Somebody showed you a benchmark and told you your texting is underperforming.

Before you accept that, it is worth asking a simple question: what kind of list was that benchmark measured on?

A click-through rate is only as meaningful as the list behind it. Here is how to read yours, and three checks that tell you in about ten minutes whether your program is where it should be.

First, what a click-through rate actually measures

In texting, there is no such thing as an open rate. Nobody can tell you whether a person read a message. So click-through rate is the honest metric, and it is simple:

Clicks divided by messages delivered.

If you send 1,000 texts and 150 people tap the link, that is a 15% click-through rate. That is the number worth watching, because a click is a person choosing to act. An open is a person's phone doing something.

The sector average, and why it is not your target

The 2026 M+R Benchmarks study (an amazing report, by the way!) put the average click-through rate for nonprofit fundraising texts at 3.7%.

For fundraising email, it was 0.59%.

So even at the sector average, texting earns roughly six times the clicks of email on the same kind of message.

However, that is the case for the channel. It is not a target for your program, and here is why.

That 3.7% is one flat number. M+R publishes it as a single average across 180 participating nonprofits, with no breakdown by size, by sector, or by anything else.

No range, no high end, no low end. It tells you roughly where the middle of a self-reported sample sits. It cannot tell you what a well-built list is capable of, because nobody measured that.

Here is what no benchmark study measures: how those lists were built.

In our experience, that matters more than almost anything else you can change.

A list of people who chose to hear from you behaves differently than a list that was bought or rented from somewhere else (a no-no, by the way), for example.

That is not a knock on anyone. It is just what permission does to attention.

It is why we stay narrow. Rally works with nonprofit causes on permission-based lists, and we do not mix cause messages in with political ones. Across more than a million campaign sends on our own system, that's what moves the number most.

So the sector average tells you what the middle looks like. It does not tell you what a well-built list should do. These three checks do.

Check 1: Is your click-through rate at or above 15%?

That is the floor we hold for a mature program following our guidance, and we put it in writing.

Some campaigns land under it. Many land well above. But 15% is the line we think a permission-based, properly segmented nonprofit list should clear, and if yours does not, that is useful information.

It usually points to something specific and fixable: how the list was built, segmentation that is too broad, or perhaps a message that is not landing.

If you are under it: do not start by rewriting the text. Start by asking where the list came from and who exactly received that send.

Check 2: What does one visit to your site actually cost you?

This is the number that gets your executive director's attention, because it translates texting into a language every fundraiser already speaks: cost per acquisition.

The math is short. Say you send to a list of 1,000 people at five cents a message. That is $50. At a 15% click rate, 150 of those people land on your site.

$50 divided by 150 clicks is about 33 cents per visit.

Less at volume.

Run your own version with our ROI calculator. If your cost per click rate isn't falling over time, your list isn't being pruned and curated as it could be.

Check 3: What is your ratio of asks to everything else?

This is the check almost everybody skips, but it's the one that influences the other two.

We coach a three-to-one (3:1) ratio. Three messages that carry impact, a story, or an update, for every one message that asks for money.

Scroll back through what you sent last quarter and count. If most of it was asks, you have found your problem. Donors are humans, not wallets. The supporters who hear from you in between the asks are the ones who click when it counts. A list that only ever gets solicited stops responding, and no amount of copywriting fixes that.

Many of our YMCA partners handle this in a very practical way: they run multiple join keywords rather than pushing every message through one massive list, so each campaign builds its own opt-in interest list for the programs their members want to hear about. Segmentation is easier to keep up when the structure does some of the work for you.

If you fail a check, start here

There is no magic bullet, and no one-size-fits-all. Most of this just comes down to basic, common sense.

Optimize for the phone, not the desktop. Your supporters read email on their phone, watch video on their phone, scroll on their phone, and answer you on their phone in the middle of a campaign. The message has to work there, the landing page has to load fast there, and giving has to be easy with one thumb.
Look at the whole journey, not just the message. Great copy pointing to a slow, cluttered donation page will read as a copy problem. Fix your donation page and elevate the donor's experience.
Build permission first. Grow the opt-in list at events, services, and on your site. See easy text message sign-up.
Segment properly. One list for everybody is the fastest way to a low click rate.

How to actually measure this

You cannot run these checks if you cannot see the data. Three things make it possible:

Tokenize the link at send. This tells you which specific contact clicked, not just how many did.
Put a pixel on your site. Now you can follow that person past the click.
Connect your systems. Blackbaud, Fundraise Up, GoFundMe Pro, and Google Analytics all tie analytics and (if relevant) gifts back to the message that drove it.

It is not rocket science. It is just the work most people skip, and skipping it is why so many programs aren't clear on what they can do to move beyond middle-of-the-road benchmarks.

For the full revenue math, see how to calculate ROI for text messaging campaigns. For what the 2026 sector data says overall, see SMS fundraising: what the 2026 data says.

Want a second set of eyes on your numbers?

Book a 30-minute call, and we will walk through your campaign performance with you. We will share the resources we use internally, and if it is useful, you can add our team as view-only on your analytics so we can help you read what is actually happening.

FAQ

What is a good SMS click-through rate?
The 2026 nonprofit sector average for fundraising texts is 3.7%. On a permission-based, well-segmented list, Rally holds a 15% floor and puts it in writing. If you are between those two numbers, that's not a bad thing. Take a closer look at your list-building practices and overall segmentation to aim higher.

What is the average SMS click-through rate compared to email?
3.7% for nonprofit fundraising texts vs. 0.59% for nonprofit fundraising email in the 2026 M+R Benchmarks. That is roughly six times the clicks on the same kind of message.

Why is my click-through rate lower than the benchmark?
Usually one of four things: how the list was built, how it was segmented, the message itself, or the nature of the ask (or perhaps you only ever ask). Check them in that order.

How do I track SMS click-through rate?
Tokenize links at send so clicks tie to individual contacts, add a site pixel, and connect your CRM and donation platform so gifts attribute back to the message.

How much does it cost to get someone to my website by text?
About 33 cents per visit at a five-cent message rate and a 15% click rate, and less at volume. Message costs only; your plan is separate.

Does sending more texts raise my click rate?
No, and it usually lowers it. Keep three impact, story, or update messages for every ask.

Heads up: we make texting software, not legal rulings. This is general info, not legal advice — rules shift and every org is different, so verify the current TCPA/A2P 10DLC requirements and check with an attorney before you act. That said, book a call with us, and we’ll loop in our compliance team to help. They do it all day, every day.