Welcome to Donorbox’s Text-to-Give Beta!

Update January 2021 Donorbox’s text-to-give beta has concluded and the feature is now live! Get started with text-to-give, and visit our knowledge base for more details.

Donorbox’s Text-to-Give public beta went live this month!

Any organization that is interested in using text-to-give and participate in the trial are welcome – simply send an email to jimmy at donorbox.org with the following information:

• Your Donorbox account email
• Your organization’s website address
• The link to your campaign page that is hosted on Donorbox
• The name of the person and their contact information who will be responsible for handling the Donorbox text-to-give trial for your organization

It’s very easy and quick to get started and you can start collecting donations from donors via their phones. And, there’s no additional fee to participate in the trial!

Text-to-give is one of the most requested features by nonprofits. We’re very excited to finally see it in fruition!

What is Donorbox’s text-to-give?

Text-to-give is a fundraising method that empowers donors and supporters to give to organizations and nonprofits via their smartphones. Using their phones’ texting applications, donors can donate to their favorite nonprofits.

How does it work?

Here we will outline the general flow of how your donors and supporters will use text-to-give:

1. Send a text that contains the campaign ID of your campaign to 1 855 575 7888 (basic plan) or 801801 (short-code plan).
2. Receive a reply that contains a link to your campaign page that is hosted on Donorbox.
3. Fill out the donation form, check the box ‘Save information for future use’, and complete the donation.
4. Subsequent donations can be done instant using repeat donation, no filling out forms, or opening web pages is required.

In this short video, we’ve explained the steps to make it easier for you to understand how text-to-give works with Donorbox!

Step 1

Your donor should send your campaign ID to 1 855 575 7888.

Alternatively, if you’ve chosen the short code plan (which includes all benefits of the basic plan plus a shorter code number and a custom keyword), your donor should send the opt-in keyword ‘GIVE’ to the shorter code 801801. Currently, it can receive incoming texts from US numbers only. But this shorter number is much easier for them to remember and type in. Next, Your donor will receive a text from the same number, as shown in the image below. They will need to reply with the campaign ID of your campaign.

In turn, your donor will receive a text from Donorbox, that contains a link to your campaign page that is hosted on Donorbox.

Step 2

Your donor will simply fill out the donation form and complete the donation

They should check the box ‘Save information for future use’ to be able to repeat their donation in the future. See the picture below.

Step 3

Once the donation is completed, your donor will receive a thank you message.

Text-to-Give Repeat Donation

This is one of the key features of Donorbox’s text-to-give. Repeat donation will allow your donors to repeat their last donation without filling out the form or opening any web pages (given they checked the box ‘Save information for future use’ in the donation form). It’s great for recurring events or gatherings, and in situations where one-time donations are preferred. Here is how it will appear as text messages for your donors:

To initiate a repeat donation, your donor can reply to the ‘thank-you’ text with ‘YES‘. Once they do so, they’ll receive a text from Donorbox asking to ‘CONFIRM‘ or reply ‘NO‘. As soon as they CONFIRM, the donation will be processed automatically and they’ll further receive a thank-you text.

Note: This feature (repeat donation) will only work for donations made via credit card/Stripe payment method. Other payments such as PayPal will not support the repeat donation function for the donors. (But they can still donate via Paypal using SMS/Text-to-Give)

FAQs

1. Why is the text-to-give number so long?

Shortcodes are very expensive to set up and maintain. The cost can run into hundreds or thousands of dollars. Using a toll-free number, not only does it save a significant amount of money, but it is also quick to set up and start collecting donations via text-to-give.

But Donorbox now gives you an option to upgrade to the short code plan wherein your donors can get to text to a shorter and easier-to-remember number 801801. Plus, you, as an organization, get a custom keyword that you can use for one of your campaigns on Donorbox. Know more about it here.

2. My organization is based outside the US – can I use text-to-give?

The current number, trial, and Donorbox’s text-to-give are based in the United States and Canada. Any supporters or donors based in the States or Canada would be able to take advantage of this. If a supporter is texting from outside the US, they could be susceptible to additional carrier charges.

For an organization, there is no difference as everything is processed the same way as it is on websites, and the donation form.

3. Can we use this on real campaigns during this trial period or is everything just testing?

Text-to-give is ready and working for your actual campaigns. All donations made through text-to-give during the trial are processed. We encourage you to use it at real events or campaigns!

4. How long is this trial?

The initial trial will last until December. After this, we will evaluate which features and functions to add to make our text-to-give more robust. We have no problems extending the time-period of the trials for your organization if you need more time. Just drop us a line at .

5. Are there any fees to join this trial or use text-to-give?

No. There are zero additional fees for participating in the trial or to use text-to-give during the trial.

Over To You

Text giving is a fast and convenient way for people to make a donation that can help save the day for people in need.

We hope you make the most out of text-to-give, we look forward to hearing your feedback and responses.

You can learn everything about text-to-give fundraising here. And, for more nonprofit tips and resources visit our nonprofit blog, Happy fundraising!