How Nonprofits are Leveraging Mobile Messaging: Findings from M+R Benchmarks
Each year, the M+R Benchmarks team collects data from hundreds of nonprofits across sectors to help nonprofits compare their own results to what peers are reporting and identify opportunities to improve their digital engagement strategies.
In April, M+R Benchmarks released their 2024 report detailing the findings of their survey research on nonprofit digital programs and their effectiveness. This year’s report includes a helpful Mobile Messaging Scorecard, including benchmarks for nonprofit SMS engagement, the effectiveness of SMS outreach, and examples of how nonprofits are leveraging SMS.
Here’s what stood out to the team at Hustle:
Overall, mobile messaging (including SMS/MMS) subscriber list size increased by 5% among nonprofits YoY, with the volume of messaging up 40%. While this is an exciting advancement in how nonprofits are leveraging texting, nonprofits still see 158 mobile subscribers for every 1,000 email subscribers, indicating an opportunity for more investment and utilization of the channel.
Revenue generated from mobile messages increased 14% over the previous year. However, mobile engagement only accounts for 0.37% of online fundraising, which means that this fundraising channel is very underutilized. The study did report a major exception in Health fundraising and fundraising for the Hunger/Poverty sector, where returns on text messaging are significantly higher: $308 in revenue and $769 in revenue for every 1,000 messages sent, respectively.
For nonprofits looking to expand their digital programs, it’s clear that there is significant untapped potential in driving engagement via mobile messaging. Digital tools like Hustle allow organizations to reach users where they are – on their phone – and allow you to craft personalized messages to better connect with your audience.
