Mobile Giving Crash Course: Essential Guide for Nonprofits

From paying bills to staying in touch with family and friends to researching tomorrow’s weather, people expect to be able to do just about anything from their mobile phones. Donating is no different—your nonprofit’s supporters want fast, easy, convenient ways to show their support anytime, anywhere. That’s where mobile giving comes in. 

Explore the tips and resources in this guide to improve your nonprofit’s mobile fundraising strategy: 

• Mobile giving: FAQs
• 5 types of mobile giving
• Benefits of mobile giving
• Mobile giving best practices
• What you need to know about mobile giving software

Mobile giving: FAQs

What is mobile giving?

Mobile giving is a fundraising technique in which donors donate to a campaign using a mobile device. 

You may have also heard this process referred to as text fundraising. Text fundraising is a popular type of mobile giving, but the terms are not interchangeable. Mobile giving refers to any kind of giving through a mobile device (including donating from a link in an email, social media post, or direct website visit), while text fundraising occurs only through texts. 

Why is mobile giving so popular?

Mobile giving has exploded in popularity because of the prevalence of mobile devices in our lives. 

As of 2024, the United States has over 310 million smartphone users and a smartphone penetration rate of over 96 percent. Plus, 15% of American adults are “smartphone only” users, meaning they own a smartphone but don’t have at-home broadband internet access. 

Additionally, mobile giving plays an essential role in today’s fundraising process for all nonprofits. According to the M+R Benchmarks 2024 study:

• Mobile messaging (a.k.a. text messaging or SMS/MMS) subscriber list size increased by 5% in 2023.
• Fundraising mobile messages generated $92 in revenue for every 1,000 messages sent.
• Revenue from mobile messages increased by 14% from the previous year and accounted for 0.37% of all online revenue in 2023.

These trends underscore the importance of creating a comprehensive mobile giving strategy for your nonprofit. Your nonprofit’s supporters are ready and willing to give to your organization using their mobile devices. Are you prepared to accept and process their gifts easily and safely?

What types of organizations use mobile giving?

Mobile giving is useful for a wide range of organizations and causes, including: 

Religious organizations 

These institutions leverage mobile giving strategies as a “digital collection plate.” Fewer and fewer congregants bring cash or their checkbooks to church, but they never leave home without their phones! 

Disaster relief nonprofits 

These organizations, which have always prioritized quick action, are embracing mobile giving to raise funds immediately. That way, they can be first on the ground with food, shelter, and medicine when tragedy strikes. 

Animal rights organizations 

Animal rights work never stops, so organizations need a fundraising tool they can use every day. With mobile giving, they can reach out to their supporters for every need. Easy outreach and easy donations keep animals safe and happy.

Schools and universities 

With mobile giving, universities can reach out to their alumni network instantly. Alumni love to give to the programs they enjoyed as students, so universities reach out to them with specific campaigns. Busy working professionals appreciate how little time mobile giving takes. 

Environmental nonprofits 

Mobile giving allows donors to give to their favorite environmental nonprofits whenever they feel inspired, even if they’re out doing work for the cause. Plus, with mobile giving, organizations can decrease their use of paper and direct mail services. 

Arts and culture nonprofits 

Arts and culture-focused nonprofits excel at fundraising events because they can get donors involved with their mission in a personal way. Donors who feel inspired by a nonprofit can give immediately with mobile giving. Making the donation process as quick and easy as possible means donors can support the organization and then focus on enjoying the event.  

International nonprofits 

Large organizations with international missions rely on data to improve their outreach and fundraising capabilities. Mobile giving allows these organizations to reach more people than ever and use the resulting data to research their audiences and expand their reach. Because you can easily import mobile giving data into a CRM, there’s less of a chance a donor will slip through the cracks. 

5 types of mobile giving

Mobile giving comes in several forms, including: 

Text fundraising 

Text fundraising allows donors to give whenever they feel moved, whether at an event or listening to an inspiring speech. At events, you can advertise your text fundraising keyword around the venue so donors can donate or pledge to donate. For year-round giving, include your keyword on your website and social media. You can also create special keywords for Giving Day campaigns. A unique keyword that’s easy to remember makes it easier for your supporters to share your campaign with their friends and family.

Mobile donation pages 

Mobile donation forms allow your donors to give wherever they have internet access instead of waiting until they return to their computers. You can encourage event donations with a QR code leading to your donation page. You can also post the link to your social media so your supporters can donate while they scroll.

Mobile apps 

Mobile giving apps allow donors to easily manage their giving experience independently. Supporters can view past donations, change recurring gifts, and update their payment information anytime. Mobile giving apps are great for recurring givers because they can access their giving activity from the app, allowing them to review their complete giving histories and download this information for their records.

Kiosks  

Kiosks allow your nonprofit to swipe your supporters’ cards in person using mobile devices and accept donations quickly and easily, integrating the giving experience into the fun of an event. 

Mobile email campaigns 

Mobile email campaigns allow your donors to give while checking their email throughout the day. These campaigns may link directly to your mobile donation page or include your text fundraising keyword, giving your donors multiple ways to give from their phones.

Benefits of mobile giving

The greatest strength of mobile giving is that it encourages contextual giving. Contextual giving shrinks donation abandonment rates by keeping donors in the same context that inspired them to give in the first place—your website, an event, or even just a mood. With mobile giving, donors can give immediately from their phones, no matter where they are, at the moment of inspiration. 

Here are a few additional benefits of mobile giving for nonprofits and donors:

For nonprofits 

Immediate access to funds

Mobile giving gives you faster access to funds, allowing you to put donations to immediate use.

Versatile fundraising tool

Since you can use it anywhere, mobile giving works for all types of fundraising. From annual fundraising to events to giving days, mobile giving gives your donors a way to contribute without needing to take out their wallets.

Engaging for donors

Mobile giving grants your nonprofit another way to interact with donors through text messaging, allowing you to connect with the younger, mobile-savvy generation and reach busy-bee donors with their favorite tech. 

Access to donor insights

Mobile giving lets you get to know your donors better by understanding their giving habits, preferred giving avenues, and favorite communication methods, which helps you improve your outreach strategy. Data management tools provide your organization with new ways to segment donor data and create custom reports to decide which strategies work best for you. 

Cost-effective 

Mobile giving is quick and affordable to implement. It saves your organization time and money, which you can use for mission and program activities. 

For donors 

Convenient 

We live in the smartphone era, so you should take advantage of it. With mobile giving, you can meet donors where they are and increase conversion rates by making giving as easy as possible. 

User-friendly 

Mobile giving is intuitive and easy to understand because your donors are familiar with their smartphones and familiar with browsing the internet on mobile devices. 

Quick to complete

Mobile giving should take two steps or fewer for your donors. By making your forms easy to fill out, you can decrease form abandonment. 

Secure

No more worrying about losing checks or cash in the mail. Modern payment processors make mobile giving reliable and secure. 

Empowering 

Mobile giving empowers your donors to give on their own terms. Offer ways for donors to maximize their impact, including recurring giving options and matching gift opportunities, through your mobile giving software. Donors can update their giving frequency, amount, and payment method anytime through a mobile app. 

Mobile giving best practices

There are many ways to incorporate mobile giving into your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy, and it’s hard to know where to start! Use these best practices to establish a clear mobile giving approach for your organization. 

Keep it simple

No one wants to spend 20 minutes searching for a donation form. Use simple navigation features across your website, emails, and social media posts to make your donation form easy to find. Use buttons and menu items on your nonprofit’s homepage and links from your social media posts and emails to make your donation page easily accessible from different platforms. 

Offer multiple giving options

Different donors want to support you in different ways. Your mobile giving tools should give donors multiple donation avenues, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets (Venmo or Apple Pay), and ACH transactions. 

Provide comprehensive support

Your donors aren’t software experts. Provide a way for them to contact you if they need technical support or have general questions. For example, you could provide a live chat option or support email. 

Spotlight recurring donations 

Recurring donations give donors an easy way to continuously support your organization. Allow donors to choose how frequently they give, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually. 

Use reminders

Keep your supporters in a giving mood by reminding them about your cause and current campaigns. Send out donation reminders through your text fundraising software and email integrations. 

Make mobile giving secure

Donors need to know their financial information is secure so they can trust your organization. Leverage a PCI-compliant payment processor and data encryption for donors’ payment details and personal information. 

Include a clear call to action

Providing clear next steps to donors during your fundraising campaign will increase the efficacy of your outreach efforts. For example, your online donation buttons should include an invitation to “Give Now!” or “Join Our Monthly Giving Program.” Your social media posts should include direct links to your online donation page, explaining why donors’ gifts matter. 

Make mobile giving simple

Create mobile-responsive donation forms to make mobile giving as easy as possible. Your forms should include large text that’s easy to read on mobile devices, buttons that are simple to touch on small mobile screens, and adaptive images that automatically resize to smaller screen sizes. 

Express gratitude to mobile donors. 

Showing gratitude is crucial for maintaining strong donor relationships. Always send follow-up thank-you emails or texts after someone donates. Also, consider calling donors to recognize their generosity. A Bloomerang study found that donor retention increases from 33% to 41% if one phone call is made within the first 90 days of a donor’s gift and 58.21% if more than one phone call is made.

Track mobile giving data. 

Track mobile campaign progress using your software’s reporting tools. Use this data to determine ways to improve your mobile giving processes. 

For example, you might use text open rate data to find the best time of day to message donors. You might also send mobile donors a survey to gather feedback on their giving experience and use that information to update your mobile donation form. 

What you need to know about mobile giving software

Mobile giving software includes tools like text-to-give or text-to-donate platforms and online fundraising tools that enable donation page creation. 

Features of mobile donation platforms

Specific features vary by platform, but most mobile giving tools offer features such as: 

• A mobile app for both donors and your nonprofit to use
• Text-to-donate functionality
• Integrations with your existing software solutions
• Giving kiosks
• Mobile-responsive donation forms
• Recurring giving
• Secure payment processing
• Automated donation receipts

Our recommended mobile fundraising platform: Qgiv by Bloomerang

Qgiv by Bloomerang offers the mobile fundraising suite your nonprofit needs to approach mobile giving effectively from all angles. This solution offers the following features to boost mobile fundraising and provide a positive donor experience: 

• Mobile app: Update donor profiles while on the go, enable Tap to Pay so donors can pay by tapping their digital wallet or credit card to a mobile device, and monitor campaign progress. 
• Text fundraising: Send outbound texts to supporters, gather pledges, send donation reminders, and build segmented donor lists for personalized communication.
• Online donation forms: Design unlimited customized, mobile-friendly donation pages. These pages offer the option to turn one-time gifts into recurring donations with the click of a button. Enable Gift Assist to allow donors to cover processing fees, ensuring more funds go directly to your mission. 
• Integrations: Enjoy direct integrations with top software solutions, including QuickBooks, MailChimp, and Google Analytics. Access thousands of additional integrations through Zapier. 

Watch this video to learn more about Qgiv by Bloomerang’s robust mobile giving functionality with Text Fundraising:

This platform is particularly effective at driving recurring donations—clients using upgrade prompts have seen a 3x increase in recurring conversions. Interested in seeing what Qgiv + Bloomerang’s mobile giving tools can do for your organization? Schedule a demo today!

Final thoughts  

Mobile giving can boost your fundraising results by making donating as convenient as possible. Use multiple mobile giving styles to provide your donors with a range of donation options. 

Looking for more advice on ways to expand mobile and online fundraising? Start with these additional resources: 

• 8 Text-to-Give Platforms to Mobilize Your Donors. Explore the top text-to-give solutions to find the right platform for your nonprofit’s needs. 
• How to Set Up A Nonprofit Donation Page: 30+ Best Practices. Make your donation page mobile-responsive, user-friendly, and secure with these best practices. 
• Designing a Monthly Giving Program: Quick Tips and Examples. A robust mobile giving approach can drive more donors to your monthly giving program. Review monthly giving tips and examples in this guide.