7 Best Practices for a Successful Text-to-Give Campaign

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7 Best Practices for a Successful Text-to-Give Campaign

With the public’s love for smartphones on the rise, mobile giving campaigns have become incredibly popular in the world of nonprofit fundraising. As a nonprofit organization, it will be a blunder to miss the opportunity of capitalizing on your supporters’ favourite piece of technology. However, before you launch your text-to-give fundraising campaign, there are few practices that this article may help you master. 

The simpler the code, the better. 

All mobile giving softwares are not alike, however a lot of them will provide one phone number for every campaign. A clarification is made through a shortcode that is entered by your donors in their text message, this is done so that your supporters are sent to the right donation form. For example, a donor will text “FEED22” to 77777 and another donor may be made to text “SAVE12” to the same number, it is the code that will make sure that the donation goes to the right cause. 

The shortcode is basically a string of letters that may include numbers that is used to deliver the donated amount to the right organization or charity. In order to maximize the donations, it is ideal to keep your shortcode not only short but simple too. This is because when a code is too complex, a lot of supporters may not remember correctly.  This way, you can avoid typos or donation abandonment. 

Provide straightforward forms

After the initial text is sent, donors are usually directed to a donation form that is determined by the code they’ve entered. It is now your responsibility to make sure that your supporters follow through with their donation, making the donation form as precise as possible is the solution. 

The best you can do is stick to 2 field of information the donor’s name and payment information. Setting up more than 2 fields of information is not recommended as it will slow down your transaction speed.

The right kind of promotion

When it comes to mobile giving, the promotion for your campaign can be done across all the channels that will reach your mobile supporters. Know your target audience, reach out to them through your website, newsletters, social media (images and video), ads, newsletters and flyers.

On social media, there are a lot of post ideas you can derive ideas from. You can also leverage pre-made promo videos calendar to amplify your reach. Your goal is to speak and connect with donors through your posts; make sure that you curate a post around the cause and what difference donors would be making.

Clear instructions

After you’ve done your announcement and promotion, the next step is to put out very clear instructions on how to contribute to your text-to-give campaign.  The awareness that you’ve spread won’t really make a difference if your supporters do not know how to donate. 

Your nonprofit can focus on using social media as a channel – illustrations, infographics and comments; images and videos explaining the entire process. You can even interact with your audience through polls on instagram and facebook.  A live help session is also an option.

Multiple donation options

Your text-to-give campaign should also give importance to the convenience of your supporters. Suppose you have a pre-set donation amount of $30, you could be losing out on both the smaller and bigger contributions.  

You can offer a custom field so that your organization provides multiple donation options. Becoming a recurring donor can be offered as an option too; never forget tht a lot of supporters look for ways to get deeply involved with a noble cause.

The attitude of gratitude

A major way to retain donors is donor stewardship; the manner and quality of communication after the donation matters. It is always advisable to make your donors feel good and appreciated. Your organization can thank the supporters through emails and handwritten letters. It is important to have these letters personalized, addressing each donor by name. Also let them know how their donations are being used and tell them of the positive impact they’re making. This would make your supporters feel special and they’ll get to know how your organization values their support.

Review and analyze

As is done at the end of every activity, sit and review the results of your mobile giving campaign. Does text-to-give work right for your charity? Did your nonprofit reach its monetary goal? Did you acquire new donors? You can also look for the most common donation amount, this can help you in preparing better for your next fundraising. In case you are using a software to track the results of your campaign, make sure that you thoroughly understand the basic elements of the software. 

You do not have to be a tech guru to execute a mobile giving campaign. All you need is good research, understanding of the process and a strong drive to get you through!

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