Customer Story · Hunger Relief
Text got its own strategy.It returned 904%.
Houston Food Bank stopped treating text as email's overflow and gave it a full calendar of its own. Over twelve months its fundraising texts converted at 1.01%, for a 904% return on the program.
Text is still where we're seeing the highest conversion rate. It's been really great.
Houston Food Bank
Houston Food Bank is the nation's largest Feeding America food bank by distribution. It serves 18 counties across southeast Texas and, in a typical year, distributes more than 176 million pounds of food through about 1,600 partner agencies.
It had sent one-off texts before. What changed was giving the channel a plan: more kinds of message across the year, value beyond the ask, and testing along the way.
The Situation
One-off texts, then a real plan
A program that provides access to 136 million meals a year needs fundraising that can grow without slowing the mission down.
Houston Food Bank had been texting supporters a few times a year. With momoGood it worked out a revised strategy built on three ideas: widen the mix of messages across the year, give supporters something other than an ask, and test as it went.
The Messages
A full lifecycle of texts, not just asks
The team built a text calendar that follows the whole donor journey.
A year in, text is not just supporting email. On conversion it is starting to lead it.
- Welcome messages for new subscribers and for contacts arriving through the CRM integration.
- Stewardship and cultivation: holiday cards, seasonal updates and thank-yous.
- Fundraising asks and matching gifts: Giving Tuesday, year end, birthday and spring matches.
- Sustainer acquisition: recruiting monthly donors by text. One targeted invitation added 20 new monthly sustainers.
Giving Tuesday, renamed for the cause
A $125,000 match from Morgan & Morgan and a longtime donor, framed as a local "Giving Food Day": every $1 provides 6 meals, and the offer ends at midnight. Signed by a person, not the organization.
The year-end match, on the last day
Chevron matching gifts 5x up to $100,000, until midnight. The message leads with the multiplier, turns it into meals ($1 provides 15), and asks for a final gift of 2025.
Cleaner Data
Smaller list, fewer wasted sends
Two pieces of plumbing made every send work harder.
- Blackbaud Luminate Online, connected. Donor audiences flow between Luminate and momoGood without manual exports, so segments stay current.
- A list cleanup. The team cut bounced phone numbers by 59%, so more of every send reaches a real person.
What They Notice
The features the team calls out
Asked what made a difference day to day, Houston Food Bank's team named three.
- A/B testing. "Pretty cool to see" how much a small test can change results.
- AI-suggested replies. "The AI-suggested replies are really good and they keep learning over time."
- Reporting. Campaign results that are easy to read at a glance.
What Transfers
Six lessons for any text program
None of this is specific to food banks.
- Give text its own strategy. Not email's overflow. With a plan of its own it can out-convert every other channel.
- Ask for monthly gifts by text. One targeted sustainer invitation added 20 monthly donors.
- A clean list beats a big list. Cutting bounced numbers by 59% meant more sends reached someone.
- Match the message to the moment. Giving days, matching gifts and simple stewardship each called for a different message, not one generic ask.
- Connect your systems. Linking text to the CRM cuts manual work and keeps donor records accurate as the program grows.
- Small details still matter. A look at send time or message format turned up easy wins without testing everything.
A return built send by send
Over twelve months Houston Food Bank's fundraising texts converted at 1.01%. Paired with the low cost of a text, that added up to a 904% return on the whole program, after short code and platform fees.
Two fundraising texts sent on December 31, 2025 returned roughly 900% on their own, the strongest single day of the year at the time. A single send later in the year beat that record and became the program's best-performing message to date.
momoGood Capabilities Used
What Houston Food Bank runs on momoGood
Six capabilities carry the strategy the two teams built together.
- MMS fundraising campaignsYear-end pushes and ongoing asks.
- A/B testingSend-time and message testing.
- Sustainer messagingRecruiting monthly donors by text.
- ReportingCampaign-level results at a glance.
- Bulk tag managementFast list cleanup and segmentation.
- Blackbaud Luminate Online integrationDonor audiences synced for targeted campaigns.
About Houston Food Bank
Houston Food Bank is the nation's largest Feeding America food bank by distribution. Founded in 1982, it serves 18 counties across southeast Texas through a network of roughly 1,600 partner agencies and programs.
- Founded
- 1982Houston, TX
- Counties served
- 18Across southeast Texas
- Partner agencies
- ~1,600Agencies and programs
- Network
- Feeding AmericaLargest member by distribution
Find them online
Mike partnered with the Houston Food Bank team on the revised texting strategy behind this program: a wider mix of messages across the year, value beyond the ask, and testing along the way.
What would a 904% text program do for your mission?
See how momoGood gives text its own strategy, from welcome series to sustainer asks, connected to the CRM you already run.
Sources & notes
- Program results and the quotes from Gabrielle Alls are supplied by Houston Food Bank and used with permission. Figures cover Houston Food Bank's text program on momoGood (formerly Tatango) from September 2025 through August 2026 unless noted.
- The 904% ROI and 1.01% conversion rate are Houston Food Bank's own calculation on data through August 2026, and the ROI includes short code and platform fees. An earlier draft of the same study, on data before August, reported 1,046% and 1.11%; the later figures supersede them.
- The roughly 900% return on two texts sent December 31, 2025 is a single-day figure and is separate from the twelve-month program ROI.
- Organization facts (founding, counties served, pounds distributed, meals, partner agencies) are as supplied by Houston Food Bank. See houstonfoodbank.org.