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‘Text to donate’ campaigns offer a streamlined and convenient way for individuals to contribute to organizations and initiatives making a difference.
From disaster relief efforts to funding crucial research, the simplicity of ‘text to donate’ has transformed the landscape of philanthropy and text fundraising. In this article, we delve into the mechanics of text-to-donate campaigns, exploring how they work, their benefits, and best practices for donors and organizations.
Join us as we navigate the digital frontier of giving and discover how a simple text message can ignite profound change.
How does text to donate work?
‘Text to donate’ is a powerful fundraising system based around exchanging just two or three SMS between donors and any organization to get a donation.
As a non-profit or any organization looking for donations, you can begin receiving aid from donors through text broadcast campaigns.
Here are the messages you will (most likely) send and receive.
- You send potential donors (who have opted in) a text asking for a donation
- They reply with whatever keyword you have sent in the original SMS
- You send them another few SMS, asking for some details like their name and email ID
- You then send them a link where they can make any size donation they wish
- You send them a ‘thank you’ SMS immediately after they make a donation
- You send them a follow-up SMS sometime later with an update about the campaign
Read More: Short Donation Messages Templates to Help You Meet Your Goals
As an additional option that helps boost donor retention, you can also send them an SMS request if they would like to make the same donation on a regular basis (monthly, yearly, etc.).
That’s it!
All of these processes are automated, take less than a few minutes of your time, and allow you to raise funds for any campaign or cause you wish.
A famous example from the real world is the Salvation Army’s ‘Red Kettle’ campaign. In 1892, the Salvation Army began collecting money to feed the homeless in a large iron kettle. Their red kettles have become a staple of the Western world during Christmas. And today, you can donate any amount to a ‘red kettle’, simply by messaging ‘KETTLE’ to 31333.
Text-to-donate vs. text-to-give: What is the difference?
Most people have received an SMS like ‘Text GIVE to donate $5 to 33339”. Isn’t that the same as a ‘text to donate’? No. There is a critical difference – you, the donor.
‘Text to Give’ is a system in which, if you reply with the given keyword, a specific amount (mentioned in the original SMS) is added to your phone bill. Your mobile carrier later transfers that amount to the campaign, charity, or cause you intended to support—sometimes charging a commission for it.
The key features are –
- This is a one-way automated communication
- The donation is a fixed amount
- This is intended to raise money on the spot
- It is a massive text broadcast sent to millions of people
Text to Donate, on the other hand, aims to:
- Give donors the freedom to choose any amount they wish to donate
- Give donors more information about your cause through links
- Hopes to build a long-term relationship with the donor through a regular commitment/follow-ups
These are the most basic differences. This article provides an in-depth breakdown of ‘text to donate vs. text to give’.
How to set up text-to-donate for your nonprofit?
Please remember that legally you cannot text anyone unless they opt in first – in written format. So, let’s start from there.
You can skip to the ‘Text Broadcast Campaign’ section if you already have opt-ins for your contacts.
Set up a Text to Join Campaign
‘Text SAVEPANDAS to 333313 to join our cause!’
What is opt-in? Potential donors must give their consent in writing to receive communications from you. The easiest way to do that is to get them to join your contact list via text.
You should start by providing a number for them to send those consent messages, with a keyword as the opt-in message.
In CallHub, once you log in, begin by choosing a ‘Text to Join’ campaign
The details you need are:
- Campaign name
- Number: You can rent a shortcode or a 10 DLC number from CallHub, or select from a list of numbers you have already rented/validated.
- Pick a keyword: Pick something memorable. (Ex: PANDAS, or DONATE)
- Save the opt-ins: Choose to create a new contact list of those who opt-in for this campaign (preferred) or add the names to an existing contact list.
Now, in the script section, you can make a few choices:
- Write out what the SMS donors will receive when they text you the keyword
- You can choose additional prompts to ask them more questions to personalize your interactions and collect data. For example, ‘First name? Email? City? ‘ etc. Each option can be selected under the ‘expected response’ dropdown list.
- Write out a thank you SMS that will be sent to them later.
Note: Don’t forget to select how many hours or days later the prompt should be resent in case they didn’t answer it the first time.
‘Start’ the campaign after reviewing it and you are done!
Now, promote your keyword and number all your potential donors in the real world—using advertisements or word-of-mouth. Soon, you will have a list of contacts who have opted in for your communications.
Text Broadcast Campaign
Now that you have your contacts opted-in, you can broadcast your donation messages to them. As before, on CallHub, log in to your account and choose the ‘Text Broadcast’ campaign.
Let’s take you through your options:
Targeting:
- Pick a memorable campaign name (Ex, Pandas Need Your Help)
- Choose the contact list the SMS should go out to (Ex, SAVEPANDAS Opt-in)
- Pick a number your contacts will see when they get the message – you can use an existing number or rent one from CallHub.
CallHub offers spam protection and immediate replacement of any numbers that get flagged.
Script:
Part one –
- This is where you type out your appeal. Keep it short (checking ‘characters remaining’ to see how much you have left). Make sure you add an appeal to turn contributions monthly through a keyword.
Sample: Hi Sam! Donate today to save Pandas. Link – Savepandas.com. Reply PANDA to donate monthly. Reply STOP to opt out.
You should consider powerful keywords in your message, like ‘Join the fight’ and ‘Take action’. Even words like ‘you’ and ‘transform’ have a major impact. These will make your message more well-read and increase actions.
- Use ‘personalize’ to add details like the contact’s first name.
- Use ‘URL Shortener’ to shorten the link to your donation page, and add tracking to the URL to see how many click it.
- Add the ‘opt-out’ to give contacts a way to stop getting these messages (they will be added to the DNC list, preventing all future communications even if a contact list includes them. You can manually add or remove contacts from your DNC list).
Part two –
- Use automatic replies to extend your relationship. This is crucial. So, send a thank you message to those who reply with the keyword.
- You can also add several trigger keywords for different actions, like MOREINFO, OTHERANIMALS, etc. And add specific replies for each keyword.
Settings:
- Choose how to get notifications for your replies
- Choose how many times to retry the messages if they fail
Preview the messages and schedule them when you begin your campaign. And you are done!
Can I set up monthly donations with text-to-donate?
Yes, you can!
Setting up a monthly donation is important so you can have a long-term relationship with your donors. This is why it is important to set up a keyword reply in the first text to donate SMS for those who wish to have a long-term relationship with you.
In CallHub, you can use our Workflows to send reminders with the donation link automatically, so this part of the campaign can run smoothly in the background while you focus on new efforts.
Log in to your account and go to Workflows. Then, select ‘create workflow’ to begin.
Our goal is that if someone replies to our SMS appeal, they should be sent a reminder every month to donate.
Note: Before you begin this, make sure you create an empty contact list with the relevant name, such as ‘Save Pandas Monthy’.
Here’s the flow:
- Select a trigger: In this case, you can choose ‘message received’ for those who reply to your first SMS.
- Choose your campaign (in this case, ‘Text Broadcast’) and the name of the campaign (Ex: Pandas Need Your Help) you are targeting.
- Once the trigger is set, click the ‘+’ to add a condition. In this case, it is the ‘if/else’ condition.
- If a contact has replied to your ‘Pandas Need Your Help’ SMS, you can set it like so – (Message Received), (Text Broadcast), (Pandas Need Your Help), (is replied)
- You will get the options for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Under ‘Yes’, you can choose an action In this case it should be ‘Add to contact list’. (The ‘Save Pandas Monthly’ we created earlier.
You are done. Now, you have the contact list you need. Using Text Broadcast and Schedule, you can create a campaign asking them to donate via SMS and schedule it once a month.
Things to remember:
- Workflows will keep adding to your contact list as more people reply.
- Duplicate your reminder campaign every month so you can see the growth month-on-month and make changes accordingly.
- Periodically send the original ‘Please donate’ SMS in new campaigns to appeal to new donors.
Best practices to set up text-to-donate
Collect data before donations
While there is the urge to request donations immediately, the first few SMS should ideally be a personalization effort. You will have to tweak it to suit your specific campaign and audience, but generally, it is best if – when your contacts opt-in- they are asked for things like their name, email ID, location, and preferences.
This lets you personalize your communication (which is crucial), and also build a better database of people interested in your cause. This will help you target them better in the future.
But remember – don’t ask so many questions that they get frustrated and stop replying. Two or three questions are best.
Get your lists with your Opt-ins
Remember, when they opt-in for communications, donors agree to all communication from you—within the rules of the FTC. Therefore, make sure you add those who opt into all your relevant lists—for updates, events, other donations, and even just ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ messages.
Use a link tracker for automated follow-ups
Link tracking is important because it allows you to see how many people clicked your donation link and actually donated and how many visited the site but didn’t donate. This information will help you tweak your text to donate message or even your website more effectively.
This also allows you to track donors who may have dropped off for any reason and send them an automated nudge or reminder to complete their donation.
Important: Keep your reminders limited in number. As a study discovered, an increased number of ‘nudges’ also leads to ever-increasing ‘unsubscribes’. So don’t relentlessly chase every lead down. One or two reminders are all that is needed.
Rent memorable keywords
This is often an underrated aspect of a campaign. But it will be hard to bag many donors if your keyword is generic. Instead, use more specific keywords that will remain in mind and are linked to your campaign, like’ Save Pandas’ or ‘Make Them Walk’.
Here are some points to remember:
- The word should directly link to your cause
- It should be easy to spell
- It should not have a common autocorrect that would lead to misspellings when people type it out. For example, ‘Falls’ often autocorrects to ‘Fails’.
- It should be something people commonly use. Don’t pick scientific words or something most people do not encounter in day-to-day life.
Schedule impact reports for your campaigns
Being transparent with your donors will help you build a community of supporters who will stick with you for the long run. If they know what you are doing with their money, they will feel a sense of ownership.
So, create an impact report to inspire long-term support.
But remember that an impact report with only successes can seem fake. Being honest is more important for your supporters than showing them how much of an impact you have made.
So, make sure your impact report details the change brought about by your campaigns in the form of data and testimonials and how supporters’ funding has driven that change.
With this report, schedule regular emails to all donors and try to set up calls with your biggest donors to give them a personalized report.
Short donation message examples
While every use case differs, here are some real-world lessons to incorporate into your text to donate messages.
- Your request should be specific with all conditions—how much? For whom? Where will it be used? Keep it under 160 characters so they receive the message in one go.
- Make sure you build relationships through your messages, and make sure you get back to them with success stories
- Fix on a tone. Are you fun? Serious? Jokey? Dramatic? Find the right tone and stick to it. You have very little space in text to donate campaigns, so every word counts.
Adopting text to donate into your nonprofit’s array of communication tools is a foregone conclusion, whether slowly or all at once. Consider these best practices and message templates to kick off your campaign.
