This Spring, M+R released its 2021 Nonprofit Benchmarks. This is the fourth year that they have included substantial benchmarks on mobile messaging and texting (SMS/MMS). While they still don’t offer direct comparisons between broadcast (warm) and peer-to-peer (cold) texting, they do include a section with a few peer-to-peer benchmarks. Overall it is incredibly helpful data for the nonprofit sector that continues to grow in its use of mobile platforms and tools.
Here are some of the key findings from the report for broadcast texting (opt-in only):
- Nonprofit mobile audiences grew by 26% in 2020, compared to a 3% average increase in email list size.
- Nonprofits had 50 mobile list members for every 1,000 email subscribers.
- Mobile message click-through rates were:
- 6.3% for fundraising messages an increase of 27% from 2019.
- 10% for advocacy messages a decrease of 20% compared to 2019.
- Mobile message click-through rates were 3-4 times higher than email click-through rates.
- Opt-out rates were below 1% for both fundraising (0.9%) and advocacy (0.47% and for call specific asks 0.4%) messages.
Here are some of the key findings from the report for peer-to-peer texting (cold):
- Peer-to-peer text message audiences received 1.24 messages per month in 2020.
- The average opt-out rate for mobile messages was 3.3% which is 37% higher than it was in 2019.
- The average response rate was 9.8%, a slight decrease from 2019.
Here are some promising mobile fundraising findings:
- Half of all nonprofit website visits came from users on mobile devices (56%). The traffic share for mobile devices increased by 9% in 2020.
- Users on mobile devices (phone & tablet) made up 39% donation transactions (same as 2019) and 28% of revenue in 2020 (3% decrease from 2019).
- The average gift made via a mobile device was $42, which is down by $19 from 2019. Compared the average gift on a desktop device which was $80.
- Nonprofits are increasingly prioritizing the mobile experience from the ground up. Users are taking advantage of tools that make mobile transactions easier and more appealing, like Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and even Venmo.
All of these benchmarks offer incredibly promising news for the future of nonprofit mobile messaging use as a part of their ongoing digital, fundraising, advocacy, and organizing strategies. You can read the full 2020 M+R Benchmarks report here.