How Boys Town Uses Text Messaging to Fundraise & Deepen Donor Relationships

Would you believe it if I told you that texting is now one of Boys Town’s TOP revenue generating channels? Text messaging isn’t just for appointment reminders. It’s becoming one of the fastest and most effective ways nonprofits can deepen donor relationships. In this episode, I’m talking to Jasonea Shockey, Director of Digital Marketing at Boys Town, to share how her team launched their successful SMS strategy from scratch. With no new hires, they repurposed email content, added emojis, and saw sky-high engagement - think 98–99% open rates! Jasonea walks us through how they leveraged their existing donor list, balanced MMS vs. SMS campaigns, crafted welcome flows, and learned from benchmarks around timing and frequency to improve performance. Even with an aging donor base (average age: early 80s), they found surprisingly strong engagement through mobile. Whether you’re working with a small team or wondering how to stay visible as email privacy rules evolve, this episode offers a clear case for why SMS belongs in your nonprofit"s toolkit. P.S. Text DANA to 770-230-8422 to join my texting program. Resources & Links Connect with Jasonea on LinkedIn and learn more about Boys Town on their website.  Check out Tatango, the#1 SMS software for nonprofit fundraising. Text the word JOIN to 51550 to join the Boys Town texting program. You can also text DANA to 770-230-8422 to see my own experiment with this. This show is brought to you by iDonate. Your donation page is leaking donors, and iDonate"s new pop-up donation form is here to fix that. See it in action. Launch the interactive demo here and experience how a well-timed form captures donors in the moment they care most. Let"s Connect! Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show! My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good. Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!