With mobile giving being on the rise and people getting accustomed to using smartphones, your nonprofit must provide a way for your supporters to give quickly from their mobile phones. Text to give does just that - it helps your donors send a quick text to initiate giving to your organization. Learn everything about text giving and know how Donorbox Text-to-Give can help. Keep reading!
More than 200 million people got their first mobile device in 2017, and two-thirds of the world’s 7.6 billion inhabitants now have a mobile phone. Smartphones are the world’s preferred choice for going online too, accounting for a greater share of web traffic than all other devices combined.
In the past year alone, mobile giving donations have increased by 205%. It comes as no surprise that more and more nonprofits are exploring text-to-give as a way to empower people to donate.
One of the most widely publicized text-to-give campaigns was The Red Cross’s relief efforts after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The campaign raised millions of dollars, including $32 million for the American Red Cross, from a mass of $10 texts to the word “Haiti.”
It was a strong introduction to a phenomenon that would soon become more and more common.
Text giving is a fast and convenient way for people to make a donation that can help save the day for people in need.
At Donorbox, with years of in-depth understanding of the fundraising needs of nonprofits, we created a simple-to-use text-to-give feature so that nonprofits can sign up and start raising funds very quickly, we also added “repeat donation” – a feature that lets your donors repeat their last donation with a single text message.
Text-to-give lets donors make donations right from their cell phones, using their phone’s native texting application and/or web browser.
Some make a distinction between ‘text-to-give’ and ‘text-to-donate’, believing that in a text-to-give process after supporters text a keyword to a shortcode, the donation amount is added to the supporters’ phone bill. With text-to-donate, after texting a keyword to a shortcode, supporters are led to a mobile donation page where they give.
However, most don’t differentiate between the two terms and use them interchangeably, regardless of if the donation is made by donors giving on a mobile donation page or via their cell phone bill.
Ultimately, text-to-give is a mobile fundraising method that enables donors to give through a few text messages, requiring little effort.
All nonprofit organizations can benefit from this straightforward and effective fundraising method, but it’s particularly effective for:
The text-to-give process is simple and straightforward:
A. The donor will have a defined amount added to their mobile cell phone bill.
Or
B. The donor will instantly receive a text message that includes the link to a mobile-friendly donation page associated with the campaign they selected.
Donors can use the online donation form to indicate their donation amount and fill in their payment information.
The entire process only takes minutes to complete. Donorbox’s Text-to-Give lets you start fundraising within a few simple steps. Not only is this a simple process for your donors, for nonprofits it will take only a few minutes to get started.
Read how to Set up a Text to Donate Campaign with Donorbox or watch this short video on how to set up text-to-give on Donorbox in minutes!
According to Nonprofits Source, these are essential text-to-give statistics:
– 1 in 4 donors use mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of.
– 25% of donors complete their donations on mobile devices.
– In the past year, mobile giving donations have increased by 205%.
– 90% of text message reminders are read in 3 minutes
– The average donation size for text-to-donate fundraisers is $107.
– It takes 90 seconds to respond to a text, versus 90 minutes by e-mail.
– Text donors are most likely to be between 49 and 59 years old, female, married, and college graduates.
Text-to-Give has numerous advantages when utilized in the right setting and fundraising campaign. It is the simplicity of this fundraising method that makes it a successful fundraising method and popular among nonprofits and donors. The best part is, it is extremely simple to start and utilizes the ease of donating on mobile phones. Donorbox’s text-to-give was built keeping in mind the ease of use for nonprofits and more importantly, the donors. Here are the advantages a text-to-give fundraising offers:
Text-to-give technology allows donors to give to nonprofits of their choice directly through the text messaging app on their mobile devices. This way of fundraising allows organizations to raise money anytime, anywhere. It also meets donors where they’re at, which is often on their phones.
Text-to-give is one of the simplest ways to donate. With the right text-to-give software, a transaction can be completed in just a few clicks.
Most people use mobile phones on a daily, so donating via texting is quite an intuitive process. The learning curve is low, so donors can give without much hassle. Almost 98% of text messages get read.
Donors who give via text usually make a quick decision in response to images they saw on television and involved minimal background research.
Furthermore, since the opportunity to give is so immediate and the process so fast, donors are more likely to follow the initial urge and less likely to get distracted. Online donations, for example, tend to involve more deliberation.
Text-to-give donors are likely to encourage their family and friends to give online and usually do so in person.
For example, Overall, 76% of Haiti text donors say that their friends or family members did indeed make a contribution to earthquake relief using their phones. Of those who encouraged a friend or family member to contribute, 75% did so by talking with others in person, and 38% did so via voice call.
If your nonprofits work with cellular companies to run the text-to-give campaigns, the cellular companies will transfer the funds to the nonprofit once donors pay their phone bills, which means the money might take 30 to 60 days to reach them. This has, however, been solved by modern-day text-to-give providers.
Purchasing any sort of fundraising software can be a significant investment for your nonprofit. The costs associated with text-to-give software include costs for the software itself, the payment processing fees, maintenance and set up fees, vendor fees, shortcodes, and additional keywords and messages. Of course, some text-to-give vendors will be more affordable than others, so your nonprofit may not have to worry about all of these costs.
In case you’ve opted for a more traditional text-to-give vendor, there’s usually a $5-$10 caps on all donations. However, next-generation text-to-give services have made the process of online giving less cumbersome by removing the donation cap.
Text-to-give doesn’t naturally facilitate building deeper relationships with donors, making it more difficult to retain supporters through this channel than others.
This happens because donors are required to either just text a code to a number (where there’s no immersion with your brand whatsoever) or are led to a simplistic donation page where they enter minimum information. Requiring more steps would help solve this, but it would then go against the speed and the simplicity of a text-to-give process.
According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, the median donor retention rate for first-time donors is only 19%. That means that 81% of first-time donors will never give again.
One of the biggest advantages of text-to-give campaigns is that they can bring in a lot of new donors. This is great if you can keep your cost-per-acquisition low.
However, if you can’t keep those acquisition costs down, you may find that you’re spending more than you’re bringing in.
While it might be tempting to use text-to-give for every campaign and throughout the year, it might be wise to reserve this fundraising method for specific fundraising campaigns. Otherwise, you might be overwhelming your donors.
Nearly half–41%–of its Haiti mobile donors were 34 years old or younger, far below the age of a typical Red Cross supporter. Maintaining the support of this “new generation of philanthropists”–and immediate access to them via their phones–requires restraint. Post-Katrina, the Red Cross has reserved text campaigns for “extreme circumstances”, according to McAndrew.
With text-to-give, simplicity is everything. The customized shortcode that your donors will use to donate and the numbers they text it to should be short and easy to remember. The longer or more complex the code, the more likely your donors will forget it or abandon the process.
Also, be as specific as possible (i.e. “OCEAN25” instead of just “DONATE”) and ensure your code is relevant to your mission.
Revamp your website and online donation forms so they will load faster and be more easily navigable on mobile devices. Minimize required fields, use large text, and don’t cram your page with design elements to maximize your conversion rates.
Customize your mobile-responsive donation pages with logos, fields, and gift amounts. Display a thermometer showing donors how close you are to meeting your fundraising goals to encourage even more giving!
For example, you can pair text-to-give with fundraising events to capitalize on the excitement created by in-person interactions (e.g. galas, marathons, walk-a-thons, and more). Also, share your text-to-give information in your direct mail outreach or your e-newsletters. This way, readers can give as soon as they read your letter or e-newsletter.
Promoting your text-to-give campaign is critical to your fundraising success. Put together a social media and marketing plan to promote your campaign.
Create momentum and get the word out. Include both the keyword and shortcode on all promotional materials, website content, and advertising that runs for the campaign. Including it in board members’ email signatures and display it prominently on your website. Ask your supporters to share your text-to-give keyword and designated number via their social media channels and send out a press release to relevant publications.
For best results, treat text-to-give as a completely separate donation channel (which it is). Text-to-give requires its own strategy, set up, marketing and promotion, and monitoring. If you’re able to, designate a text-to-give coordinator or a coordinating team (depending on the size of your nonprofit and the program).
Have the coordinator plug the information that you collected during the text-to-give process (i.e., donors’ names, phone numbers, email addresses, and billing addresses) into your existing donor database or CRM and use it to better your segmentation and outreach efforts.
Thanking donors is always important; so it is with text-to-give fundraising. Make your donors feel valued by thanking them for their gift and celebrating their contribution.
Most software providers will allow you to customize a thank-you email. Show your donors the impact their donation will have.
Just like with any other fundraising method, you must keep track of the results of your text-to-give campaign.
As you go along, make note of what works and what doesn’t, and then adjust to keep honing your strategies and making more out of your text-to-give campaigns.
We wrote a list of everything your text-to-give platform needs to have. At Donorbox, we have launched Text-to-Give to let nonprofits raise funds quickly, not to mention it was in high demand from our users. Donorbox Text-to-Give is very easy and quick to get started And, there’s no additional fee to participate in the trial! Here is how you can sign-up and get started!
Choosing the right donation platform is the first step to successful fundraising in this method. When choosing the right text-to-give platform for you, make sure your provider’s software offers all the below-mentioned features.
To guide your purchasing decision, also consider if text-to-give will be a one-off method or an integral part of your fundraising strategy.
Donorbox’s text to give feature went live in January 2021. Here’s a glimpse of how its interface works intuitively for you:
And, here’s an example of how conveniently your donors can give via text:
Keywords are the words donors text to donate. Keywords like “YEMEN 19” or “MARINE” help differentiate campaigns for both donors and nonprofits.
Shortcodes are phone numbers shortened to 5-6 digits. Instead of texting a full phone number, donors text the keyword to a shortcode to donate. Shortcodes are ideal for text-to-give campaigns because of the nature of high-volume messaging.
Tokenization is a security process in which sensitive personal data like credit card information is replaced by a ‘token’ between a text platform and a payment processor. This increases security by reducing the chances of breaches.
Almost everyone owns and uses a smartphone. And surprisingly, the typical text-to-give user is actually a woman between 49-59 years old who has a college degree. Text-to-give will likely be convenient for many of your donors, no matter their age.
If your text-to-give provider is PCI-compliant, the software should be secure. It’s essential that you work with a PCI-compliant service provider.
Note: PCI-compliance speaks to a set of security standards set out by the Payment Card Industry.
This will vary from one service provider to another. Most text-to-give providers will accept payment methods including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Work with a vendor who offers plenty of options, so you can provide your donors with the most flexible and convenient donation experience.
Most text-to-give providers these days don’t have a limit on the amount a donor can give via text message.
Yes. Nonprofit organizations will generally collect donors’ names, phone numbers, email addresses, and billing addresses.
With some of the next-generation platforms, you also get payment information, the number of times each donor has donated, and how much they’ve donated each time. This information is then easily exported into your donor database.
Usually, with most text-to-give platforms that lead donors to a mobile donation page, yes. However, this may depend on what text-to-give software you choose.
Letting donors set up recurring weekly, monthly, or annual donations, in addition to increasing revenue, bring in the much-needed stability to a nonprofit’s finances.
Text-to-give fundraising can bring in a high volume of donors, and it can be integrated with other fundraising methods. However, due to the limited amount of segmenting and personalization this method offers, there’s a potential for alienating donors. Furthermore, if you’re not an emergency relief organization, a text-to-give solicitation may not be as compelling to the donor as an “impulse” donation in the wake of a tragedy is.
In spite of these limitations, text-to-give is a powerful, yet often untapped, fundraising tool. It’s probably the fastest way for donors to give. They don’t have to write and mail a check. They don’t even have to turn on their computers. This lowers the barrier to giving and opens the door to a whole new pool of donors.
We hope our ideas and insights will help you decide if text-to-give fundraising is the right method for you, and if so, that you’ll be able to get the most out of it.
At Donorbox, we strive to make your nonprofit experience as productive as possible, whether through our online donation system or resources on our nonprofit blog.
Ilma Ibrisevic is a content creator and nonprofit writer. She’s passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. If she’s not working, she’s obsessing over coffee or cooking. You can connect with her on Linkedin.
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Ilma Ibrisevic
