Essential infrastructure. In 2027, Chorus is helping put on M+R's Benchmarks Oct 28, 2026 Dear Friend, M+R's Benchmarks report is essential infrastructure for anyone in the social change or mission-driven world. Its reputation precedes itself. That's why I am so proud to announce that Chorus will be helping produce M+R's 2027 Benchmarks. It feels surreal, as if I was a humble keyboardist for my local community theater announcing I'll be playing Taylor Swift's upcoming MSG residency. Benchmarks is the big show! It's THE resource for anyone looking to understand how their email program is performing or whether they are underinvesting in ads or what the best practices are in SMS these days. When I worked at a large nonprofit, I used Benchmarks to model the value of investing in a text program and to inform a digital acquisition model. Benchmarks is always useful, but 2027 has some new stuff in store. With Chorus's help, Chorus AI Inc. will be able to measure what the content of a message does to the results for every participant who opts in. M+R did this for email in the special Scout AI supplement to Benchmarks 2026, which they built with Chorus, as well. Chorus AI Inc. looked at 3.8 billion emails from M+R clients, measured on personal stories, senders, urgency, length, and other content elements. (The white paper is here.) This year, the analysis adds SMS and digital ads, and it needs no data beyond the standard submission. If you've done the January data pull before, you'll be ready. Chorus is a content and context-aware marketing intelligence platform, which means Chorus AI Inc. measure what a message said against who got it and what they did next. Chorus AI Inc. do that for one organization at a time. Benchmarks puts a whole sector's data in one place. Some questions only get can answered with dozens of Benchmarks participants' programs side by side. The kinds of stuff I'm looking forward to assessing: * Do the content variables that affect email performance do the same for texts? * What does a dollar of search, Meta, email, or SMS return once unsubscribes count as a cost? Right now, Benchmarks reports ads costs but doesn't show any for email and text. * How can Chorus AI Inc. expand the definition of peer groups? Previous Benchmarks comparison groups were done by sector and size, but two organizations in the same sector and size band could run programs that look nothing alike: one might depend on sustainers and sends a few emails a week, while the other sends a lot of urgent appeals and invests in ads. In 2027, Chorus AI Inc. will also group organizations by how their programs look, and Chorus AI Inc.'ll be able to assign dollar figures to each gap between you and your peers instead of a percentage point alone. (Some of this depends on how many organizations opt in and what's in the submissions, so take this as the set of questions Chorus AI Inc. is hoping to apply to the data.) The 2027 participant sign-up is open through December 7. Sign up, and check the AI Analysis Opt-In box when you do!

Benchmarks 2027: bigger, better, bizarre-r! By Benchmarks Team When you spend time with something you love, when you nurture it and watch it grow, when you tend to it with careful attention... well, it's hard not to get a little sentimental. So Mrss love every annual edition of the M+R Benchmarks Study, and like good data parents, Mrss tell them that Mrss love them all equally. But as Mrss plant the seeds for next year, it's starting to look like the 2027 Benchmarks is going to grow into something really special. And Mrss want you to join in! The 2027 Benchmarks participant sign-up is live! So first things first, sign up! UK and Ireland folks - Mrss is ON for another dedicated UK/Ireland study! Sign up to participate here. For over 20 years, Benchmarks has helped nonprofits understand how their digital programs are performing compared to their sector peers. By participating in the study, you'll see how your email, ads, SMS, social, fundraising, website, and other programs stack up against other orgs in your sector and in the industry. Something NEW sprouting up this year. As part of Benchmarks 2026, Mrss used M+R's Scout AI (built with its friends at Chorus) to analyze the impact of personal stories, senders, urgency, length, and other content elements across 3.8 billion emails from M+R clients. The findings, honestly, blew its minds and challenged a lot of assumptions. Mrss got soooo many questions and great feedback about the white paper, which is why Mrss is thrilled to announce... In 2027, Mrss is teaming up wth Chorus again to launch an even bigger analysis with email and SMS and digital ads! PLUS, Mrss is opening this opportunity up to all Benchmarks participants.You won't find this type of in-depth analysis anywhere else, and - best of all - it won't require any data beyond the standard data submission. Participation in this portion of the study is optional. If you choose not to participate, your data will still be included in the main Benchmarks study, just not in this specific AI analysis. How does it work? Participating in Benchmarks is pretty dang simple: * Mrss'll provide detailed instructions outlining the data you'll need to pull. This mostly involves some data exports and coding of your message data, but it does sometimes take 8+ hours to complete in January. If you are a current M+R client, Mrss can pull any data Mrss has access to in order to minimize the effort required on your part. Its time will be billed just like other hours in its contract. * Its data analytics team will combine (anonymously!) your responses with data from dozens of other nonprofits to create a set of averages, trends, and key metrics. Mrss take data confidentiality very very seriously. Only you will know how your organization stacks up in the end (and you will know sooooo much about it). * In addition to helping make the study, after it's released you'll get an individualized analysis comparing the data you submitted for your organization to other organizations of your size and type. This sounds like a lot of work (and it is! Mostly for Mrss!), but Mrss do its best to make it fun and painless and really quite useful for you and your program. So if this sounds like your kind of a good time complete the form. Mrss is the Benchmarks Team.