The Jewish Federation system (JFNA) is rolling out a new tool that will give individual Federations the ability to launch and manage their own mobile text messaging campaigns.

According to JFNA, “Text messaging is now the dominant way to communicate via mobile devices. Far more text messages are sent each day than cellphone calls, and unlike traditional mail and email campaigns, your messages won’t end up in a trash can or a spam folder: 99% of text messages are read, and 83% are read within 15 minutes. And a text message sent soon before a fundraising email campaign can increase the conversion rate on that e-mail donation ask by over 75%.”

While we applaud JFNA for taking this step, we think they’re a bit optimistic on promoting the 75% figure above and perhaps leading a less informed federation manager to see this as a panacea for increased fundraising. Text messaging is a great tool for breaking news updates, event reminders and advocacy actions. While a proven vehicle for emergency campaigns, utilizing for annual fundraising appeals and the like has a chance of backfiring as Americans do not want their message inbox overflowing with more “routine” communications.