Everytown for Gun Safety has seen big success from their mobile outreach. They’ve found that text messages help them quickly engage their community of supporters at both the national and the local levels.

“Once people opt in to our mobile list, we can send them local volunteer opportunities, alert them to lobby days, and spread the word about call-in campaigns,” said Everytown’s Senior Digital Campaigner Lee Sova-Claypool

But like every organization, Everytown needs to find creative ways to bring people into their mobile universe. Recently, they’ve started adding mobile fields to all their forms, asking new supporters to add their mobile phone numbers before joining.

Since the change, Everytown has seen steady list growth, remarkable retention, and a negligible drop-off in conversions on the forms with the mobile field required.

High Retention & No Drop-Off in Conversions

Many organizations worry that adding a mobile field will make people less likely to complete their forms.

However, Everytown has seen no statistically significant drop-off in action by asking people to add their mobile numbers.

Moreover, they found that people who gave their numbers were some of their most enduring supporters. Around 80% of people who join Everytown’s lists via web form are still with the organization after a year. That compares with as low as 50% for those who come in other ways.

800% List Growth

The change to their web forms has been one of many factors in Everytown’s dramatic list growth. In the past year, Everytown has nearly octupled their mobile list from 45,000 to 355,000 people.

Now, when gun control issues make the news, Everytown can quickly spread the word. Last July, Everytown and Moms Demand Action drove almost 200,000 phone calls around the #NoBillNoBreak sit-in. Everytown has transformed their modest mobile list into a massive SMS movement.