Submitted by Mike Grenville on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00

A new report will be a help for charities to use text messaging in their work for what has so far mostly been a missed opportunity. As well as important lessons for charities, the excellent report from nfpSynergy has words for operators they would do well to heed.

The report, 'Sending out an SMS', is the result of nearly a year’s work by nfpSynergy, The Charities Aid Foundation(CAF) and the Institute of Fundraising that aims to encourage greater use of mobile phones and text messages as a fundraising and communications tool for charities and non-profits. It includes useful case studies, data on current usage, analysis of the barriers to using these methods, and inspiration and ideas on SMS fundraising and communications.

Struggling to Make Sense of SMS

The report reveals that non-profit organisations as a whole are failing to make the most of mobile phones in general and text messaging in particular. This is in spite of the fact that the use of mobiles by society as a whole has become indispensable in so many people’s lives.

The research undertaken for the report shows that 41% of charities are not using mobile phones in their communications or fundraising work in any way at all. Just 22% of the respondents are using mobile phones in both fundraising and communications, 20% are using it just in their fundraising work and only 15% are using it solely in communications.

Charities it seems are struggling to make sense of how to use SMS effectively. 20% have tried using text message donations in their fundraising work but with little success while 10% tried with moderate success and sadly, no one who has given it a go did so with great success.

Gift Aid Blocked

However, in spite of this, 78% of the survey respondents said that they collect mobile phone numbers from their contacts to store in their database. Amongst those who are using mobiles and those who are considering it for the future, both parties hold more optimism about the idea of using mobile phones for fundraising than for communications. It seems that charities are not prepared to take the risk of using text message fundraising with 24% of charities stating that the text message donation technology is confusing and off-putting.

But the problems are not just within the mobile arena as 32% are put off by the fact that gift-aid is very difficult to claim back. 70% of charities who have used text message donations with any success have not attempted to get their gift-aid back, while only 6% have had any success with getting it back at all.

Operator Fees

One of the biggest barrier identified by the report is the high fees charged by the operators - something euphemistically called 'revenue share'. One element of the charges has now been removed with the recently >agreement brokered by the MDA to waive the collection of VAT on the donation element of the message.

As well as consulting charities the authors of the report also looked at attitudes among the general public and a survey found that 72% viewed 5p out of the £1 as an acceptable amount for operators to deduct for their costs. Charities were a little more realistic with only 29% thinking 5p was the right amount and 40% going for 10p.

Research into the demographics of those likely to give by mobile phone found that 38% of 25-34 year olds would, while 31% of 16-24 year olds would dropping to only 20% of 35-44 year olds. Although the maximum that can be donated is £10, the average amount most people were comfortable donating by SMS is just under £5.

Lack of Knowledge and Charges

There are two main barriers which are putting charities off using mobile phones within their fundraising and communications work identified by the report. The first is the lack of knowledge within the sector regarding the mobile phone. Charities are put off by the technology, they are confused by the different potential uses that are available to them and are unsure of the best way to go about using them to get the best results.

The second major set-back is the net charges from the mobile phone operators, taken from every text message donation to charities which makes small donation amounts from the public even smaller.

Sharing Good Ideas

For a long time at 160Characters we have said there is nothing vital in the technology that needs to be developed it is just the good ideas that need to be shared. The section in this report on how charities can use text messaging stands out with some excellent suggestions that show that the authors really 'get' text messaging and its potential. For example the first of the ten suggestions goes to the heart of the power of text messaging which is that it is primarily a personal communication between friends and lovers. If this was properly understood by any organisation wanting to use SMS it would reap dividends.

One of the other particularly good suggestions is the appointment of a mobile phone/SMS czar within the organisation. They suggest that this should be somebody with enough knowledge about new technology to understand the potential and enough seniority to get things to happen along with a steering group drawn from across the organisation who will champion mobile technology in their own part of the organisation.

Revenue Potential

The report concludes that with the advent of low-cost/no-cost text donations, this could open up a renaissance of direct response public advertising for charities as more and more ways are found to use shortcodes to defray the costs of awareness raising work. They predict that the result could be that five years from now text donations could be raising nearly £100 million a year. Something that should help get operators attention.

Every charity should study this impressive report carefully and learn how to take advantage on the untapped power of SMS.

The free report can be downloaded here:
Sending out an SMS: the potential of mobile phones and text messaging for charities