Your supporters text and a text-to-give platform is an ideal way to tap into that practice.
What is text-to-donate?: It’s a mobile fundraising method that allows supporters to give via text message. Donors simply text a keyword or phrase to a short phone number (often called a shortcode) and are given an option to complete their donation to support a cause.
The Biggest Text-to-Give Example
Text donations first came into the spotlight in 2010 after the Haiti earthquake when relief organizations, like the American Red Cross, wanted a fast and simple way to collect donations to help those impacted by this tragedy.
In that text-to-give campaign, for example, the American Red Cross raised over $43 million. Does text-to-give work? Oh yeah!
Text-to-Give vs. Text-to-Donate
What’s the difference between text-to-give and text-to-donate? They are two different functionalities for mobile donations. Technically, text-to-give is run through mobile carriers and shows up on your cell phone bill (and you don’t get their donor information), while text-to-donate involves sending a text message and donors completing the donation process with an online donation on your website. But the terms are often used interchangeably. We go into more detail on the difference.
Text to Donate for Your Nonprofit
It doesn't matter if you run a small homeless ministry, a regional campaign, or a global organization, all that is required to generate a text-to-donate gift to fund your mission is a keyword, a short code number like 24-365, and a link to a mobile-friendly donation page. Donors can give using their credit card, debit card, or the payment method of their choice.
It's a simple way to capture donations with the least amount of effort on the part of your donors. Period. All they need is a mobile phone. And people carry their smartphones everywhere.
Text-to-donate campaigns work: If that were not convincing enough, according to Nonprofits Source, mobile giving donations have increased 205% over the last year. This study shows that 51% of people who visit a nonprofit's website access it on their mobile device, and 25% of site visitors complete the donation form on their cell phones.
Put mildly, it's an incredible opportunity for causes of all shapes and sizes to engage website visitors, and you should consider mobile as a means to acquire new donors.
Boost Your Fundraising Efforts
Your nonprofit organization needs a streamlined fundraising solution that helps you connect and accept text-to-give donations. Rally is here to help.
- Fundraising events: Boost donor engagement by connecting at your events, whether it’s in-person or via livestream. Your event fundraising strategy needs to include a mobile initiative.
- Connection: Text-to-donate helps you collect donor data for ongoing follow-up. Donors text and they want to hear from you. Use text messaging to stay in touch. That’s a simple way to boost donation amounts and recurring donations to reach your fundraising goals.
- More help: We’ve got workflows, pre-written templates, FAQs, office hours for real-time and user-friendly support, integrations with fundraising platforms, and more.
Let’s get started. We’re happy to follow-up with a phone call to talk pricing or answer any SMS text-to-give fundraising questions you’ve got. It’s time your nonprofit had a fundraising tool that truly helped you connect with people where they are—on their mobile devices.
If you are interested in learning how text-to-donate can help you raise money fast, complete this form here, and a member of our team will walk through one of your upcoming fundraising campaigns.
We'll share a simple framework to determine if texting can help you raise the money you need to reach your goal. In the meantime, you can download your free guide below.
