Text Message Donors Will Give More: Survey
4 February 2011 at 1:06 pm
A US survey has found that donors pledging money via text message will donate again in the future, and are open to engaging with more traditional channels such as direct mail, email and online giving.
The survey commissioned by The mGive Foundation, a Not for Profit organisation working to enable NFPs to execute effective mobile giving campaigns, found that 86% of respondents who gave to an organisations via text message are willing to consider giving larger amounts via other channels.
The Text Giving: Donor Survey Report also revealed that 79% of respondents who give to an organisation via text have also contributed via other channels of giving (email, website or direct mail).
Major findings from the survey include:
· Text Giving Produces a Positive Donor Experience
Fifty-six percent (56%) of respondents rated their experience with text giving as excellent or good.
· Text Donors Do Not Limit Giving to One Cause
Sixty-two percent (62%) of respondents give to two or more organisations via text, with a striking 12% of respondents giving to four or more organisations.
· Mobile Giving Compliments Alternative Channels of Giving
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of respondents who give to an organisation via text have also contributed via other channels of giving (email, website or direct mail).
· A Text Contribution is often an Important Cultivation Step for Higher Future Giving
Eighty-six percent (86%) of respondents who give to an organisation via text are willing to consider giving larger amounts via other channels.
· Appetite for Higher Giving Amount Options
Text donors would like to have the option to give a text gift in the minimum amount of $25. Seventy-three (73%) indicated that $25 is the maximum level they would consider giving via text, while 15% indicated $50 as a max text gift and 9% indicated $100 or more as a max.
· Ranking the Calls to Action
The top three calls to action cited by respondents are: a) email, b) public event, and c) television.
The mGive Foundation executive director Jenifer Snyder told PNNOnline the survey results confirm that mobile donations are an incredibly effective fundraising tool that can be used as part of a larger multi-channel donor acquisition strategy.
She says mobile donation and advocacy campaigns are a great way for Not for Profits to reach new audiences and raise money that they may not have received through other, more traditional channels.
Snyder says that interest in mobile donations is exploding, and she expects to see a significant increase in the number of NFPs looking to harness the power of mobile technology over the next 2 years.
PNNOnline reported that the number of text-message based donations processed by The mGive Foundation increased more than 30-fold in 2010, from $1.2 million in donations in 2009 to $41 million from more than 7.7 million unique donors in 2010.
The survey, which was conducted by CCS, was the first-ever designed to specifically examine the behavior of mobile text donors.
A link to the survey was sent via text message to over 23,500 recipients – with a total of 253 people completing the survey.
To download the report, visit http://www.mgivefoundation.org/
