6 ways nonprofit fundraisers use texting with Hustle to increase donor participation
More donors, giving more often, and staying longer.
That is what fundraisers tell us they need. Hustle gives them one texting app for all of it, including P2P Texting for one-to-one conversations, Broadcast Texting for one-to-many sends, Automations for scheduled and triggered messages, Video Messaging, and API-based programmatic messaging.
Source: M+R Benchmarks 2026. Figures reflect 2025 results.
The 2026 M+R Benchmarks, using data from 2025, report a 3.7% click-through rate on mobile fundraising messages, a 4.2% donation page completion rate, and 48% growth in mobile revenue year over year. The numbers demonstrate this channel works. The harder question is where to start. After ten years working alongside thousands of nonprofits, we have learned there is no single right way to begin fundraising over text. The approach that gets your organization texting soonest is the right one, and because results come back within hours, you will have plenty of room to learn and adjust. Each of the six approaches below has raised participation from current, lapsed, and prospective donors for the teams that run them.
TL;DR
- Sustainer recruitment. Text donors who’ve given two or more times, thank them by name, and ask whether a smaller monthly amount would feel right.
- Credit card recapture. Run a standing monthly text to sustainers whose cards failed. A secure link to update their credit card shared from a real person recovers most of them within the month.
- Lapsed donor reactivation. Open with a question a person can answer. Once they reply, make the ask in a later message.
- Event attendance. Text at every real deadline (tickets open, early-bird ends, week before reminders), then follow up with the people who clicked but didn’t register.
- New donor cultivation. Thank first-time donors by text within 24 hours with no ask, then keep the same thread going to stay top of mind.
- Multichannel. Pair texting with calling, mail, and email. The text raises awareness and encourages action. The donor then gives through whichever channel they prefer.
How to turn one-time and annual donors into sustainers?
Your one-time and annual donors already said yes once. A monthly ask lands better in a text conversation than on a webform because a person is on the other end. Team members can thank the donor for any recent gifts they made, name the impact, and ask whether a smaller monthly amount would feel right.
Target donors with two or more gifts in the last 18 months, send within a few weeks of their last gift, and let the team member adjust the amount in the conversation.
How do you recapture sustainers whose credit cards failed?
A sustainer whose card expired didn’t decide to stop giving. A short text from a real person with a secure link to update their credit card is the fastest recovery there is, and opt-outs on these messages are close to zero because people are grateful you caught it. Run it as a standing monthly program so no lapsed sustainer waits more than 30 days to hear from you, and use the same thread to thank them for how long they’ve been giving. Teams without the capacity to talk with every lapsed sustainer are increasingly automating this message. We still believe a conversation is the best way to keep your strongest supporters, but any text beats no text. Hustle’s Automations send the reminder on time and route anyone who replies into a live conversation. You can take a look at KQED’s results with their conversational stewardship program.
How do you reactivate lapsed donors?
Your LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists have been mailed and emailed for a year with nothing to show for it. Texting works on this group because it changes the question. Instead of “please give again,” you can ask something a person can actually answer. Are you still in the area? Is this still a cause that matters to you? What’s new? Many lapsed donors reply, and a reply is the opening. Some brands put a donation ask in the first message and do fine. We still coach teams to build the connection first, because supporters can tell when they are being treated like an ATM.
How to increase attendance at ticketed events?
Galas, walks, and dinners come with real deadlines for registration and attendance. Text past attendees when tickets open, text registrants when the early-bird price ends, and text everyone the week before with a personal “are you coming?” Branded trackable links show you who clicked through but didn’t register, so a follow-up can chase exactly those people. The National Brain Tumor Society texted event participants about a t-shirt deadline and saw 141 clicks on roughly 4,000 texts, and a fundraising push in Philadelphia earned a 4% click rate, 4x that of email. Read the full National Brain Tumor Society story →
“Hustle has provided the National Brain Tumor Society an essential tool to meet our event participants where they are at… Our staff love when it is time to Hustle, as they know they will have meaningful interactions that don’t always happen from an email alone.”
How do you cultivate new donors into repeat givers?
Most first-time donors never give a second gift, usually because nobody talked to them in between. Texting fills that gap. Send a thank-you from a named person within 24 hours of the first gift with no ask attached, follow with a one-line impact update a few weeks later, and ask what drew them to the cause. By the time the second ask arrives, ideally from the same person in the same thread, it comes from someone they know. A keyword on your event screens and mailers (“text GIVE to your number”) feeds this pipeline with people who opted in on their own terms.
Donors are not the only ones who benefit. When staff and volunteers are the ones in the thread, they get to know the people behind the gifts, and that changes how the whole team thinks about cultivation.
“We’ve used Hustle for both fundraising campaigns and general engagement with our audience members. Both have been very successful in starting conversations and answering questions in a very personal way. Our texters all feel like they are really getting to know the community members who text us back.”
How does texting work alongside calling, mail, and email?
Texting works best alongside the channels you already run. Three pairings consistently lift results.
- Texting + calling. Text first (“can I give you a quick call this week?”) and dial the people who say yes. With Hustle’s Dialer, the call and the text follow-up live in the same thread, so a voicemail becomes a text and a text becomes a scheduled call or meeting.
- Texting + mail. Text three to five days after the appeal lands with something like “Did our letter reach you? Happy to send the link if that’s easier.” Direct mail tells the story and the text gets the reply. Many brands have seen strong results by attaching a photo of the mail piece to the text.
- Texting + email. Send the email, then text the segment that opened but didn’t click. They were interested, and the text is the nudge. Chicago Booth pairs texting with its email program on Giving Day and drove 1,300 donations and $800K+ raised. Read how Chicago Booth did it →
Because Hustle syncs in real time with Salesforce, Blackbaud, and EveryAction, every text and reply lands on the donor record alongside the mail and email history.
None of these approaches needs a bigger team or a bigger budget. Pick one, text your first hundred donors, and see what happens.
Pick the approach that fits your team. Hustle will help you set up the goals, scripts, and CRM sync.
Get a demoFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between peer-to-peer texting and text-to-give?
Text-to-give traditionally uses a Short Code (a 5 or 6 digit number) that captures a one-time donation, for a substantial carrier fee, with no expectation of a conversation associated with it. Recently, it has become common to refer to any text message fundraising via links shared in the message as text-to-give, which Hustle supports with RCS, Short Code, Toll Free, and 10 digit local area numbers. Peer-to-peer is simply a different approach to text-to-give by enabling real-time conversations between real people at your organization or volunteers and donors. Peer-to-peer (P2P) texting typically uses a familiar local area number to encourage replies, and it invites the donor to ask questions, adjust an amount, or share why they give. Text-to-give without conversation can certainly capture a one-time gift, which is why Hustle offers it, but we firmly believe P2P texting cultivates a relationship. Because Hustle offers RCS and Short Code messaging with branded fundraising links and conversational P2P texting, we can recommend whichever approach fits your fundraising program and your team best.
Is it hard for nonprofits to register for texting?
It doesn’t have to be. Every organization that texts must register its brand and what they want to text about (called a campaign). Carriers approve faster when websites, opt-in language, and privacy policies all line up. Hustle makes this dead simple. Our team audits your website and policies before you submit, gives you pointed recommendations on exactly what to change, and handles the registration in-product. Most teams are approved and texting within two to three weeks on local numbers. Short codes go through a longer manual carrier review, so plan on at least six weeks, assuming your team makes the website and policy changes Hustle recommends. With the recent introduction of RCS for nonprofits, we are still learning more about registering nonprofit brands. For now we continue to advise a six week registration wait comparable to Short Code as the industry gets more comfortable with how nonprofits want to use RCS to support their organizations like with fundraising.
What results should a nonprofit expect from fundraising texts?
According to M+R Benchmarks 2026, mobile fundraising messages averaged a 3.7% click-through rate and a 4.2% donation page completion rate in 2025, and mobile revenue grew 48% year over year. Results vary widely by list quality, script, and whether the texts are conversational or one-way. We encourage dialogue because conversational texts consistently outperform one-way notifications for nonprofit fundraisers. Not every message needs to be a conversation, though, and not every team has time to chat. Most organizations settle on a mix of both and Hustle has you covered for all of them: 1-to-many Broadcast, Automated Message Series and Journeys, Conversational 1-to-1 or P2P texting, API-based Programmatic Messaging, Video Messaging, and even 1-to-1 Calling integrated with texting!
How many people do you need to run a texting program?
Fewer than most teams expect. One staff member can build the goal, load the list, and write the script. That same person, a small development team, or volunteers on their own phones or laptops can do the sending and replying. Most organizations start with one campaign and a single texter. Hustle’s Keywords and Automations can answer common replies automatically, which further reduces the time your team spends in the inbox.
Does texting work with our CRM?
Hustle syncs in real time with EveryAction, Salesforce, Blackbaud, and PDI, so every text, reply, and marked result lands on the donor record alongside email and mail history. Opt-outs sync back automatically, and CRM events such as a form fill or failed payment can trigger a text through Hustle’s Automations or the public API.
CEO, Hustle
Jesse has spent ten years at Hustle, from Solutions Architect to Director of Support and Director of Product before becoming CEO, helping nonprofits, unions, municipalities, and campaigns put peer-to-peer texting to work.
