Reaching New Donors Over Email & Text: A Nonprofit New Member Case Study
Published June 25, 2026
From funding cuts to rising acquisition costs to an unpredictable giving landscape, the challenges facing nonprofits in recent years have been ongoing.
The Digital Co-Op was built on the belief that organizations are more successful when we grow together – and powered by models custom-built for progressive organizations and billions of performance data points, it offers nonprofits the most precise, impactful, and effective growth and targeting for their unique audiences.
How can The Co-Op support new members in their first investments? Below, we’ll share how a major international relief organization that joined The Digital Co-Op ahead of EOY 2025 connected with new donors across email and text and drove powerful revenue and returns in their first year:
168% ROI on email acquisition in six months with AdvantageAI
91% ROI on SMS acquisition in one week with MissionSMS
THE CHALLENGE
Faced with a loss of funding after severe cuts to USAID earlier in 2025, this organization saw an immediate surge of support from donors when the news first broke, followed by an inevitable slowdown in response. The need to pivot fundraising strategies toward new donor acquisition became increasingly urgent to ensure their appeals went out far and wide and reached new audiences.
THE STRATEGY
Joining The Digital Co-Op ahead of year-end, this organization was ready to invest in acquisition across channels to grow their audiences and find new donors willing to support their increased need in response to their funding cuts. We collaborated with their agency of record to ensure their onboarding strategy was as smooth as possible, and then got to work finding them the best new audiences for their mission.
Acquire new email donors ahead of year-end with AdvantageAI
Testing their first email acquisition cohort in November 2025, just before Giving Tuesday, this organization saw their investment drive a $126 value per donor, with an average of 1.6 gifts per donor in the first six months.
Grow audiences in a rapid-response moment with MissionSMS
Faced with a rapid-response moment in early 2026, this program turned to MissionSMS to bring new-to-list donors to their file. They ran a test renting new leads with MissionSMS and drove incredible results with a 91% immediate ROAS after just one week.
With these powerful early results to build from, this nonprofit member of The Digital Co-Op was ready to pivot their planning for the months ahead to focus on scaling up to continue to grow their audiences.
THE RESULTS
In their first few months as a member of The Digital Co-Op, this international relief organization has already powered dramatic donor growth and impressive returns:
168% immediate return and a $126 value per donor with AdvantageAI
91% immediate ROI with an average gift of $64 with MissionSMS
After this organization saw initial results for email and SMS acquisition, they were excited to continue their growth. They worked internally with leadership to propose further investment in new donor acquisition, paying particular attention to onboarding brand-new supporters who weren’t engaging with them in any other channel. As they continue to invest in sustainable, modeled list growth to reach new audiences, we can’t wait to see what they will accomplish for their mission next.