Few Text Donors Choose to Receive Additional Charity Messages

Very few donors who have made text-message gifts to the American Red Cross’s Haiti relief efforts have chosen to receive follow-up messages from the group.

As of Thursday, the American Red Cross had received more than $26-million in text donations for the disaster in Haiti. Of the people who made those gifts, a little more than 5 percent gave the Red Cross permission to send them additional text messages.

After donors make a mobile contribution, they receive another message that asks if they would like to receive additional messages from the charity. If the donor says yes, the only piece of information that the organization receives is their cellphone number.

The percentage of text donors who give charities permission to follow up with them is “pretty low across the board” and varies widely from campaign to campaign, says Tony Aiello, chief executive of mGive, the Denver company that is running the Red Cross’s Haiti campaign.

“We’ve seen a few campaigns that have been in the 20 percent range, which is very exciting, very amazing,” he says. “We’ve also seen some down in the 3 percent range.”

Mr. Aiello thinks it’s too soon to make judgments about mobile giving, based on opt-in rates.

He points out that when charities are dealing with a “very emotional or time sensitive call to action” – like the devastating earthquake in Haiti – they will ask for donations first, then seek permission to send additional text messages and try to get donors more involved in their cause.

Other groups take a different approach, says Mr. Aiello. They try to build a list of cellphone numbers from people who have given them permission to send them text messages, sometimes by offering them something in return. One example, he says, might be an animal-welfare group that sends monthly pet-care tips. In time, those charities might begin to incorporate fund-raising appeals into their messages.

Mr. Aiello says he thinks opt-in rates are likely to rise.

“The more people get used to his way of giving,” he says, “the higher it’s going to get.”