, with each gift supporting the greatest camp needs, including scholarships, facility enhancements, and more.
Focusing on the future
For the third Camp Giving Day, URJ is evolving its strategy based on user feedback and is partnering with Mittun to create a custom landing page for all Camp Giving Day activities. All gift processing will remain on GoFundMe Pro, but this shift aims to free up the URJ team by:
- Increasing camp control: Camps will gain greater control over the peer-to-peer fundraising tools and communication with their dedicated individual fundraisers and donors.
- Maintaining platform familiarity: The camps will continue leveraging the GoFundMe Pro platform that supporters and individual fundraisers are already comfortable with.*
*Results reflect URJ’s campaign strategy and may vary for other organizations.
Gabi’s GoFundMe Pro tip:
- Strive to make fundraising fun. If you can get people engaged because the campaign offers them a moment to be in community with each other, that will take your efforts further.
