Text-to-Give for Concert Mobile Fundraising: Boston Landmarks Orchestra Raises $64,800

Text-to-Give maximizes a matching fund at free summer concert series

Featured Client: Boston Landmarks Orchestra
Featured Product: Text-to-Give Mobile Giving
Nonprofit Sector: Arts and Culture
Download PDF Case Study

BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA BACKGROUND The Boston Landmarks Orchestra presents exceptional orchestral music performances in significant architectural, historical and geographical settings throughout the Boston area. They aim to help diverse audiences grow in their appreciation of both the fine music that they offer and the special places where they perform.  Boston is known as a center for music in America, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra is able to draw upon some of the area’s finest musicians to create a vibrant and exciting classical music scene all summer long.

FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY Before the 2010 Free Summer Concert Series a Boston Landmarks Orchestra foundation donor pledged to match $10 donations 9-to-1 from April 1 through July 19,  7-to-1 from July 20 through July 26, and 1-to-1 after July 26.  This created an incredible fundraising opportunity in that every $10 raised from concert attendees would result in up to $100 of funds raised for the nonprofit.  The MobileCause strategy support team worked hand-in-hand with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra to plan and coordinate a Text-to-Give mobile giving campaign to ensure fundraising and engagement success.

FUNDRAISING STRATEGY Three live calls-to-action during each concert:  The 1st before the show— The 2nd before intermission—The 3rd at the end of the show before crowds were dismissed. Volunteers with Text ORCHESTRA to 85944 to give $10 tee shirts (see below) walked through the crowd and handed out Boston Landmarks Orchestra buttons to those who gave.

TEXT TO GIVE RESULTS The first night, even though there was rain and attendance was down, Text-to-Give donations brought in $2,940—Triggering 29,400 in foundation match funds. There was so much excitement around the giving opportunity that audience members who didn’t have texting plans on their phones were bringing cash donations to the information table. The four consecutive concerts brought in 648 $10 text donations— an average of 10% participation—resulting in $64,800 in foundation match funds raised for the nonprofit.

TEXT TO GIVE HIGHLIGHTS

$64,800 was raised over four concerts for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra

648 new donors made Text-to-Give donations

10% of the Free Summer Concert Series attendees made donations

Learn more about MobileCause solutions for fundraising and engagement.

10 Second Text Donations for Christian RadioU “Unleash The Music” Empowers Listeners with New Way to Give

Unleash the Music Encourages Listeners to Make Text Donations to Keep Christian Radio Free

Featured Client: RadioU TVU

RadioU is a Contemporary Christian radio station that transmits worldwide over the web, on its music TV station (TVU) and over many radio markets nationwide. RadioU plays alternative Christian music across several genres including artists such as Thrice, POD, Underoath and Nine Lashes (right).

RadioU is a nonprofit organization that is funded completely by listener donations. RadioU does not have any commercial sponsors and is kept running exclusively by listener donations and fundraisers throughout the year. Their major pledge drive, known as Unleash the Music, is performed twice a year and works to raise enough money to keep them on the air for the next six months as well as expand RadioU to new markets.

There’s lots of ways to get involved but only one takes 10 seconds!

To strengthen fundraising efforts throughout the year Radio U has empowered their listeners to make donations in a new and simple way. At any time throughout the year supporters can text “UNLEASH” to 85944 to make a one time $10 donation to be added to a mobile phone bill or deducted from a prepaid balance.

Also worth noting—after listeners have made donations their names and cities are featured on the home page of the Unleash the Music website (left).

Learn more about MobileCause fundraising and engagement tools for nonprofits.

Text to Give for Mobile Donations Strengthens National Public Radio Pledge-a-Thon

NPR 3-Day Pledge-a-Thon for Cincinnati Public Radio—Text WVXU to give a $10 mobile donation.

Featured Client: NPR Cincinnati Pubic Radio
Featured Product: Mobile Giving
Nonprofit Sector: Arts & Cultural
Download Case Study PDF

BACKGROUND Cincinnati Public Radio’s mission is to bring the finest classical music, news and information programming to the people of the Tri-State. They accomplish this via the operation of a variety of over-the-air radio broadcast services, on-line internet streams and on-demand downloads. This nonprofit desired to investigate, design and exploit new opportunities to achieve fundraising efficiencies and enhancements to generate revenues.

CAUSE Three day radio pledge-a-thon with—text to give option for mobile donations—with hourly calls-to-action to generate new revenues & donors.

PROBLEM Traditionally NPR has mainly asked for $100 contributions over the air, where listeners call a number to make a donation with a credit card. The station also recognized that the majority of listeners who hear the call-to-action are traveling and they wanted to implement a fundraising option that would enable listeners to easily complete donations on the go. This NPR station has an audience of over 300,000 weekly.

SOLUTION NPR integrated a text to give mobile donation option into their campaign which added a $10 price point to their call-to-action. This enabled listeners who could not afford a $100 donation to make a $10 donation (carrier billed) by texting WVXU to 85944. MobileCause’s strategy support team provided expert consulting pre and post campaign. Text to give donations resulted in the station receiving more than $10,000 in additional revenues. When the database of mobile giving donors was matched to the stations existing donor database—999 of the 1000 mobile givers were new.

HIGHLIGHTS

Text to give for mobile donations augmented traditional fundraising efforts by providing an additional $10,000 in donations for the three day campaign.

999 new donors were empowered to make donations to NPR.

Learn more about MobileCause fundraising and engagement tools for nonprofits.

Hillsong United Recieves Text Donations for Tembaletu School in South Africa

Text iHEART to make a donation—Hillsong United supports Tembaletu School for kids with disabilities in Cape Town, South Africa

Featured Client: Hillsong Church
Featured Product: Mobile Giving
Nonprofit Sector: Faith
Download Case Study PDF

HILLSONG UNITED BACKGROUND Hillsong is a Christian worship band and network based out of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.  For ten years Hillsong United has lead the Christian music marketplace with new and fresh worship experiences. The Hillsong audience has been building devotion for over a decade and demographically ranges from teens to seniors. Hillsong has multiple groups that tour the US and they have multiple churches across the world.

FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY Their Summer 2010 Hillsong United US Tour, included ticketed concerts in 12 cities over two weeks with an average of 4500 fans in nightly attendance. Funds raised during tour would provide much needed medical equipment and transportation for kids with disabilities at Tembaletu High School in Cape Town, South Africa in which Hillsong Church-Cape Town funds.

PROBLEM Traditionally, worship events are free concerts where a pastor takes an offering near the end of the event. Vast human resources are needed as volunteers pass offering plates, count monies, verify offering envelopes and enter data into the church database. As an innovative leader in the nonprofit faith sector, Hillsong was looking for new technologies that could streamline donations, processing, and supporter information. Their goal was to increase funds and better utilize volunteers.

FUNDRAISING SOLUTION MobileCause provided it’s mobile giving text donations tool as a turnkey fundraising solution for the summer tour. Attendees could text “iHEART” to 85944 to give a $10 text donation for Tembaletu School kids. Hillsong United was able to raise $38,030 through text donations over the two week tour from 3800+ new donors with roughly 15% audience participation.

THE LOS ANGELES CONCERT MobileCause executives were able to attend the LA show at the Nokia Center on August 3, 2010. For one hour, before the concert began, all screens displayed band video content and the opportunity to make a $10 text donation for the Tembaletu School. MobileCause executives, were tracking donations in real time and realized that zero donations were made during this time. This proved the MobileCause’s ongoing hypothesis that independent mobile giving signage is entirely inadequate and live, emotional, and personal calls to action are essential.

The concert began with a crowd warm-up, product give-a-ways and a little comedy. It then crashed into a full blown high energy set with full band, lights, fog, and videos. When the first hour-long set ended, the band’s Pastor emerged and gave a short sermon followed by a tender story about the Tembaletu School. The pastor then invited fans to text “iHEART” to 85944 to make a $10 text donation and help their efforts to provide much needed transportation and medical equipment for the students.  Emotionally moved, and accustomed to traditional church offerings, the diverse audience was empowered to quickly respond to the mobile giving call to action. 300+ attendees, roughly 15% of the crowd, responded to the call-to-action and made huge impact in the lives of South African kids.

TEXT DONATION HIGHLIGHTS

$38,030 was raised by text donations for Tembaletu High School in Cape Town (15% participation).

Hillsong United’s volunteer base was efficiently coordinated at the 12 events.

Text donations, processing, and donor information were effectively streamlined throughout the tour.

Learn more about MobileCause fundraising and engagement tools for nonprofits.

FreeFest Music Festival by Virgin Mobile USA: Text FREEFEST 20222 to donate to homeless youth