Using SMS marketing to help refugees
Partnering with Banter allowed the UNHCR to hit the ground running with an effective fundraising campaign.
3 min read | Illustration by Mayara Lista
Eighty-nine million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. When people have been dispossessed of everything and have nowhere to go, there is an urgency to guide them to safety. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) doesn’t have the time or luxury to experiment with new marketing channels and learn through trial and error. They need to get it right the first time.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as the UN Refugee Agency, is the world’s leading organization aiding and protecting people forced to flee their homes due to violence, conflict and persecution. UNHCR provides shelter, food, water, medical care and other lifesaving assistance to refugees worldwide.
The dream of most refugees is to return home. When possible, UNHCR helps refugees return to their homeland. When refugees can’t return home, UNHCR helps them rebuild their lives in another country. Since its formation at the United Nations General Assembly in 1950, UNHCR has helped an estimated 50 million refugees restart their lives and has twice received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The challenge
When 89 Million refugees need help, there is no time to waste
It's never been more challenging for nonprofits to connect with donors. Like many of its peer organizations, USA For UNHCR works hard to grow its supporter base and develop long-lasting relationships with them by communicating and creating trust through education and engagement.
The team and UNHCR noticed that other international relief organizations had successful text message programs and wanted to add SMS to their tool kit to personalize their efforts in reaching and engaging donors and increasing donations.
An SMS strategy was crucial to maximize engagement and minimize churn. Without much experience in utilizing this channel, the USA for UNHCR team sought out Banter's support to launch a program that would immediately generate revenue so they could continue helping refugees and displaced people around the world.
We were blown away by the results in terms of donations.”
— Emily Lauten, Senior Manager for Digital Marketing, UNHCR
The solution
When 89 Million refugees need help, there is no time to waste
Bringing Banter on at the beginning of the process meant helping finding the right technology, growing their list early, and skipping a lot of costly trial & error. First, we had to identify the right technology. Banter was able to help the team quickly figure out their list of must-haves and nice-to-haves, make sure they knew what questions to ask, and fast cut through sales pitches and proposals.
Banter also advised the team to start collecting opt-ins early, meaning they could launch quickly and not spend money on a platform without subscribers to send messages to, showing them where they could grow and identifying new opportunities. With our knowledge of the landscape and the client’s needs, Banter was able to streamline the process and make sure the team made the right decision for them.
Banter worked with the donor care team to introduce personalized messages to their audience, talking to donors one-on-one. We were able to help the team utilize a new way to communicate, build it into their workflows and responsibilities, and ultimately do less work through automation and better donor conversions. We identified several smaller, quick wins we could notch to start ROI positive while scaling up our direct donation program. Lapsed donor renewals were easy to implement and saw fast results while we worked on more significant pieces such as direct mail integration and advertising strategies.
We learned that SMS helps us reach donors where they are most comfortable, ultimately helping raise more funds than we did before.”
— Emily Lauten, Senior Manager for Digital Marketing, UNHCR
The Results
Three times more individual donors and funds raised than an email campaign
Six months after launching their SMS program, USA for UNHCR has already seen several impressive wins, all while building the foundation for a successful long-term program. With Banter’s help, USA for UNHCR has already grown its list to over 100,000 subscribers in just six months. The organization is now recruiting an average of 75 new, additional recurring donors per month.
Lapsed donor outreach also reacquires nearly 10% of recurring donors through personalized messaging. Additionally, SMS campaigns can outperform similar email campaigns, despite the size difference in the two lists. An urgent text appeal to raise funds to fight famine raised nearly 3x what the corresponding email campaign raised, and had 3.5x more individual donors.
Thanks to a focus on conversational marketing and personalized donor care, the team has been able to do all of this while maintaining a less than one percent opt-out rate on broadcasts.
Whereas for many organizations, setting up an SMS program can be a costly process filled with trial and error, the USA for UNHCR team is already seeing 1000% ROI thanks to Banter’s help. Working with Banter has enabled USA for UNHCR to reach their goals, better service its supporters, help more refugees, and scale up much more quickly than it could have on its own.