Although nonprofit organizations ask for donations in many ways, text messaging is an increasingly popular, high-performing fundraising method in this sector. More than 97% of Americans own a cell phone, with 85% using smartphones and most spending an average of 5.4 hours on their phones daily. People love interacting with brands, companies, and organizations, and studies have shown they’re almost five times more likely to respond to text messages than emails.
Despite these impressive statistics, SMS marketing is still a very new fundraising method for many nonprofits. Only 15% of nonprofits communicate with their donors and supporters through text messages. With so many organizations vying for attention and donations, staying connected to your audience is vital—especially in the year-end rush. SMS marketing is a highly efficient tool for reaching fundraising goals, so don’t hold back if it initially seems complicated and confusing.
Keep reading to learn our top tip for beating the year-end rush with SMS fundraising.
What Is SMS Marketing?
First, let’s review some SMS marketing basics. Also known as text message marketing or mobile message marketing, this form of fundraising uses short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) to send mass text messages to specific audiences.
While the average open rate for email newsletters is only 22.71%, and the average click-through rate is even lower (2.91%), SMS and MMS messages boast far more impressive numbers. In fact, 78% of consumers say texting is the fastest way to reach them, and more than 90% of text messages are opened within three minutes of being received.
Considering those numbers, it’s no surprise that SMS marketing campaigns are among the most effective fundraising methods for nonprofits. SMS messaging can reach thousands or even millions of customers at once. MMS messages can hold supporters’ attention with photos, videos, GIFs, links, and subject lines built into the messages. Using strategies like memorable keywords, eye-catching media, and a strong call to action, you can achieve high click-through rates that will yield great results.
Top SMS Fundraising Tip: Collect More Donations by Fundraising Year-round
Your audience wants to hear from you and be involved in the causes they’re passionate about. Take advantage of this highly effective and efficient tool to communicate with subscribers and streamline your fundraising year-round instead of pushing for donations only at the end of the year.
One of the benefits of text messaging is that you can send messages in real time and align them around important fundraising deadlines, volunteer events, annual galas, press conferences, or other events. Additionally, following up with attendees and donors after an event is just as important as texting them beforehand. It goes a long way in helping them feel appreciated and more likely to continue their support.
A key to successful fundraising campaigns is to text subscribers frequently and keep them up to date on the organization, but there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation for how many messages to send per month. It depends on your audience.
Tatango’s time zone feature ensures your messages never bother your supporters in the middle of the night, and regular message reports help identify how often they like hearing from you.
Optimize Your SMS Fundraising Strategy with Tatango
Since 2006, Tatango has helped clients send billions of text messages. With technology that can send up to six million text messages per hour, we know SMS marketing and fundraising inside and out. Schedule a call with us today to partner with Tatango and get the best ROI for your nonprofit fundraising campaign.
