How To Raise Money As A Nonprofit

Text Donations

What Are They?

As we now know, an effective fundraising campaign engages your donors and effectively meets their needs.

A good example of this is text donations. These days, 96% of Americans own a mobile phone of some kind, bringing fundraising to donors' hands no matter where they are. Made up of both text-to-give or text-to-donate efforts, text donations are contributions that supporters can make with a simple text from their mobile phone.

What is the difference between text-to-give and text-to-donate?

Text-to-give is a carrier-based mobile fundraising method. Nonprofits simply set up a short code (shortened phone number), a campaign keyword, and a predetermined donation amount. Whenever donors are inspired, they simply text the keyword to the short code and the donation amount is automatically billed to their cell phone bill.

When using text-to-donate , nonprofits set up a specific number as well as a campaign keyword. Donors then text the keyword and amount to the nonprofit's specific number. Then, they're sent the link to the nonprofit's mobile-responsive donation page. Once a donor fills out their info on this form, they never have to fill it in again. They just text the keyword and donation amount to give!

Text fundraising can be used to supplement any effort but is especially effective during urgent fundraising efforts. Because it enables people to give quickly and conveniently, it's great for needs that are more immediate. For example, many successful text donation campaigns were created in response to a national disaster, like the Red Cross text donation campaign for Haiti .

How to Get Started

First, you'll need to find a great text donation provider .

To truly perfect your nonprofit fundraising strategy, you need reliable and capable tools to support you. Ensure you find a dedicated and comprehensive solution to help you raise money via text message.

Then, you have to determine how you're going to implement text donations.

Will you only use it at fundraising events? Will it become an integral part of your overall nonprofit fundraising strategy?

Whatever you choose, you'll then need to promote text giving to your donors along with easy-to-follow instructions. That means posting your text fundraising number and guidelines on your website, social media accounts, newsletters, and direct mail offerings.

Best Practices

#1: Pick the right provider. Some providers only offer text-to-give or text-to-donate, and some offer both. Consider which solution is right for your efforts.

#2: Choose a memorable keyword. If you want donors to give over and over again, make your keyword easy to remember and type. Try to avoid words that are overly complicated and might lead to typos.

#3: Properly promote text fundraising . Because it's a fairly new giving avenue, many people might not immediately think of texting as a viable fundraising method. Promote your text giving option so that donors know how easy it is to give to your cause.

Check out how Qgiv's platform can teach you more about text fundraising.