Textual content messaging is an more and more essential useful resource for reaching supporters with unmatched immediacy. Not solely are 99% of textual content messages opened, however 90% are opened inside three minutes after they’re acquired.

This chance to attach instantly and instantly with supporters has made texting a key channel year-round and particularly throughout vital fundraising campaigns like Giving Tuesday, end-of-year fundraising, and rapid-response moments. Regardless of its rising utilization, dependable fundraising information round nonprofit textual content messaging outcomes have been restricted till now.

Final month, Tatango and MissionWired launched the Nonprofit Textual content Messaging Insights Report as a place to begin for metrics on fundraising and engagement textual content messaging throughout the nonprofit business. The report consists of information on greater than 200 million nonprofit textual content messages despatched, 162,000 donations acquired, and $5.4 million raised from nonprofit textual content messaging in 2023. Listed below are six takeaways from the report:

1. Textual content Messaging Accounted for 4.5% of On-line Income

Lately, texting has turn out to be one of many fastest-growing channels for nonprofit direct response. Whereas texting hasn’t caught as much as e-mail but—e-mail generates 16% of on-line income—nonprofits are creating multimillion greenback texting applications that proceed to attain sturdy development.

For some nonprofits with sturdy texting applications and particularly throughout vital moments, textual content messaging is beginning to outpace e-mail as their largest driver of income. MissionWired, co-author of the report, has run assessments to make sure this shift doesn’t imply texting is detracting from e-mail income: relatively, we discovered that organizations operating multichannel campaigns elevate extra money for his or her applications general and so they’re increase a extremely worthwhile viewers of multichannel donors whereas they’re at it.

2. Nonprofits Despatched 46 Textual content Messages Yearly

Nonprofits with established texting applications are utilizing the channel for proactive, ongoing communications much like how we historically have used e-mail. Right here is the cadence of texts despatched by nonprofit organizations:

• December: 5.5 texts
• November: 5 texts 
• January to October: 3.5 texts every month

By establishing an everyday messaging cadence, you possibly can set an expectation amongst supporters that they’ll obtain a couple of texts monthly. Then you possibly can enhance that frequency throughout your greatest year-end campaigns, similar to you’ll in different channels.

3. 52% of Texts Had been Centered on Fundraising

Profitable nonprofit applications are utilizing textual content messaging to ask, steward, and interact donors. Whereas 52% of texts have been for fundraising, 48% have been centered on sharing influence and telling tales, deepening engagement, and thanking donors, relatively than counting on it solely as a way for repeated fundraising appeals. For nonprofits that aren’t sending a mixture of fundraising, cultivation, and engagement texts, take into account the channel an essential alternative to deal with retention charges and supply further surround-sound touchpoints on your viewers all year long.

4. Fundraising Texts Despatched After 6 PM Ship 37% Extra Conversions

If, as we talked about earlier, 90% of texts are opened inside three minutes after they’re acquired, then timing actually issues with texting. For the messages analyzed on this report, conversion charges elevated later within the day. We broke down night hours additional, taking a look at ship occasions between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. We noticed the very best conversion price from fundraising texts despatched between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.: 0.205%, in comparison with 0.095% and 0.057% between the hours of 6 p.m. and seven p.m. and between 7 p.m. and eight p.m., respectively. We additionally noticed opt-out charges lowest between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., at 0.18%.

To account for this pattern, it’s honest to theorize that throughout the week folks are typically extra engaged with textual content messaging after work after they have free time. Whether or not they’re watching TV, studying a e-book, or scrolling by social media, it’s possible that smartphones are shut by. This might simply contribute to nonprofits seeing greater conversion charges over textual content within the evenings.

5. Shocker: 25% Greater Conversions January–October vs. Finish of 12 months

With any good outcomes report, the enjoyable begins when some quantity takes us abruptly. On this report, that shock was that fundraising texts had a 25% greater conversion price from January to October in comparison with texts despatched in November and December.

What does this imply on your texting technique? For organizations hesitating to make use of texting as a core channel for an everyday cadence of fundraising, engagement, and cultivation messages, this information factors to textual content as a dependable channel for driving conversion all year long. There isn’t any want to attend till November and December to broaden your multichannel campaigns into textual content.

6. Nonprofits Despatched 58% MMS Texts and 42% SMS Texts

When you’ll typically hear “SMS” used synonymously with “texting,” textual content messages

will be despatched both as SMS or as MMS texts, and nonprofits will leverage every textual content

message kind for various functions.

• SMS refers to text-only messages, with components which can be 160 characters lengthy, which makes them resemble a tweet
• MMS is a textual content message with a 5,000-character restrict that may embody an image, video, or GIF, which might make them look extra much like an e-mail

The report authors discovered that fundraising texts have been break up evenly, 50% every MMS and SMS texts. Nonetheless, engagement and cultivation texts extra typically used MMS (67%) than SMS (33%) texts.

Whereas MMS can incur greater prices than SMS, the return on funding will be vital. The distinction in artistic alternatives to interact your viewers could make MMS more practical in sure moments or cultivation efforts.

In our inaugural Textual content Messaging Insights Report, the groups at Tatango and MissionWired got down to set up a place to begin for the nonprofit business. Amongst our most significant takeaways is the proof on this report that nonprofits are utilizing texting as an ongoing communication software to interact with supporters, join, and fundraise.With unequalled immediacy and engagement, textual content messaging has turn out to be a vital nonprofit channel on your core digital fundraising program alongside e-mail, social, and digital adverts.

To listen to the report’s authors focus on the findings, watch our on-demand webinar, Introducing the Nonprofit Textual content Messaging Insights Report.