Why Your Nonprofit Should Use Text to Give
Recently, Will Schmitt of Classy posted a blog discussing the limitations of text to give and text to donate services (he distinguishes the two). He quotes a colleague who argues that, though text message response and open rates are high, what’s really important is the conversion rate. The blog does point out some interesting considerations, but it overstates the limitations of text to give.
Schmitt states the following limitations with text to give:
Lack of storytelling
Lack of branding
Lack of donor engagement
Lack of recurring options
Lack of donation amounts
Lack of timely funds
Lack of donor data
In the early days of text to give, yes these may have been limitations. However, in today’s text to give landscape, these 7 items are no longer limitations.
Telling a Story Using Text Blasts
For example, through subsequent text blasts that we offer with our premium packages, our customers can tell a story through successive text messages that build on each other.
Brand Your Donor Experience With Custom Checkout Page
In terms of branding, if customers use us as a payment processor, they get their own, branded checkout landing page. They can add their logo, banner image and custom language and links. For example, check out Women Lead Change’s donation checkout page. They are one of our recent customers:
Set Amount, No Amount, or Multiple Preset Amounts
With some text to give services, you may only donate a set amount — like $5 or $10. However, with ours, you can donate any amount you choose. We also give you the option of setting predetermined amounts.
Recurring Donations on Mobile? Yes!
For a long time, PayPal could not offer recurring donations on mobile. But now they’ve fixed that. Recurring plans are now possible with text to give, for virtually all mobile payment processors.
Quicker Receipt of Funds
Timely fund receipt has historically been an issue, especially for carrier-billed text to give services like the kind the Red Cross uses, which can take anywhere from 90-120 to arrive. However, we don’t do carrier billing. Most customers use PayPal, which deposits funds immediately. Or, customers use us, and we disburse donation checks within 15 business days.
Get Complete Donor Data
Lack of donor data is also no longer an issue. When customers use PayPal, they get the donor info from their PayPal receipt. We embed a unique tracking code into the receipt that enables you to know which donations came from our service. If customers as a payment processor, we can sync up the donor mobile phone number with her contact info. We can also request custom information to give you even more donor data.
As you can see, the traditional limitations with the older text to give services have largely been remedied. Through technological innovation, GMG has made text to give a more viable option for smaller, successful nonprofits.