Wednesday 18 January 2012

SMS donor behaviour from the other side of the pond

Pew Internet have just published some great research into the attitudes and behaviours of Haiti emergency donors in the US who gave by SMS.



Donors gave on impulse

89% heard about the Text for Haiti campaign on the TV.
50% made their donation as soon as they heard about the campaign.
75% of those sampled said their SMS donations were usually made on impulse.

SMS response is an attractive way of giving

74% of donors said they had never used their phone to give to charity before their Haiti gift.
33% gave to the appeal more than once.

Giving is addictive

50% of those who gave to Haiti have subsequently given to other SMS appeals.

Mobile giving is social

I was particularly struck by the data that suggested 43% of those who donated encouraged others to do the same thing. With extra donations from friends and family being made in 76% of occasions!

Most of this donor get donor activity (75%) was encouraged via direct conversation with their friends and family, but, 34% encouraged others to contribute by sending a text message, 21% did so by posting on a social networking site and 10% did so via email.

In the UK, we’re finding that ‘share’ is a significant element of any mobile campaign.

By providing the functionality to share via the bounceback ‘thank you’ message we can drive additional donations.

In a recent campaign, 5% of all SMS donors shared the fact that they had given, with over 75% of those shares being made in Facebook. With large volume campaigns this is not an insignificant number.

What next?

Once a donor has made their first SMS gift we should be defining strategies that secure the second gift. This should include thank you messages and videos, updates on the campaign and of course future appeals. All delivered by SMS. 

And given that most smartphone users use their phones for social networking we should be encouraging these SMS donors to join our existing online communities and making sure that once they’ve joined our Facebook group or follow us on Twitter that we are set up to deliver them a warm and engaging experience that supports future giving. 

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