Key information about text donations for nonprofits revealed in new survey

A brand new survey from the mGive Foundation provides even more illuminating data about text donating to nonprofits and can genuinely help charities to strategically assess the best approach to launch mobile giving campaigns. I consider the report to be one of the strongest and most focused in the field which takes data from those who are already using text to donate, who they are, why they prefer it and how they give.

The survey was based on responses filed by more than 5,500 donors who had recently made a donation via their mobile device with the data compiled in April of this year with the new data, these findings comprise the 3rd annual survey of this information.

There are more findings than I can cover in a single post and I’ll also link to the entire study at the foot of this piece but wanted to spotlight some data that I feel will be most useful to nonprofits entering into this arena of fundraising for the first time or seeking to refine their existing approach.

Text Donations are now better at crossing different age demographics. In a counter intuitive result the newest survey shows that Millennials (who previously constituted the largest cross-section) are less dominant in the text market than previously shown with the survey showing that ‘Boomers 2’ – those aged between 49-59 – were most likely to use this method to donate. However, no single demographic is truly dominant which reinforces the growing appeal of the tool per the first graphic below.

Also interesting and perhaps more pronounced than other surveys have shown is that text donating is dominated by females at the remarkable ratio of 75/25 over their male counterparts. It’s no great surprise to learn that those surveyed have overwhelmingly had positive experiences with text donating with some 98% revealing that they have had an excellent (78%) or good (20%) experience. That data only reinforces the benefit of the efficiency of text giving which in part is due to the speed and simplicity of the process for the donor. Also notable is that rate of satisfaction continues to grow. up from 86% in 2013, which is most likely the result of technology improvements.

As we’ve explored there are numerous avenues for successful nonprofit fundraising including telephone fundraising, special events, lottery fundraising, email and direct mail. Determining the right blend for your organization is the result of experience combined with an ongoing evaluation of where your donor audience currently reside in terms of preference / what they are most comfortable with. An interesting part of this survey captured the fact that text donors are typically more likely to use online giving to make donations whilst showing a preference for text donations. There is such important data right across the board on the graphic below as it displays what is currently used in addition to what method of donation is preferred – an excellent question to ask your own audience.

The third important piece of information is that the audience who donate via text seemed to have found their own ideal donation amount which is certainly information to put to use. A remarkable 83% of those surveyed selected either $50 (58%) or $75 (25%) when answering ‘What is the maximum gift level you would considering making by text?’  When armed with such focused information it seems logical to incorporate that in your first or next text donation campaign.

Finally the graphic below which provides data which will catch the eye relating to text donation by day of the week and time of day. When you have such stacked data as this all signs lead to evening launches of campaigns or requests for donations which ideally are timed for the early/middle part of the week.

The entire report comes highly recommended and I’d like to thank mGive for compiling such an interesting survey. If you’d like to review the entire 2014 mGive Text Donation Study you can download the .pdf directly from our site here.
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.