Text donations through telethon events are expected to “reach saturation” over the next few years, an official report has predicted.
The Annual Market Review for Phone-Paid Services, written by the research firm Analysys Mason and published by the Phone-Paid Services Authority, predicts a bumpy future for charity donations by text over the next three years.
The report says text donations were down by almost a fifth in the year to the end of March to £40.1m, but this was expected because of the two-yearly cycle of major charity events such as Red Nose Day.
The amount was up on the comparative 12-month period two years ago, when text donations reached £37.5m.
The report predicts how much researchers believe text donations will be worth over the next three years, with analysts expecting to reach £47.9m in 2020/21 before dropping significantly to £33.7m the following year.
The fall is due to the cyclical nature of major events but will be compounded by the fact that many people will by then be feeling economic hardship while having already donated to appeals in 2020/21, the report says.
The report goes on to say that charities will likely need to grow the volume of recurring donations they receive if they want the amount raised by text donations to rise.
“Further growth is likely to be dependent on recurring donations because donations via telethon events are expected to reach saturation,” it says.