The short answer: the channel you ask through decides how many people ever see the ask — and being seen is most of the battle. Texts get opened around 98% of the time; fundraising emails, closer to 20%. Same family list, several times the eyes. A text-first campaign puts each participant’s ask in front of far more of their network, which is why it raises more per person.

Based on general marketing open-rate data and GroupFund’s analysis of $60M+ raised across 8,000+ school and youth fundraisers.

Reach is half of every fundraiser

Your total comes down to a simple chain: how many participants share × how many of their people see the ask × how easily those people can give. The middle link — reach — is where most fundraisers quietly lose money, and reach is decided almost entirely by channel.

You can have a fully-participating roster and a great cause, but if the ask lands in an inbox nobody opens, it never had a chance. Getting the message seen is the whole game, and that’s a channel decision.

The open-rate gap

Across marketing data, the numbers aren’t close:

• Text messages: opened roughly 98% of the time, usually within minutes.
• Email: opened around 20% for typical promotional and fundraising sends — and the other 80% sit unread next to coupons and newsletters, or never leave the promotions tab at all.

Put that in fundraising terms: send the same ask to the same families, and a text reaches almost all of them while an email reaches a handful. You didn’t change your supporters or your cause — just the channel — and you multiplied your reach.

Why email leaks so badly

Email was built for a different job. Fundraising emails compete with every newsletter, receipt, and promotion in a crowded inbox; they get filtered into tabs, caught by spam, or buried before anyone scrolls. Even a supporter who wants to give often never sees the message, or sees it days late — after the first-week momentum has already passed. In a campaign where 62% of donations land in the first seven days, a channel that’s slow and easily missed costs you the most valuable window you have.

Why text fits how fundraisers actually spread

Fundraisers move through personal networks, and personal networks live on text. A text feels like a message from a person, not a blast from an organization — so it gets opened, and it gets forwarded. A participant shares a link in five seconds; a supporter forwards it to a sibling; it ripples outward the way a fundraiser is supposed to.

And text closes the loop on the other half of per-participant results — ease. A tap on a link, a tap to pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay, done. No account, no card number, no friction between seeing the ask and giving. High reach plus low friction is exactly the combination that raises more per supporter.

Does email have any role?

Yes — just not as the primary ask. Email is fine for longer updates, end-of-campaign recaps, and thank-you notes, where length matters more than open rate. The mistake is making it the channel you raise on. As the engine of the ask, it badly underperforms text; as a supporting update channel, it’s perfectly useful.

What this means for your campaign

If you’re deciding how to run your next fundraiser, choose text-first. It isn’t a small optimization — reach is a primary driver of the total, and channel is the biggest lever on reach. The same roster, the same cause, and the same effort produce a much bigger result simply because more people see the ask and giving takes one tap. (It’s also part of why a donation drive out-raises a product sale: both reach further when they travel by text.)

GroupFund runs entirely on text — every participant shares by text, every supporter gives in one tap — built and guided by former coaches, with no up-front cost. Request a free demo.

FAQ

Is text or email better for fundraising?

Text, clearly. Texts are opened around 98% of the time versus roughly 20% for fundraising email, so a text-first campaign reaches several times more supporters per participant.

What’s the open rate for fundraising texts vs. emails?

Texts are opened about 98% of the time, usually within minutes; typical fundraising and promotional emails closer to 20%. That gap is the difference between an ask being seen and being missed.

Why do fundraising emails underperform?

They compete with every other message in a crowded inbox, get filtered into tabs or spam, and are often seen late or not at all — so they miss the first-week window when most donations come in.

Should I still use email for my fundraiser?

For long updates, recaps, and thank-yous, yes. Just don’t make it your primary ask channel — text reaches far more supporters and makes giving a single tap.

Source: General marketing open-rate data and GroupFund’s analysis of $60M+ raised across 8,000+ school and youth fundraisers.