How nonprofits can use text-to-give to boost year-end giving

Your nonprofit likely engages in various fundraising activities throughout the year, from social media challenges to silent auctions. When the much-anticipated GivingTuesday rolls around, however, it’s all hands on deck to make the most of the year-end giving season and the heightened generosity surrounding it.

Helping your nonprofit stand out among other organizations vying for attention at this time requires a thoughtful strategy and innovative tools to carry it out. By launching a text-to-give campaign, you can make it easy for your team to connect with donors and inspire them to support your mission. Text messaging lets you directly engage your audience with compelling videos, graphics and more.

Explore these text-to-give tips you can start working toward today to secure your year-end fundraising success.

1. Start early

Before your nonprofit can benefit from the convenience and immediacy of text messaging, you must first build a robust list of subscribers to contact. Because of this, it’s important to set up your text-to-give campaign as early as possible—at least two to three months in advance, though you can start engaging donors at any time of the year.

According to Tatango, the text-to-give process involves only a few simple steps:

1. Your nonprofit receives a short code (e.g., 12345) from its text provider
2. Your nonprofit creates a relevant keyword (such as SAVEOURSEAS) and promotes it on platforms like your website and social media
3. Donors text the keyword to your short-code to opt into engaging with your organization and receive a link to your mobile-friendly donation page
4. Donors click the link to donate to your nonprofit

When researching for a text-to-give platform that suits your needs, look for a solution that allows you to segment donors for tailored messaging, integrates with your existing technology tools, and provides real-time reporting to unlock actionable insights into your fundraising performance.

Your provider should have extensive experience in helping nonprofits like yours run successful text-to-give campaigns and understand how to keep you compliant with privacy regulations such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

2. Go beyond fundraising appeals

Your donors are more than their wallets, and it’s your nonprofit’s job to demonstrate this through your interactions with them. When someone opts into receiving your text messages, don’t continually bombard them with donation requests. Instead, engage subscribers with a variety of news and updates to bring them closer to your mission.

For example, your nonprofit can send compelling messages that:

• Invite subscribers to an upcoming event
• Share open volunteering opportunities
• Ask for feedback
• Celebrate special occasions

When your text subscribers feel like partners, rather than ATMs, in your mission, they’re much more likely to become long-time—and even recurring—donors.

3. Boost engagement with MMS

Your donors may spend a lot of time on their phones, but at the same time, they’re often flooded with incoming emails, app notifications and personal texts. With a nonprofit texting platform that supports multimedia messages (MMS), you can add more engaging elements to your content that will be bound to catch your audience’s attention.

Here are a few ideas for incorporating multimedia into your nonprofit’s texts:

• Images: Share images of beneficiaries your organization has helped, volunteers hard at work, past event highlights and physical progress photos (such as the construction of a community garden).
• Videos: Film brief fundraising appeals featuring your leadership team, staff, or beneficiaries. Or, put together a recap video of your latest event to showcase the power of your community.
• Audio: Send audio recordings of short thank-you messages from staff and beneficiaries. You can even share brief stories related to the impact of donations.
• GIFs and emojis: Use relevant GIFs and emojis to make your text messages seem more lively or lighthearted. For example, if you want to add a sense of anticipation to an event reminder, you could add a countdown timer GIF.

By spicing up your text messages, you can better convey your nonprofit’s personality and connect more with younger, tech-savvy donors.

4. Conduct A/B testing

To ensure your text messages resonate with donors at year-end, use your texting platform’s A/B testing capabilities to home in on what appeals to your audience. During an A/B test, you’ll evaluate a single variable in your messages, such as call-to-action (CTA) wording, length or timing. Then, you’ll send different variations to different segments of your audience.

To identify which messages perform best, track metrics such as:

• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Response rate
• Opt-outs
• Average donation amount

After you’ve reviewed the results of your A/B test, identify the most effective characteristics and factors of your messages and apply them to your strategy going forward. You can even use these tests to improve your donation page, social media posts and more.

5. Follow up promptly

The year-end season is a time for both generosity and gratitude. When donors support your nonprofit through text-to-give, they should receive an automated follow-up message thanking them for their contribution. The text should include individual donor details, such as their preferred name and gift amount.

Going above and beyond can make each donor feel individually valued. Consider implementing these recognition strategies:

• Text eCard links to donors. Send thoughtful thank-you cards that donors can access at any time. eCardWidget recommends incorporating your nonprofit’s fonts, colors and images to make them stand out.
• Share a thank-you video from staff or beneficiaries. Follow up text donations with a 30- to 60-second video of staff members or beneficiaries thanking the donor. This type of thank-you feels more personal and genuine since donors can clearly see that it’s coming from a real person.
• Offer a discount on event tickets or merchandise. Offer a small but substantial discount (10-15%, for example) on upcoming event tickets or merchandise in your nonprofit’s online store. This small gesture of appreciation can give donors an extra incentive to stay involved in your mission.

By following up promptly and sincerely, your nonprofit can retain its donors for the long term and make each year-end better than the last.

With creativity and planning, your nonprofit can use text messaging to support any of its goals, from securing more year-end donations to spreading awareness of matching gifts. Stay tuned into your text performance and subscriber feedback to stay on top of your audience’s expectations and build a thriving communication channel you can rely on for years to come.