Whether your Baby Boomer parents like it or not, we are in an age where texting is one of the most common forms of communication.
U.S. smartphone users send and receive five times as many texts as they make phone calls each day. – International Smartphone Mobility Report, Informate
As a form of fundraising, texting has proven successful as well. It is hard to ignore that over $43 million was raised by the Red Cross’s Haiti earthquake relief text-to-give campaign. And when you see reports like NP Source’s giving statistics report that says the average donation from text-to-donate is $107, incorporating texting into peer-to-peer fundraising seems like an incredible opportunity.
Here are five reasons to consider including texting as part of a peer-to-peer fundraising strategy:
- It’s easy to do on the go, considering 91% of American adults own a smartphone. 1
- It gets people’s attention — 98% of all text messages are opened, and 95% of text messages are opened and responded to within three minutes of being delivered. Compared to the average email open rate of 20%, that makes texting much more effective. 2
- It’s convenient for quick responses. It takes 90 seconds to respond to a text, versus 90 minutes by email. 1
- For many peer-to-peer programs, it is the preferred form of communication for one of their key audiences — and it’s not necessarily millennials. Text donors are most likely to be between 49 and 59 years old, female, married, and college graduates. 1
- It’s where we spend most of our time communicating. In total, Americans spend about 26 minutes a day texting compared to about six minutes a day on voice calls. 2
While email is still king, given the allowable volume and flexibility of content it affords nonprofits to communicate, it can often get lost in our very deep and sometimes ignored personal inboxes. That makes strategies like texting and push notifactions more attractive — not to mention the convenience and pleasure factors. Texting is expected to be brief. Pictures, videos, emojis, and the ever-so entertaining bitmojis can easily be attached to texts. Furthermore, people on texting terms are very likely to read and respond to each other.
With our Boundless mobile fundraising app, texting from mobile devices is already one of the many options for sending asks, follow-ups, and thank you correspondence. Knowing what we know about the texting channel and its audience, it’s worth considering educating your participants about its availability through coaching emails, tutorial videos, and push notifications. Spread the word — we’re tracking the use of texting and can monitor it with you.
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