Insights to Power Social Good

Your Latest mSpiration- Quick mobile ideas to mSpire your nonprofit organization to change the world one text at a time.

Your nonprofit is going mobile & just in the nick of time! But how do you make mobile work, while becoming your organizations mobile rock star? In our new blog series we will be posting innovative, creative and downright awesome ways that mobile is being used so you can go turn those bystanders into supporters-in 160 characters or less!

Earlier this year the 2013 mGive Text Donation Study was released. Yesterday The mGive Foundation posted a very cool infographic on the study. 

If you’ve ever thought about fundraising more effectively; having better engagements with donors, increasing donor retention and breaking through the “clutter” – mobile can do that for you.  But not if you get frightened away by the myths you may have heard about mobile.  You can realize mobile’s full potential in your fundraising campaign if you get the facts.

Don’t let the myths of mobile scare you! Let us spook-away some of the most frightening myths about mobile before they haunt you.  After all, done right, mobile offers treats, not tricks! 

Here’s our Halloween treat for you – Busting the Myths of Mobile! 

This is first in a series of three – watch for parts two and three as we clear away the cobwebs from more Myths of Mobile.

Your Latest mSpiration- Quick mobile ideas to mSpire your nonprofit organization to change the world one text at a time.

Your nonprofit is going mobile-just in the nick of time! But how do you make mobile work, while becoming your organization's mobile rock star? On our new blog series we will be posting innovative, creative and downright awesome ways that mobile is being used so you can go turn those bystanders into supporters-in 160 characters or less!

When it comes to recurring donor campaigns, using text messages can really make the fur fly. And by “fur” we mean donations, donor involvement and retention.

That’s the experience of one of mGive’s clients focused on saving four legged friends around the country. The organization began partnering with mGive in 2009 to integrate text messaging into their already successful communication strategy.

Specific to their goal was to grow a new community of individual donors and to cultivate monthly givers.

To achieve these goals, the client couldn’t just occasionally send out a text or add a text component as an afterthought to an existing campaign. What they found was that using text messaging is like having a pet…give it attention and care and the returns would be endlessly rewarding – although without the tail wags and tummy rubs. Instead, a mobile community returns the love with event attendance, social sharing and fundraising to help fulfill their mission.

The client’s experience shows that text giving gets the best results when supported by ongoing text communication, providing program information and opportunities for involvement other than just solicitations. In other words, using text to build a community of highly engaged supporters.

It’s a fact:  Mobile is not just for text donations anymore.

While many organizations may just be dipping their fundraising toes in the text giving waters, our latest study shows that mobile is increasingly a desired tool by your supporters -- not just for donations but for additional types of donor engagement.  The biggest changes from 2012 to 2013 we saw in text donor attitudes in our latest survey about mobile communication, came from donors wanting additional information – and not just about donations.

How often do your supporters tell you that they want to hear more from you?  What impact are your social media efforts having on fundraising?    Which solicitation methods leave your donors feeling great?

Our 2013 annual mGive Text Donation Study provides the answer to these questions and shows that text donations remain an overwhelmingly positive experience for donors. Supporters are increasingly finding out about text donation campaigns through social media.  In addition, donors want to get more information about you through text messaging.

Here are some of the key takeaway points from our 2013 Text Donation Study:

Key Findings

More donors are hearing about text donation campaigns via social media.  Social media is second only to TV or radio as the method by which respondents reported hearing about text campaigns.  In fact, social media as a source for text campaign information rose six points to nearly 28 percent from 2012 to 2013.  Email as a source of information about text campaigns continues to drop, falling from more than 60 percent in 2011 to 11.5 percent in 2013.

Good fundraising ideas don’t just happen. And reliable, loyal donors don’t fall from the sky. If you’ve been pulling your hair out trying to determine how to raise more money with shrinking resources, perhaps it’s time to review fundamentals. Last post we discussed the first principle of fundraising – Research. Today, let’s look at the second principle: Identification.

Indiana Jones was a man of action, but his adventures always started with his nose in a book. Professor Jones did his research. Without research, Indiana Jones could not have found his hidden treasures.

The same is true with non-profits. Before we can engage our supporters, we need to do the research. We have to, Indiana Jones-like, whip our data into shape (okay, I’ll stop with the Indiana Jones puns, lest you think me a Raider of the Lost Snark…).

As a successful fundraiser, you know that research is the foundation for winning new supporters and increasing donations.

Mobile can aid your research efforts, especially when it comes to surveying supporters and prospects. With the mGive platform, you can collect data in real time and gain powerful insights by: