‘A channel of the future’: continued growth for SMS giving in France

Donation by SMS is proving a popular method of giving in France, despite being a relatively new tool for fundraisers in the country.

It has been particularly successful in collecting donations relating to the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a new report from France générosités and af2m, a membership body of the country’s four largest mobile operators.

SMS donation was made possible in France by a legal change in 2016. In 2018, the first year covered by the report, a total of €504,000 was donated through this channel. This grew to €520,000 in 2019, before pandemic-related giving saw the number jump to €3.31m in 2020.

While this income dropped back to €1.29m in 2021, in 2022 it rebounded to just under €4m, from a total of 670,000 individual SMS gifts.

Nearly half (48%) of the SMS donations given in 2022 were made in March, the time when Ukraine was invaded. The second busiest month of the year, with 12% of donations, was November, thanks in large part to a TV appeal in support of environmental nonprofit France Nature Environnement.

The average donation during the year was €5.95, although this figure varied significantly from slightly less than €5 in January, March, May, June and August, to more than €9 in September, October and November.

Pierre Siquier, president of France générosités, says he is “proud” to see the growth of SMS donations in the country, and comments:

“SMS is truly a channel of the future which helps facilitate acts of generosity by the French people, and the figures show that the country is already responding to it.”

Picture by Anna Shvets on Pexels