Walkathons, bike rides, and other fundraising events in which participants raise money from friends and family are finally beginning to bounce back from the pandemic. The top 30 events in 2022 raised $1.05 billion, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum. All but two of the events on the list raised more money in 2022 than they did the previous year.
“Covid just devastated this industry,” says David Hessekiel, president of the group. “In 2020, we were down 30-plus percent. Last year we started to come back. But [in 2022], we were able to report almost 19 percent growth. The big takeaway is the opening up of society has had a huge impact on the return of peer-to-peer fundraising success.”
The last time the groups on the forum’s annual list raised more than $1 billion was in 2019, when they brought in $1.35 billion.
The events that raised the most last year were the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk ($103 million), the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s ($90 million), the Pan-Mass Challenge ($77 million), the American Heart Association’s Kids Heart Challenge ($77 million), and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night ($75 million).
Being back in person made a big difference for many of the events. The AIDS/LifeCycle event raised $17.8 million in 2022, after raising only $2.6 million in 2021, when it was virtual. That’s more than six times as much money.
“I think that was due to people being so excited and pent-up demand caused by the pandemic,” says Tracy Evans, ride director. “It wasn’t necessarily that people came out in droves. It wasn’t our biggest year for actual participants, but everybody that was fundraising, they were so excited. The donors were so excited. The average fundraising was really significant per person — much higher.”
That enthusiasm to be back in person was evident at other events, including the Pan-Mass Challenge, the cycling event that was No. 3 on this year’s list.
Billy Starr, executive director, says there “was growing comfort with the post-pandemic climate,” which helped propel the event from 1,600 attendees in 2021, when Covid restrictions were in place, to 5,500 participants in 2022.
The steps organizations took to stay in touch with participants during the pandemic were another reason for their strong performance last year, Hessekiel says.
For example, would-be participants in the Pan-Mass Challenge could still get signature merchandise, even though the event didn’t take place in 2020 due to Covid — which Starr said longtime participants appreciated. Evans says her organization did 30 hours of virtual programming in 2020 and had more spread-out contact during 2021 to keep its volunteer fundraisers engaged.
“The success folks had in 2022 was a testament to them maintaining relationships with people all along the spectrum of participation in 2020 and 2021,” Hessekiel says.
Strong Showings
While there was a lot of enthusiasm for gathering in person, two online fundraising events also did well. The first is Alsac/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s “social fundraising” event, which Hessekiel describes as fundraising through online social channels. It came in at No. 16 on the list, raising $23.6 million.
The second was the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital’s online streaming event Extra Life. It took the final position on the list, raising $14.3 million. Hessekiel says that streaming events are growing in popularity but cautions that most streaming fundraising events are much smaller than Extra Life.
“I think the growth in that area is that there are a lot of people doing streaming fundraising events, as opposed to there are a lot of programs being invented that are raising huge amounts of money — $10 or $15 million at a clip,” he says.
Outlook Positive for 2023
While there are questions about the economic outlook for 2023, many in the world of walkathons, bike rides, and other events expect this year to be pretty decent.
Hessekial doesn’t expect the economic changes to be “so dramatic that I think it’s going to severely depress the donations that people give. I think it will be a factor, but not a huge one.”
Starr is optimistic for the future, having seen nothing but increased enthusiasm for his 2023 event. “We already have 5,100 people registered,” he says. “We expect people to give more money and to attract more donors than ever.”
