Text Giving and Multi-Channel Fundraising: RUUP4IT?

    When the Fourmile Canyon fire was raging through our area, I saw a news piece on TV that ended with an ask to text donations to support the fire fighters. I grabbed my phone and texted $5 right away to The mGive Foundation. I never heard from them again and I have no idea what they did with my money, but at the time I was inspired.

    Now, five months later, I see a report commissioned by The mGive Foundation on text donors. Two hundred and fifty three text donors were surveyed from all over the nation. Given my brief one-way interaction with mGive, I found the results quite interesting.

    The study walks through some demographic data on text givers and speaks to the frequency of gifts made by these donors. But, what most intrigued me was the potential mobile giving seems to have to enhance revenue from other giving sources. A few tidbits:

    Seventy-nine percent (79%) of respondents who give to an organization via text have also given via email, website or direct mail.

    A clear 73% indicated that $25 is the maximum level they would consider giving via text.

    Eighty-six percent (86%) of respondents who give to an organization via text are willing to consider giving larger amounts via other channels.

    So, texting can be a powerful inspiration for giving – as it was in my case with the ask for the firefighters. But when an organization stops after the initial gift or continues to solicit text givers through text only, it is clearly missing opportunities to engage and solicit their donors to get more and larger gifts using direct mail, on-line, and other channels.

    Maybe it was fine for the Fourmile Fire ask – it was just an emergency one-time thing. But if you’re considering texting at all in your organization, don’t miss the opportunity to inspire, acknowledge, and steward your donors across different channels.

    You can get a copy of the report by following this quick link.


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