How a pivot to mobile challenged assumptions about what’s possible in crisis fundraising.
When famine was declared in Gaza in 2025, International Rescue Committee (IRC) needed to mobilise donors fast. But with email deliverability dropping and donor fatigue rising, traditional digital channels were underperforming at a critical moment for rapid response.
Rather than accept these limitations, the IRC team rebuilt their emergency fundraising approach around mobile messaging – and the results challenged assumptions about what’s possible in crisis fundraising.
This workshop will take you inside the team’s pivot to mobile, sharing how it became the organisation’s top-performing crisis response channel, generating 46% of total campaign revenue and converting new sustainers at 2.3x the rate of email. You’ll discover the details of a resend strategy that delivered 27% of original send revenue without donor fatigue, and learn how one-time crisis donors were transformed into committed monthly supporters.
What’s more, this isn’t just a US story; IRC leveraged mobile across markets (including via WhatsApp in Europe) and the principles you will explore translate across platforms and regulatory contexts. Through interactive exercises, you will map your own crisis response approaches and exchange insights across regions.
You’ll leave the session with a practical playbook for integrating mobile messaging into your emergency fundraising, strategies for converting crisis donors into sustainers, and cross-platform principles you can adapt to any market.
Learning outcomes
- Learn how to deploy rapid-response mobile messaging in an emergency, including channel sequencing, message timing, and resend strategies that maximise response without donor fatigue
- Discover specific tactics for using mobile to transform one-time emergency givers into committed monthly supporters – addressing the sector-wide challenge that crisis donor retention often falls below 10%
- Get core strategies that translate across SMS, WhatsApp, and other mobile channels, adaptable to different global regulatory contexts