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Case Study · 2026
Project HOPE × Message Digital
How Project HOPE used texting to acquire and activate high-quality donors.
Message Digital and MissionWired partnered to power the text program for Project HOPE in 2025, contributing to their strongest fundraising year in recent history.
280%
Average texting ROI in 2025
25%
Text-acquired donors who gave again within 6 months
88.9%
Text-acquired sustainers who were still giving three months in
$56
Average gift size from Project HOPE's 2025 texting program
The Challenge
In a crowded landscape, every channel has tradeoffs.
Project HOPE already had a strong multichannel digital program: email, direct mail, paid acquisition, social. Each channel did its job. None of them, on their own, could reach their donors directly, at scale, and on the donor's terms.
Email
Inbox attention is shrinking. Open rates have declined year over year, even with a healthy donor file.
Direct mail
Builds long-term relationships, but the lead time makes it challenging for moments that move quickly.
Paid acquisition
Scales reach, but the cost of acquiring a new donor keeps climbing every quarter.
★ The Answer
Texting
Direct. Personal. Reaches donors at scale and on their own terms, with conversion rates other channels can't match.
Project HOPE needed a fundraising channel that could match the urgency of their
mission: reaching donors directly, authentically, and at scale. Texting delivered.
Finding 01 / Activation
Acquiring a donor is one thing. Getting them back is everything.
Most direct response fundraising channels deliver a spike and then a silence. A donor responds to the appeal, makes a single gift, and disappears. Industry benchmarks for new direct response donors put 12-month repeat giving around 19 to 24 percent.
Text-acquired donors behave differently. One in four came back inside six months and gave again—beating a 12-month industry benchmark in half the time.
25%
of text-acquired donors gave again within 6 months
Finding 02 / Recurring Giving
Texting builds sustainers, not just one-time gifts.
Raising money once is a transaction. Building a sustainer is a relationship. Project HOPE used text to do both, turning moments of urgency into committed monthly giving, then keeping those donors active well beyond the first month.
Recurring Giving Rate
7.75%
Of text-acquired donors converted to monthly giving across the 2025 program.
3-Month Retention
88.87%
Of text-acquired sustainers were still giving three months in.
Finding 03 / Sustainer ROI
Texting sustainers is additive revenue.
Many nonprofits avoid texting their existing monthly donors for fear of pulling gifts. Project HOPE made the opposite call. When Hurricane Melissa made landfall, they texted their sustainer file. Donors gave well above their regular monthly gift.
Project HOPE learned that texting their sustainers in a moment of urgency deepened and extended their relationship with their strongest supporters.
198%
ROI on Hurricane Melissa Sustainer Send
"We came to Message Digital because we wanted the best in the business. When we have a question, they have an answer. When they have a recommendation, it is grounded by data. They are the best texting partner we could hope for, and I can honestly say that our program wouldn't be as successful as it is today without their expert-level guidance."
Isabel Shea
Associate Director, Digital Fundraising — Project HOPE