Text to give is a powerful way for nonprofit organizations to connect with donors and boost donations. But what’s next? Once you open this marketing channel with new donors, you need to keep sending text messages.
Mobile fundraising is so powerful because it’s easy. Everyone uses mobile phones and carries them everywhere. It’s easy to connect and easy to take action.
But the real value of text to give is in the follow up. You can connect and get that donation, but that’s just the start. It’s the beginning of a relationship. Ongoing text messages can nurture that relationship, create recurring donors, and lifelong supporters.
How Text to Give Works
It starts with a simple pitch: You ask someone to text a keyword to a shortcode. The short message service (SMS) pitch works great because nearly everyone has a mobile device on them 24/7.
They send the SMS message and get an automatic response with a link to your donation page where they can complete their donation with a credit card, debit card, or other payment option.
OK, let’s see it in action: Text DONATE to 24365 to see what the text-to-donate mobile giving process looks like.
What’s Next?
So let’s suppose you roll out a text-to-donate campaign and a new donor makes that initial mobile donation. Score! That’s a big win for your nonprofit.
But now what?
Don’t stop at text to donate. Keep on texting.
You have their donor information and they’ve reached out to engage with you. So keep on engaging! Build that relationship. Say thank you. Tell them more about your mission. Show them how their online donation is making a difference. Eventually you could ask for another donation.
But more than asking for money, this is an opportunity to tell your story and build a relationship with a supporter. Fundraising campaigns gather donor data for a reason. Use text messaging to build that relationship.
Human-Centered Text Messaging
Here at Rally, we believe in human-centered text messaging. What does that mean? It means it’s all about the person. It’s about your nonprofit connecting with real people, not just their bank accounts, and forging an actual relationship.
Human-centered means:
- You don’t just ask for money and disappear.
- Interaction happens more than once or twice a year.
- It’s about more than donation amounts and fundraising goals.
- You share useful, interesting, and engaging updates—stuff real people want to receive.
- Your text messages have personality—they’re fun, lively, and real. They’re not robotic or boring.
Your giving experience should feel like an in-person interaction, not an automated donation process with no life or joy. Use fundraising tools that keep the focus on real humans.
How to Go Beyond Text to Give
OK, so how do you keep sending text messages? We’ve got a few ideas:
1. Say Thank You
Your parents taught you gratitude, so show some. You likely send a thank you email after a donation. Reach out again with a thank you text message. It’s hard to overdue gratitude.
2. Show Results
What does their gift accomplish? Send text messages that show the results of their giving. Take advantage of MMS and send a photo or video. Most people are visual—hence the popularity of Instagram and cell phone cameras—so imagery is a human-centered way to connect.
3. Keep Them Updated
You’re nonprofit is doing amazing work, but it’s unlikely that one donation fixed the problem. What’s next? Tell them about your mission. Explain your next project. Offer other ways to get involved.
Hint: These are all the things you’re doing on other marketing channels. Start doing them on SMS text messaging.
More Tips for How to Text After Text to Give
We’ve got three more ways you can build real-time relationships after that initial text-to-give donation:
Text Year-Round
You’d never send emails once a year. Direct mail is even likely to be more often. And nobody would ever post to social media just once per year. Treat text messaging the same way. Texting should be a year-round marketing approach. Don’t just use it once with a text-to-give campaign. Don’t just do it leading up your annual fundraising event. Text all year long. Learn more about a year-round text message strategy.
42 Examples
Sometimes you need to see it in action. OK, here are 42 examples of the kinds of text messages your nonprofit can send. Not all of these examples will fit your nonprofit, but you’ll find plenty of approaches that work well with your fundraising strategy.
Be Brief
Text messaging is a medium that values brevity, so it helps to keep your messages short. That’s also another human-centered value—people appreciate it when you value their time and cut to the chase. We’ve got tips to help you write short text messages.
Rally Helps You Get Results
We’re here to mobilize your mission. That means getting results. But it needs to happen with humans at the center. That means building relationships, looking for long-term results, and seeing that text-to-give fundraising is just the beginning. Here’s how our text-to-give platform can help you get results:
- Tools: We offer integrations with your preferred fundraising platform, CRM, donation form, and more. We also have pre-written text message templates for when you’re not sure what to say. Our functionality and workflows can boost donor engagement, encourage peer fundraising, increase recurring donations, and in general make your mobile fundraising more effective.
- Support: We care about customer experience. We’ve got multiple options for help from FAQs to webinars. Plus, we’re happy to get on a phone call and talk through any issues. Read our case studies to see how nonprofits rave about our support and user-friendly system.
- Not sure: If you’re still not sure, we’re happy to show you a demo, walk through strategy, and talk pricing options. We can also help you get your nonprofit leadership on board.
Get started: Check out a demo to learn more about Rally and start texting now.
