February 19, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
With the unprecedented amount of money donated by text message on cellphones after the catastrophe in Haiti, mobile technology is very much on the mind of charity officials. Two new reports help shed light on the future of texting in the nonprofit world.
Thirteen percent of Americans made a text-message gift to aid Haiti relief efforts, according to a new survey, commissioned by Cone, a Boston marketing firm.
The results suggest that the earthquake may prove a turning point for text-message gifts. Last fall a similar survey found that only 6 percent of Americans had contributed via text message to any cause in the previous year.
Nearly one in five respondents to the current survey — 19 percent — said they would prefer to text a donation rather than giving another way, such as writing a check or donating online, while 22 percent said that they would donate via text message only when there is an urgent need.
Eighteen percent said they are now more likely to contribute by sending a text message to their favorite organization.
The online survey of 1,183 adults was conducted this month and designed to produce a sample that mirrored the demographics of the American population.
For charities that aren’t raising money for disasters, text messaging may be best suited as a tool for advocacy, suggests a new report that looks at the text-messaging results of six large organizations that have mature cellphone programs.
The report was published by M+R Strategic Services, a consulting company in Washington, and MobileActive.org, a network of activists and nonprofit groups that use cellphones in their work.
When the groups in the study sent out a text message to people on their mobile lists asking them to call a decision maker, 4.7 percent of recipients made telephone calls. The response rate for e-mail messages that asked recipients to call a policy maker was 0.92 percent, according to the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, also published by M+R Strategic Services.
The six organizations’ mobile lists is growing quickly, a median rate of 49.5 percent anually. Many of the groups used their e-mail lists to ask supporters to provide their cellphone numbers.
The percentage of people who drop off the cellphone lists or whose phone numbers no longer work was also high, 30.7 percent annually. The “churn rate” for e-mail lists was 19 percent, according to the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study.
“It is worth noting that, unlike email, there are financial implications for the end user for heavy text messaging volume,” write the new report’s authors. “This is because many subscribers have to pay to receive text messages, and because many platforms charge clients by messaging volume.”
