If you’re looking to read an overview of some of the latest research about those who choose to give via text-message functionality, then you’ll want to read The Demographics of Text-Message Giving.

I wasn’t surprised to read that it was typically a younger donor (45 and below) who was most likely to give via this platform. Use of text-message giving dropped 11% after age 45 (from 14% to 3%).

What I thought was of special interest was the 29% of people with a household income of $200,000 or more who made text-message donations. Given the limits that cell phone providers have placed on how much money can be given using this platform (typically no more than $30), I wonder if in our effort to introduce a new platform, we have limited the giving capacity of those willing to give? What scares me is how much money was left on the table?

To be sure, there are people working to find a solution to this quickly. I believe they will and text-message donations will become a mainstay. But for those of us looking to this platform today to be the next goldmine, we need to be careful how and when we use this technology as part of our funding strategy. We could – inadvertently – leave dollars on the table in an effort to be efficient and “cool.”

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