How Lacrosse the Nations Built a Thriving Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Engine
When your nonprofit’s team is smaller than the number of lacrosse players on the field, efficiency is everything.
For Lacrosse the Nations (LtN), a nonprofit using the power of lacrosse to uplift kids in Latin America, building scalable peer-to-peer fundraising meant creating a playbook their supporting Lacrosse teams could actually follow—and want to repeat every year.
With 4aGoodCause, they turned spring lacrosse games and student service trips into a powerhouse peer-to-peer engine.
The result? Hundreds of players, parents, and coaches raising awareness (and funds) across the country—with easy-to-use tools, team-branded pages, and personalized support along the way.
You’ll hear directly from Javier Silva, Executive Director of Lacrosse the Nations, on how LtN scaled their model and made the campaign experience feel less like a chore and more like a team win.
Whether you’re fundraising through athletics, for athletics, or looking for smarter, more creative ways to engage your supporter base, LtN’s story offers a play-by-play on how to grow with purpose—and a platform that makes it possible.
At a glance: 10+ years using 4aGoodCause
💰 Total Raised: $1.67M
👥 Average New Donors Acquired Per Year: ~150
🔁 Monthly Givers Added: ~30
📈 Campaigns held: 1826 P2P pages created since 2017
You can listen to Javier’s interview with Amanda Johnson of the 4aGC team here, or read through the case study below:
Sports Nonprofits Fundraising Case Study: Lacrosse the Nations’ P2P Fundraising Playbook
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The mission
Founded in 2009, Lacrosse the Nations (LtN) is a sports-based youth development nonprofit using the power of lacrosse to provide education, nutrition, and life skills programming to children in underserved communities.
Operating in Nicaragua and Colombia, as well as engaging U.S.-based students through travel and service, LtN uses lacrosse as a foundation to help kids stay in school, build a better future, and form global connections.
“Our goal,” Javier explains, “is really to use the sport as a tool or an anchor to get the kids to finish school, to do well in school, to fall in love with education, and to dream of a better future.”
🏆Success story:See how Circle of Life surpassed $1M+ in online donations by streamlining fundraising across multiple channels using 4aGoodCause.
The challenge
LtN takes a peer-to-peer fundraising approach with their partnering Lacrosse teams. It’s a powerful way to connect the Lacrosse community to the org’s mission, but it’s a significant amount of work.
Lacrosse the Nations has built a repeatable, low-lift fundraising model centered around the lacrosse community itself.
Here’s how it works:
Each season, high school and college teams across the U.S. dedicate a game to LtN’s mission.
Players create personal fundraising pages, share them with their networks, and promote the campaign using branded social media toolkits and email templates provided by LtN.
Some teams go all in—naming their matchups (like the “LTN Cup”), designing jerseys, and even competing with rivals to raise the most. Others keep it simple with a single team page. Either way, LtN keeps the lift light for coaches and maximizes student involvement.
Service trip fundraising runs in parallel:
Teams traveling to Nicaragua or Colombia raise funds through their own peer-to-peer pages to offset costs—often covering everything but flights.
LtN supports every campaign with custom-built pages for service trips and the participants
“We had been doing [P2P fundraising] even before we got 4aGoodCause, but once we got 4aGoodCause, it totally shifted how it was running and the success that we had.”
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Once we got 4aGoodCause, it totally shifted how it was running and the success that we had.
Javier Silva
Executive Director of Lacrosse the Nations
Before partnering with 4aGoodCause as their donor CRM and fundraising platform, their entire fundraising strategy relied on pledges per stat (like dollars per ground ball).
“You’d have to track down donors and be like, ‘Hey, this team got 50 ground balls. You said you were giving a dollar per ground ball: we need $50. Here’s the link.’ And then just keep pounding and hounding. It was very tedious, very difficult, very hard to manage.”
LtN needed a simpler way to involve teams, track fundraising, and streamline communications—especially with a small staff.
With 4aGoodCause, LtN found the right platform to power their entire fundraising approach, including their core peer-to-peer efforts.
They use the platform to:
Create custom team and player fundraising pages
Distribute branded toolkits with email/social templates
Integrate with Mailchimp for streamlined outreach
Build event-related pages for service trip fees
Javier does credit much of the ease of coordinating P2P fundraising across many teams and games in a season to 4aGoodCause.
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This year? The 2025 Lacrosse the Nations LtN Cup campaign donation page (built through 4aGoodCause!) had a 68% conversion rate.
Their team does it all through 4aGC: all their branded fundraising pages, individual player and/or team donation pages, offer their donors plenty of ways to pay, and also connect Mailchimp to 4aGC and send all communication through there—that way, everything is connected.
💡Did you know?You can create branded team and participant pages in minutes with 4aGoodCause’s fundraising tools—built to scale community and peer-to-peer campaigns without overwhelming your staff.
Lacrosse the Nation's branded primary donation form page via 4aGoodCause.
“The customer service is just unreal. The platform is very easy to use, but if I say, ‘Oh, I would love it if 4aGC could do this,’ … the next update it’s there,” Javier shares.
“It’s impressive how much [4aGoodCause] listens to what I have to say…. They’re very, very good about listening to us as clients and adapting. And I think I think that is probably the biggest value because if I go to anyone else that’s not going to happen, right? Like, it’s just not going to happen.”
Once a Lacrosse team participates in the fundraising, LtN works to keep teams coming back year after year through consistent, personal relationship-building—before, during, and especially after each campaign.
As Javier explains, it’s not just about thanking teams once and moving on. LtN provides follow-up updates on how the funds were used, shares impact stories, and stays in touch throughout the year.
“The teams that repeat fundraisers are the teams we have done a really good job of building a relationship with, [along with] continually throughout the year sharing the impact that they’re having with us.”
Each year, LtN campaigns generate impressive returns, especially for a smaller-staffed organization.
For this last year specifically, their 2025 LtN Cup campaign donation page (built through 4aGoodCause!) had a 68% conversion rate. That’s amazing.
“Honestly, for us, we always tell teams that it’s really not about the money because the awareness that they’re building for us is marketing dollars that we’re not spending. Which is massive, right?” Javier shares.
“When you have 30-40-man rosters or 40-women rosters, and that’s two teams, that’s about 80 people [using their] Instagram stories, posting, tagging, all throughout their network. And if we get like 15-20 games a year, multiply that by 20.”
In one Lacrosse season:
Dozens of teams across the U.S. dedicate games to fundraise for LtN
Service trip participants raise $3,000+ each to travel to Nicaragua or Colombia
Hundreds of social posts and peer shares amplify the mission across lacrosse communities
The participants create the buzz within their own communities, which is also a big win for LtN.
“So the network grows really big and then so many people find out about us, which is really cool. [And this P2P model] is so much easier than the pledge model from our perspective, because we’re such a small organization; the time that we save not having to do the pledge model is really, really beneficial.”
💡Pro-tip:From service trips to gala nights, 4aGoodCause fundraising pages make it really easy to sell tickets, collect trip fees, and manage event registrations—all in one place, no tech or design skills needed.
Top fundraising tips from Lacrosse the Nations
Whether you’re a sports-based nonprofit or a small team managing a big mission, Lacrosse the Nations offers a playbook worth borrowing.
Here’s what’s worked for them—and what can work for you, too:
1. Keep it simple
Fundraising shouldn’t feel like extra homework for your volunteers, participants, or donors. LtN makes it easy for players and coaches with ready-made templates, straightforward donation goals, and pre-built pages.
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We like to make it as simple as possible for the coach, not another thing added to their list of responsibilities, but rather something that adds value to their program.
Javier Silva
Executive Director of Lacrosse the Nations
2. Offer flexible ways to participate
Rivalry games, team-based fundraising, player-based fundraising, or service trips: Teams can choose how they want to fundraise.
That flexibility means more buy-in and more returning teams in the future.
LtN’s staff supports teams at every stage of the fundraising process—building pages, providing toolkits, and even managing comms through Mailchimp.
Less friction = more follow-through for your participants.
Did you know?With other donor CRM and fundraising software, leaving can mean starting your monthly program over. With 4aGoodCause, it’s as simple as taking your donors (and their info) securely with you.
4. Make the mission clear
Instead of listing every program, focus on one.
Javier found that tying each campaign to a specific, tangible impact (like scholarships for students in Nicaragua) helped players and donors better understand where their dollars go—which also helped the fundraisers clearly articulate the purpose of their participation.
Having a responsive fundraising platform partner makes all the difference.
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The customer service is just unreal... Ronald gets back to me so fast. I've never had anyone get back to me that fast.
Javier Silva
Executive Director of Lacrosse the Nations
These small touches add up—and for LtN, they’ve turned into repeat fundraisers, expanding networks, and campaigns that just keep getting stronger.
Why This Nonprofit Leader Stays With 4aGoodCause
What’s next for LtN
LtN is aiming to grow their base of recurring donors in 2026—a top priority for the org in the year ahead.
“We have 30 recurring donors right now. Knowing that money is coming in every month is massive. The importance of monthly giving is only getting bigger,” Javier shared with us. “And the impact that it can have on an organization is huge.”
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Monthly giving is low-hanging fruit because it's not really ‘hard,’ but it's just work that you have to actually put into it.
Javier Silva
Executive Director of Lacrosse the Nations
For more information on monthly giving programs, check out the following resources:
How to upgrade monthly donors over time: This video walks you through how to invite existing monthly donors to increase their support with just one click in 4aGC
How to retain monthly donors: This guide provides actionable strategies—like personal outreach, donor events, and payment automation—to minimize donor dropout.
“Ronald sat down with me and showed me all the new things that 4aGC has specifically to convert [one-time donors into monthly givers.] Monthly giving is low-hanging fruit because it’s not really ‘hard,’ but it’s just work that you have to actually put into it.”
With 4aGoodCause by their side, LtN is mapping out new strategies to turn more peer supporters into monthly donors over time.
Want to stress less and launch high-performing fundraising campaigns easily, just like Lacrosse the Nations?
Grow donor retention with 4aGoodCause’s built-in monthly giving toolkit—complete with upgrade prompts, automated thank-yous, and donor management tools that actually save time.
Ronald is the President and Founder of 4aGoodCause, the fundraising CRM that makes recurring, monthly giving a breeze for small nonprofits.
For over 25 years, Ronald has had the joy of doing what he loves, building online solutions that make a difference in the world. He’s helped raise millions of dollars online for small nonprofits across the country. Connect with Ronald on LinkedIn.
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