Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media

Mobile List Size Growth Decreases for Nonprofits

Written by Allyson Kapin | 2012/8/30

A new study by M&R indicates that nonprofits are experiencing a decline in their mobile list growth when they examined data from several nonprofits between June 2011 and May 2012.

Why the Decline?

“Organizations may have already recruited the “low hanging fruit” from their email lists onto their mobile lists. Some subscribers may have already signed up for multiple mobile lists, and are less likely to sign up for any more, said M&R.

Overall email list growth across the nonprofit sector is also down from so that would also influence mobile list growth since many mobile recruits came from organization’s constituent relationship management systems.

 

Mobile List Churn

Mobile list churn rates is about .59% per month. This slight decrease from 2010 correlates with lower monthly growth. M&R also said that “it’s important to note that none of the organizations who offered list size data for this study send fundraising appeals via text message, which would have likely prompted more unsubscribes and a higher rate of churn. But it’s still encouraging to see some steady growth coupled with a moderate decrease in churn.”

 

Mobile List Growth

How are most organizations recruiting mobile subscribers? Most people join via online sources, such as by entering a mobile number when signing up to receive organization emails or by taking an advocacy action such as signing a petition. While it’s a good idea to ask for mobile numbers on your forms if you are serious about growing your mobile list and doing mobile campaigns, consider NOT making the mobile number form field mandatory because the more you require, the more it suppresses form completion rates.