Best Text To Give Platforms For Nonprofits
Did you know that text messages have an open rate of 98%? Find out how to best utilize text-to-give for your non-profit organization and increase donations like never before.
What is Text-to-Give?
Approximately 97% of Americans text at least once a day, an astounding figure when considering how important connecting with your donors is for your non-profit.
Text-to-give utilizes the ease and familiarity of a donor's cellphone with the functionality of a donation software to create a seamless giving experience. Donors can easily text a simple keyword (like "give") to the non-profit's donation-specific cell phone number (created by their text-to-give application), and within a few seconds the donor will be able to choose their donation amount and giving frequency, without ever leaving the text conversation. The result: an increase in donations and an all-around smoother process for raising funds for your non-profit.
In today's day and age, people live and breathe on their smartphones. Don't expect people to write checks anymore. Give them the ability to give to your great cause on the device they know and love, and reach more people than ever before. After all, most younger people aren't writing checks any more. A recent study shows that 33% of Gen Z has never written a check to pay a bill, and the tech-savvy generation is all too keen to sending money via popular apps like Venmo or ApplePay.
Getting ahead of the curve and offering a mobile giving platform for easy text-to-give services will help you make the jump into the 21st century, and make it simpler for the current generation to consider giving both now and into the future.
Advantages of Text-to-Give Fundraising
Text-to-give fundraising makes giving faster, easier, and more attractive. When a comprehensive platform for giving is offered, even better. More donation capabilities mean that donors (and recipients) can benefit from a more customized, capable platform with more options for giving and receiving.
1. Convenience
Text-to-give fundraising means that giving can be done anywhere, anytime. Users can use their mobile phones as a donation platform, and organizations can make a donation appeal directly to potential donors via outbound texts. Donors can give entirely within their text-messaging application, or they can access the platform on a short link sent directly to their phones.
2. Simplicity and Speed
The mobile fundraising method is fast and simple. Donors don't have to download anything special to make a gift, and they can respond to giving appeals quickly and efficiently with a couple of outbound text messages, and a custom keyword.
3. Intuitive Use
Making a financial gift via text is intuitive–even for older donors who may be less tech-savvy than younger generations. 61% of people aged 65+ own a smartphone, and adults between the ages of 50-69 are more likely to text than they are to email. Even first-time donors will find it intuitive to make one-time gifts (or recurring gifts) on their mobile phones.
4. Impulse Giving
Mobile giving can increase conversion rates for impulse giving. When giving appeals are made at a special event, text-to-give makes it simple for donors to pull out their phones and immediately respond. This can result in an overall increase in donations, and even increase the likelihood of future donations from the financial partner.
5. Word of Mouth
Finally, mobile giving can increase word of mouth marketing for non-profit organizations that want to increase their fundraising efforts. Creating a simple donation option also makes it a shareable option with friends and family...which can ultimately result in an overall increase in donations.
4 Best Practices for Ramping Up Your Text-To-Give Efforts
Creating a text-to-donate campaign doesn't have to be complicated. But it does require a few best practices to make giving by phone an attractive option.
1. Keep It Simple
A mobile giving campaign should be simple. Don't over-communicate instructions, or make a simple task more complex than it needs to be. Remember that mobile giving is intuitive. Most of your donor base (or potential donor base) will understand the concept of text-to-give donations.
2. Shout It From the Rooftops
Find ways to share your text-to-give campaign from all your channels. You can use social media posts, your website, and even a blog post to talk about your new text-to-give option. Effectively marketing your text-to-give option can expand your donor database, and increase the likelihood of future donations.
3. Make It Easy
Make it easy for potential donors to quickly respond to your appeal for donations. Give them quick, simple instructions that direct them to give right away, and provide a mobile-friendly online donation form.
4. Don't Forget to Follow Up
By collecting donor names and email addresses, you can follow up with potential donors on whether they've responded to your mobile giving campaign. You'll also want to take action to measure and analyze your campaign progress. How are your social media posts, blog articles, and website banners helping to generate a response?
Text-to-Give Fundraising Statistics
The average text donation size is $107. The average response time to a text message is 90 seconds. Adults under the age of 45 send more than 85 text messages a day. And text messages have 45% response rates (compared to only 8% for emails). The stats speak for themselves: A text-to-donate campaign can be an effective, powerful way to increase donor revenue.
Common Questions About Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
How Does Text-to-Give Fundraising Work?
To begin running text-to-give campaigns for your non-profit, you'll want to first choose a text-to-give platform that meets your non-profit's needs. Pay close attention to the key features for the different platforms you discover, and make sure the software you choose has mobile giving that will work for your specific needs. Some excellent choices are Tithe.ly Text Giving, Snowball, and OneCause.
Once you choose your software, your organization will receive a unique text number to distribute. All donors will need to do is message this number a keyword and dollar amount, and the automatic response will be a clickable link for the donor to give directly to the non-profit. The whole process takes only a few seconds and is incredibly easy to teach.
What Kind of Organizations Use Text-to-Give Fundraising?
Non-profits organizations–including churches, foundations, and other charitable organizations–use text-to-give fundraising. While churches may use text-to-give fundraising as a part of a digital discipleship plan, secular non-profits may use text-to-give fundraising as a simple strategy for increasing fundraising revenue.
What types of payments does text-to-give accept?
Text-to-give fundraising makes it easy to make a tax-deductible donation via credit or debit card, and in some cases, direct bank payments or even cryptocurrency. This increases fundraising potential by providing more options for donors.
Is there a cap on text-to-give donation amounts?
There is no cap on text-to-give donation amounts! In some cases, there may be a fee for donation processing.
Is there a way to keep track of mobile donor data?
Depending on the platform you use, you can keep track of mobile donor data for future outreach to donors. A mobile-friendly online donation form will make it simple to collect information such as email addresses, average donation size, and more.
Can Text-to-Give Donors Set Up Recurring Donations?
Yes! A reputable text-to-give application will prompt the donor to select the frequency of their donation right from their phone, whether it be one time, or recurring. This will often result in an increase in mobile donations because donors simply have to select the amount and frequency once, reflect that amount in their personal budget, and the giving is automated from then on.
How Can Nonprofits Incorporate Mobile Fundraising?
Some primary benefits of text-to-give for fundraising efforts include:
• donors give with ease while social distancing
• easily schedule recurring giving, or give one simple time
• streamline tax season for your organization with a modern tool like Tithe.ly Giving
• make fundraising easier by allowing donors to use their mobile phone, debit card/credit card, and receive electronic receipts per transaction, making it easier for them and for your organization during tax season
How to Choose the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
- Who will be using the program?
Donors, organization administrators, and any staff or volunteer that would ever like to help with fundraising events or donor engagement.
- What features do you really need?
The features and functionality needed will all depend on your fundraising goals. Having a fundraising platform that makes the donation process easy for the donor is what's most important. Usually this means a unique phone number for text-to-give messages, and a simple donation option so users can text their donation amount give in real time.
- Will it actually save you time and money?
Yes, absolutely. Fundraising success has so much to do with an organization's fundraising tools. If your non-profit's fundraising campaigns limit donors to giving with cash or check, then expect to be limited to fewer people who have quick access to those old-fashioned payment methods. According to Nonprofit Source's 2018 Giving Statistics report, the average text-to-donate gift is $107. Giving generously is easier for donors when there are less mental blocks and hurdles to overcome, and text-to-give will likely increase the average donation size.
Not to mention, the best online fundraising tools will boast a suite of resources for accounting and tax purposes, making tax season much easier for you and your organization. Digitally track your fundraising progress with easy accounting tools instead of using an archaic mobile donation form that you fill out by hand.
- Where will you be in five to ten years?
Did you know 5 billion people own smart phones worldwide?
Looking into the future will be helpful for your non-profit. Technology is growing more quickly than ever, and preparing now to make donations easy in five to ten years will save you a world of headaches. Eventually, online giving may be the only safe way there is for potential donors to consider donating.
Here are the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits in 2021
Jump to review:
1) Tithe.ly
With Tithe.ly, giving to your favorite non-profit is as easy as sending a text.
With Tithe.ly, you'll get 30 days for free, during which time your organization will receive a unique giving number that your donors can text. In order to begin giving, your donor will simply need to text the word "give".
Once the automated response replies, the donor will have a clickable link to navigate to a mobile-friendly donation page, where they will fill out their card information in real time. They will also be able to choose how to categorize this giving, and whether to make it a one-time donation or an automatically recurring donation.
If your donor wants the application to remember their card information, this will make it easier in the future to give with a simple one-word text. But no pressure, they can choose to type it in manually each time also. Both ways are safe and secure.
If the donor chooses to have their card remembered, then all future donations are as simple as texting a donation amount to the unique giving number.
Made a mistake? All you have to do is text "refund" and the amount your donor gave will be refunded.
When you sign up for Tithe.ly Text Giving, Tithe.ly will instantly generate a text giving number for you, and you’re done! You can locate your text giving number by clicking on "Text Giving" on your Tithe.ly admin site. Your text giving number will be instantly created and ready to accept donations. Text “Give” to your new text giving number to see how it works!
After a 30 day free trial period, your text giving subscription will cost $19.00 per month.
Text messages have an open-rate of 98%, making text-to-give a no brainer to boost engagement.
Please use the below graphic and video to demonstrate to your non-profit how easy text giving is with Tithe.ly.
2) Give By Cell
Give By Cell has the option to use a fundraising thermometer, which is a pretty cool way to show your donors how far away from the goal the fundraiser still is. Peer fundraising is also easier with a thermometer (or any type of meter, really) because you can share with your close friends and family to to help reach the overall goal.
3) The Mobile Fund
The Mobile Fund is a way for mobile donors to tack on a tax-deductible donation directly to their phone bill. This is a good application to use if you prefer that your donors not give with a separate debit card, but instead give directly through their cell phone carrier.
4) Pledge
Pledge allows a connection between a fundraiser and a giving page (sort of like GoFundMe). Instead of donors giving in a text message chat box, the donor will be redirected in the text message to the specific mobile-friendly fundraiser page, where they can see the progress of the fundraiser and then choose how much to give.
5) Qgiv
QGiv has two texting options, one tacks on a bill directly to your cell phone carrier, and the other allows the donor to give directly through a mobile-friendly online donation form.
6) Double the Donation
With Double the Donation's suite of tools, you can track match-giving, analyze fundraising progress, and automate outreach to donors via simple application "triggers".
7) Donr
Donr allows customizable messaging and unlimited keywords, making it another good solution for real time text-to-give fundraising and progress reporting.
Final Thoughts
Running a mobile giving campaign can be a powerful fundraising strategy for any non-profit. But using inbound messaging and outbound messaging for giving and receiving donations relies on using the right software provider. A tool such as Tithe.ly will help non-profits, churches, and charitable organizations reach attainable goals towards fundraising. To learn more about Tithe.ly–and how it can help you pioneer an effective new fundraising effort with mobile giving–click here.
Sign Up for Product Updates
Daniel Berk is the Managing Editor at Tithely. A student and teacher of the Bible, he is a lover of theology, church history, and... TV. Daniel and his wife Courtney reside with their Bernedoodle in Charleston, SC.
What is Text-to-Give?
Approximately 97% of Americans text at least once a day, an astounding figure when considering how important connecting with your donors is for your non-profit.
Text-to-give utilizes the ease and familiarity of a donor's cellphone with the functionality of a donation software to create a seamless giving experience. Donors can easily text a simple keyword (like "give") to the non-profit's donation-specific cell phone number (created by their text-to-give application), and within a few seconds the donor will be able to choose their donation amount and giving frequency, without ever leaving the text conversation. The result: an increase in donations and an all-around smoother process for raising funds for your non-profit.
In today's day and age, people live and breathe on their smartphones. Don't expect people to write checks anymore. Give them the ability to give to your great cause on the device they know and love, and reach more people than ever before. After all, most younger people aren't writing checks any more. A recent study shows that 33% of Gen Z has never written a check to pay a bill, and the tech-savvy generation is all too keen to sending money via popular apps like Venmo or ApplePay.
Getting ahead of the curve and offering a mobile giving platform for easy text-to-give services will help you make the jump into the 21st century, and make it simpler for the current generation to consider giving both now and into the future.
Advantages of Text-to-Give Fundraising
Text-to-give fundraising makes giving faster, easier, and more attractive. When a comprehensive platform for giving is offered, even better. More donation capabilities mean that donors (and recipients) can benefit from a more customized, capable platform with more options for giving and receiving.
1. Convenience
Text-to-give fundraising means that giving can be done anywhere, anytime. Users can use their mobile phones as a donation platform, and organizations can make a donation appeal directly to potential donors via outbound texts. Donors can give entirely within their text-messaging application, or they can access the platform on a short link sent directly to their phones.
2. Simplicity and Speed
The mobile fundraising method is fast and simple. Donors don't have to download anything special to make a gift, and they can respond to giving appeals quickly and efficiently with a couple of outbound text messages, and a custom keyword.
3. Intuitive Use
Making a financial gift via text is intuitive–even for older donors who may be less tech-savvy than younger generations. 61% of people aged 65+ own a smartphone, and adults between the ages of 50-69 are more likely to text than they are to email. Even first-time donors will find it intuitive to make one-time gifts (or recurring gifts) on their mobile phones.
4. Impulse Giving
Mobile giving can increase conversion rates for impulse giving. When giving appeals are made at a special event, text-to-give makes it simple for donors to pull out their phones and immediately respond. This can result in an overall increase in donations, and even increase the likelihood of future donations from the financial partner.
5. Word of Mouth
Finally, mobile giving can increase word of mouth marketing for non-profit organizations that want to increase their fundraising efforts. Creating a simple donation option also makes it a shareable option with friends and family...which can ultimately result in an overall increase in donations.
4 Best Practices for Ramping Up Your Text-To-Give Efforts
Creating a text-to-donate campaign doesn't have to be complicated. But it does require a few best practices to make giving by phone an attractive option.
1. Keep It Simple
A mobile giving campaign should be simple. Don't over-communicate instructions, or make a simple task more complex than it needs to be. Remember that mobile giving is intuitive. Most of your donor base (or potential donor base) will understand the concept of text-to-give donations.
2. Shout It From the Rooftops
Find ways to share your text-to-give campaign from all your channels. You can use social media posts, your website, and even a blog post to talk about your new text-to-give option. Effectively marketing your text-to-give option can expand your donor database, and increase the likelihood of future donations.
3. Make It Easy
Make it easy for potential donors to quickly respond to your appeal for donations. Give them quick, simple instructions that direct them to give right away, and provide a mobile-friendly online donation form.
4. Don't Forget to Follow Up
By collecting donor names and email addresses, you can follow up with potential donors on whether they've responded to your mobile giving campaign. You'll also want to take action to measure and analyze your campaign progress. How are your social media posts, blog articles, and website banners helping to generate a response?
Text-to-Give Fundraising Statistics
The average text donation size is $107. The average response time to a text message is 90 seconds. Adults under the age of 45 send more than 85 text messages a day. And text messages have 45% response rates (compared to only 8% for emails). The stats speak for themselves: A text-to-donate campaign can be an effective, powerful way to increase donor revenue.
Common Questions About Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
How Does Text-to-Give Fundraising Work?
To begin running text-to-give campaigns for your non-profit, you'll want to first choose a text-to-give platform that meets your non-profit's needs. Pay close attention to the key features for the different platforms you discover, and make sure the software you choose has mobile giving that will work for your specific needs. Some excellent choices are Tithe.ly Text Giving, Snowball, and OneCause.
Once you choose your software, your organization will receive a unique text number to distribute. All donors will need to do is message this number a keyword and dollar amount, and the automatic response will be a clickable link for the donor to give directly to the non-profit. The whole process takes only a few seconds and is incredibly easy to teach.
What Kind of Organizations Use Text-to-Give Fundraising?
Non-profits organizations–including churches, foundations, and other charitable organizations–use text-to-give fundraising. While churches may use text-to-give fundraising as a part of a digital discipleship plan, secular non-profits may use text-to-give fundraising as a simple strategy for increasing fundraising revenue.
What types of payments does text-to-give accept?
Text-to-give fundraising makes it easy to make a tax-deductible donation via credit or debit card, and in some cases, direct bank payments or even cryptocurrency. This increases fundraising potential by providing more options for donors.
Is there a cap on text-to-give donation amounts?
There is no cap on text-to-give donation amounts! In some cases, there may be a fee for donation processing.
Is there a way to keep track of mobile donor data?
Depending on the platform you use, you can keep track of mobile donor data for future outreach to donors. A mobile-friendly online donation form will make it simple to collect information such as email addresses, average donation size, and more.
Can Text-to-Give Donors Set Up Recurring Donations?
Yes! A reputable text-to-give application will prompt the donor to select the frequency of their donation right from their phone, whether it be one time, or recurring. This will often result in an increase in mobile donations because donors simply have to select the amount and frequency once, reflect that amount in their personal budget, and the giving is automated from then on.
How Can Nonprofits Incorporate Mobile Fundraising?
Some primary benefits of text-to-give for fundraising efforts include:
• donors give with ease while social distancing
• easily schedule recurring giving, or give one simple time
• streamline tax season for your organization with a modern tool like Tithe.ly Giving
• make fundraising easier by allowing donors to use their mobile phone, debit card/credit card, and receive electronic receipts per transaction, making it easier for them and for your organization during tax season
How to Choose the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
- Who will be using the program?
Donors, organization administrators, and any staff or volunteer that would ever like to help with fundraising events or donor engagement.
- What features do you really need?
The features and functionality needed will all depend on your fundraising goals. Having a fundraising platform that makes the donation process easy for the donor is what's most important. Usually this means a unique phone number for text-to-give messages, and a simple donation option so users can text their donation amount give in real time.
- Will it actually save you time and money?
Yes, absolutely. Fundraising success has so much to do with an organization's fundraising tools. If your non-profit's fundraising campaigns limit donors to giving with cash or check, then expect to be limited to fewer people who have quick access to those old-fashioned payment methods. According to Nonprofit Source's 2018 Giving Statistics report, the average text-to-donate gift is $107. Giving generously is easier for donors when there are less mental blocks and hurdles to overcome, and text-to-give will likely increase the average donation size.
Not to mention, the best online fundraising tools will boast a suite of resources for accounting and tax purposes, making tax season much easier for you and your organization. Digitally track your fundraising progress with easy accounting tools instead of using an archaic mobile donation form that you fill out by hand.
- Where will you be in five to ten years?
Did you know 5 billion people own smart phones worldwide?
Looking into the future will be helpful for your non-profit. Technology is growing more quickly than ever, and preparing now to make donations easy in five to ten years will save you a world of headaches. Eventually, online giving may be the only safe way there is for potential donors to consider donating.
Here are the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits in 2021
Jump to review:
1) Tithe.ly
With Tithe.ly, giving to your favorite non-profit is as easy as sending a text.
With Tithe.ly, you'll get 30 days for free, during which time your organization will receive a unique giving number that your donors can text. In order to begin giving, your donor will simply need to text the word "give".
Once the automated response replies, the donor will have a clickable link to navigate to a mobile-friendly donation page, where they will fill out their card information in real time. They will also be able to choose how to categorize this giving, and whether to make it a one-time donation or an automatically recurring donation.
If your donor wants the application to remember their card information, this will make it easier in the future to give with a simple one-word text. But no pressure, they can choose to type it in manually each time also. Both ways are safe and secure.
If the donor chooses to have their card remembered, then all future donations are as simple as texting a donation amount to the unique giving number.
Made a mistake? All you have to do is text "refund" and the amount your donor gave will be refunded.
When you sign up for Tithe.ly Text Giving, Tithe.ly will instantly generate a text giving number for you, and you’re done! You can locate your text giving number by clicking on "Text Giving" on your Tithe.ly admin site. Your text giving number will be instantly created and ready to accept donations. Text “Give” to your new text giving number to see how it works!
After a 30 day free trial period, your text giving subscription will cost $19.00 per month.
Text messages have an open-rate of 98%, making text-to-give a no brainer to boost engagement.
Please use the below graphic and video to demonstrate to your non-profit how easy text giving is with Tithe.ly.
2) Give By Cell
Give By Cell has the option to use a fundraising thermometer, which is a pretty cool way to show your donors how far away from the goal the fundraiser still is. Peer fundraising is also easier with a thermometer (or any type of meter, really) because you can share with your close friends and family to to help reach the overall goal.
3) The Mobile Fund
The Mobile Fund is a way for mobile donors to tack on a tax-deductible donation directly to their phone bill. This is a good application to use if you prefer that your donors not give with a separate debit card, but instead give directly through their cell phone carrier.
4) Pledge
Pledge allows a connection between a fundraiser and a giving page (sort of like GoFundMe). Instead of donors giving in a text message chat box, the donor will be redirected in the text message to the specific mobile-friendly fundraiser page, where they can see the progress of the fundraiser and then choose how much to give.
5) Qgiv
QGiv has two texting options, one tacks on a bill directly to your cell phone carrier, and the other allows the donor to give directly through a mobile-friendly online donation form.
6) Double the Donation
With Double the Donation's suite of tools, you can track match-giving, analyze fundraising progress, and automate outreach to donors via simple application "triggers".
7) Donr
Donr allows customizable messaging and unlimited keywords, making it another good solution for real time text-to-give fundraising and progress reporting.
Final Thoughts
Running a mobile giving campaign can be a powerful fundraising strategy for any non-profit. But using inbound messaging and outbound messaging for giving and receiving donations relies on using the right software provider. A tool such as Tithe.ly will help non-profits, churches, and charitable organizations reach attainable goals towards fundraising. To learn more about Tithe.ly–and how it can help you pioneer an effective new fundraising effort with mobile giving–click here.
podcast transcript
Daniel Berk is the Managing Editor at Tithely. A student and teacher of the Bible, he is a lover of theology, church history, and... TV. Daniel and his wife Courtney reside with their Bernedoodle in Charleston, SC.
What is Text-to-Give?
Approximately 97% of Americans text at least once a day, an astounding figure when considering how important connecting with your donors is for your non-profit.
Text-to-give utilizes the ease and familiarity of a donor's cellphone with the functionality of a donation software to create a seamless giving experience. Donors can easily text a simple keyword (like "give") to the non-profit's donation-specific cell phone number (created by their text-to-give application), and within a few seconds the donor will be able to choose their donation amount and giving frequency, without ever leaving the text conversation. The result: an increase in donations and an all-around smoother process for raising funds for your non-profit.
In today's day and age, people live and breathe on their smartphones. Don't expect people to write checks anymore. Give them the ability to give to your great cause on the device they know and love, and reach more people than ever before. After all, most younger people aren't writing checks any more. A recent study shows that 33% of Gen Z has never written a check to pay a bill, and the tech-savvy generation is all too keen to sending money via popular apps like Venmo or ApplePay.
Getting ahead of the curve and offering a mobile giving platform for easy text-to-give services will help you make the jump into the 21st century, and make it simpler for the current generation to consider giving both now and into the future.
Advantages of Text-to-Give Fundraising
Text-to-give fundraising makes giving faster, easier, and more attractive. When a comprehensive platform for giving is offered, even better. More donation capabilities mean that donors (and recipients) can benefit from a more customized, capable platform with more options for giving and receiving.
1. Convenience
Text-to-give fundraising means that giving can be done anywhere, anytime. Users can use their mobile phones as a donation platform, and organizations can make a donation appeal directly to potential donors via outbound texts. Donors can give entirely within their text-messaging application, or they can access the platform on a short link sent directly to their phones.
2. Simplicity and Speed
The mobile fundraising method is fast and simple. Donors don't have to download anything special to make a gift, and they can respond to giving appeals quickly and efficiently with a couple of outbound text messages, and a custom keyword.
3. Intuitive Use
Making a financial gift via text is intuitive–even for older donors who may be less tech-savvy than younger generations. 61% of people aged 65+ own a smartphone, and adults between the ages of 50-69 are more likely to text than they are to email. Even first-time donors will find it intuitive to make one-time gifts (or recurring gifts) on their mobile phones.
4. Impulse Giving
Mobile giving can increase conversion rates for impulse giving. When giving appeals are made at a special event, text-to-give makes it simple for donors to pull out their phones and immediately respond. This can result in an overall increase in donations, and even increase the likelihood of future donations from the financial partner.
5. Word of Mouth
Finally, mobile giving can increase word of mouth marketing for non-profit organizations that want to increase their fundraising efforts. Creating a simple donation option also makes it a shareable option with friends and family...which can ultimately result in an overall increase in donations.
4 Best Practices for Ramping Up Your Text-To-Give Efforts
Creating a text-to-donate campaign doesn't have to be complicated. But it does require a few best practices to make giving by phone an attractive option.
1. Keep It Simple
A mobile giving campaign should be simple. Don't over-communicate instructions, or make a simple task more complex than it needs to be. Remember that mobile giving is intuitive. Most of your donor base (or potential donor base) will understand the concept of text-to-give donations.
2. Shout It From the Rooftops
Find ways to share your text-to-give campaign from all your channels. You can use social media posts, your website, and even a blog post to talk about your new text-to-give option. Effectively marketing your text-to-give option can expand your donor database, and increase the likelihood of future donations.
3. Make It Easy
Make it easy for potential donors to quickly respond to your appeal for donations. Give them quick, simple instructions that direct them to give right away, and provide a mobile-friendly online donation form.
4. Don't Forget to Follow Up
By collecting donor names and email addresses, you can follow up with potential donors on whether they've responded to your mobile giving campaign. You'll also want to take action to measure and analyze your campaign progress. How are your social media posts, blog articles, and website banners helping to generate a response?
Text-to-Give Fundraising Statistics
The average text donation size is $107. The average response time to a text message is 90 seconds. Adults under the age of 45 send more than 85 text messages a day. And text messages have 45% response rates (compared to only 8% for emails). The stats speak for themselves: A text-to-donate campaign can be an effective, powerful way to increase donor revenue.
Common Questions About Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
How Does Text-to-Give Fundraising Work?
To begin running text-to-give campaigns for your non-profit, you'll want to first choose a text-to-give platform that meets your non-profit's needs. Pay close attention to the key features for the different platforms you discover, and make sure the software you choose has mobile giving that will work for your specific needs. Some excellent choices are Tithe.ly Text Giving, Snowball, and OneCause.
Once you choose your software, your organization will receive a unique text number to distribute. All donors will need to do is message this number a keyword and dollar amount, and the automatic response will be a clickable link for the donor to give directly to the non-profit. The whole process takes only a few seconds and is incredibly easy to teach.
What Kind of Organizations Use Text-to-Give Fundraising?
Non-profits organizations–including churches, foundations, and other charitable organizations–use text-to-give fundraising. While churches may use text-to-give fundraising as a part of a digital discipleship plan, secular non-profits may use text-to-give fundraising as a simple strategy for increasing fundraising revenue.
What types of payments does text-to-give accept?
Text-to-give fundraising makes it easy to make a tax-deductible donation via credit or debit card, and in some cases, direct bank payments or even cryptocurrency. This increases fundraising potential by providing more options for donors.
Is there a cap on text-to-give donation amounts?
There is no cap on text-to-give donation amounts! In some cases, there may be a fee for donation processing.
Is there a way to keep track of mobile donor data?
Depending on the platform you use, you can keep track of mobile donor data for future outreach to donors. A mobile-friendly online donation form will make it simple to collect information such as email addresses, average donation size, and more.
Can Text-to-Give Donors Set Up Recurring Donations?
Yes! A reputable text-to-give application will prompt the donor to select the frequency of their donation right from their phone, whether it be one time, or recurring. This will often result in an increase in mobile donations because donors simply have to select the amount and frequency once, reflect that amount in their personal budget, and the giving is automated from then on.
How Can Nonprofits Incorporate Mobile Fundraising?
Some primary benefits of text-to-give for fundraising efforts include:
• donors give with ease while social distancing
• easily schedule recurring giving, or give one simple time
• streamline tax season for your organization with a modern tool like Tithe.ly Giving
• make fundraising easier by allowing donors to use their mobile phone, debit card/credit card, and receive electronic receipts per transaction, making it easier for them and for your organization during tax season
How to Choose the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
- Who will be using the program?
Donors, organization administrators, and any staff or volunteer that would ever like to help with fundraising events or donor engagement.
- What features do you really need?
The features and functionality needed will all depend on your fundraising goals. Having a fundraising platform that makes the donation process easy for the donor is what's most important. Usually this means a unique phone number for text-to-give messages, and a simple donation option so users can text their donation amount give in real time.
- Will it actually save you time and money?
Yes, absolutely. Fundraising success has so much to do with an organization's fundraising tools. If your non-profit's fundraising campaigns limit donors to giving with cash or check, then expect to be limited to fewer people who have quick access to those old-fashioned payment methods. According to Nonprofit Source's 2018 Giving Statistics report, the average text-to-donate gift is $107. Giving generously is easier for donors when there are less mental blocks and hurdles to overcome, and text-to-give will likely increase the average donation size.
Not to mention, the best online fundraising tools will boast a suite of resources for accounting and tax purposes, making tax season much easier for you and your organization. Digitally track your fundraising progress with easy accounting tools instead of using an archaic mobile donation form that you fill out by hand.
- Where will you be in five to ten years?
Did you know 5 billion people own smart phones worldwide?
Looking into the future will be helpful for your non-profit. Technology is growing more quickly than ever, and preparing now to make donations easy in five to ten years will save you a world of headaches. Eventually, online giving may be the only safe way there is for potential donors to consider donating.
Here are the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits in 2021
Jump to review:
1) Tithe.ly
With Tithe.ly, giving to your favorite non-profit is as easy as sending a text.
With Tithe.ly, you'll get 30 days for free, during which time your organization will receive a unique giving number that your donors can text. In order to begin giving, your donor will simply need to text the word "give".
Once the automated response replies, the donor will have a clickable link to navigate to a mobile-friendly donation page, where they will fill out their card information in real time. They will also be able to choose how to categorize this giving, and whether to make it a one-time donation or an automatically recurring donation.
If your donor wants the application to remember their card information, this will make it easier in the future to give with a simple one-word text. But no pressure, they can choose to type it in manually each time also. Both ways are safe and secure.
If the donor chooses to have their card remembered, then all future donations are as simple as texting a donation amount to the unique giving number.
Made a mistake? All you have to do is text "refund" and the amount your donor gave will be refunded.
When you sign up for Tithe.ly Text Giving, Tithe.ly will instantly generate a text giving number for you, and you’re done! You can locate your text giving number by clicking on "Text Giving" on your Tithe.ly admin site. Your text giving number will be instantly created and ready to accept donations. Text “Give” to your new text giving number to see how it works!
After a 30 day free trial period, your text giving subscription will cost $19.00 per month.
Text messages have an open-rate of 98%, making text-to-give a no brainer to boost engagement.
Please use the below graphic and video to demonstrate to your non-profit how easy text giving is with Tithe.ly.
2) Give By Cell
Give By Cell has the option to use a fundraising thermometer, which is a pretty cool way to show your donors how far away from the goal the fundraiser still is. Peer fundraising is also easier with a thermometer (or any type of meter, really) because you can share with your close friends and family to to help reach the overall goal.
3) The Mobile Fund
The Mobile Fund is a way for mobile donors to tack on a tax-deductible donation directly to their phone bill. This is a good application to use if you prefer that your donors not give with a separate debit card, but instead give directly through their cell phone carrier.
4) Pledge
Pledge allows a connection between a fundraiser and a giving page (sort of like GoFundMe). Instead of donors giving in a text message chat box, the donor will be redirected in the text message to the specific mobile-friendly fundraiser page, where they can see the progress of the fundraiser and then choose how much to give.
5) Qgiv
QGiv has two texting options, one tacks on a bill directly to your cell phone carrier, and the other allows the donor to give directly through a mobile-friendly online donation form.
6) Double the Donation
With Double the Donation's suite of tools, you can track match-giving, analyze fundraising progress, and automate outreach to donors via simple application "triggers".
7) Donr
Donr allows customizable messaging and unlimited keywords, making it another good solution for real time text-to-give fundraising and progress reporting.
Final Thoughts
Running a mobile giving campaign can be a powerful fundraising strategy for any non-profit. But using inbound messaging and outbound messaging for giving and receiving donations relies on using the right software provider. A tool such as Tithe.ly will help non-profits, churches, and charitable organizations reach attainable goals towards fundraising. To learn more about Tithe.ly–and how it can help you pioneer an effective new fundraising effort with mobile giving–click here.
VIDEO transcript
What is Text-to-Give?
Approximately 97% of Americans text at least once a day, an astounding figure when considering how important connecting with your donors is for your non-profit.
Text-to-give utilizes the ease and familiarity of a donor's cellphone with the functionality of a donation software to create a seamless giving experience. Donors can easily text a simple keyword (like "give") to the non-profit's donation-specific cell phone number (created by their text-to-give application), and within a few seconds the donor will be able to choose their donation amount and giving frequency, without ever leaving the text conversation. The result: an increase in donations and an all-around smoother process for raising funds for your non-profit.
In today's day and age, people live and breathe on their smartphones. Don't expect people to write checks anymore. Give them the ability to give to your great cause on the device they know and love, and reach more people than ever before. After all, most younger people aren't writing checks any more. A recent study shows that 33% of Gen Z has never written a check to pay a bill, and the tech-savvy generation is all too keen to sending money via popular apps like Venmo or ApplePay.
Getting ahead of the curve and offering a mobile giving platform for easy text-to-give services will help you make the jump into the 21st century, and make it simpler for the current generation to consider giving both now and into the future.
Advantages of Text-to-Give Fundraising
Text-to-give fundraising makes giving faster, easier, and more attractive. When a comprehensive platform for giving is offered, even better. More donation capabilities mean that donors (and recipients) can benefit from a more customized, capable platform with more options for giving and receiving.
1. Convenience
Text-to-give fundraising means that giving can be done anywhere, anytime. Users can use their mobile phones as a donation platform, and organizations can make a donation appeal directly to potential donors via outbound texts. Donors can give entirely within their text-messaging application, or they can access the platform on a short link sent directly to their phones.
2. Simplicity and Speed
The mobile fundraising method is fast and simple. Donors don't have to download anything special to make a gift, and they can respond to giving appeals quickly and efficiently with a couple of outbound text messages, and a custom keyword.
3. Intuitive Use
Making a financial gift via text is intuitive–even for older donors who may be less tech-savvy than younger generations. 61% of people aged 65+ own a smartphone, and adults between the ages of 50-69 are more likely to text than they are to email. Even first-time donors will find it intuitive to make one-time gifts (or recurring gifts) on their mobile phones.
4. Impulse Giving
Mobile giving can increase conversion rates for impulse giving. When giving appeals are made at a special event, text-to-give makes it simple for donors to pull out their phones and immediately respond. This can result in an overall increase in donations, and even increase the likelihood of future donations from the financial partner.
5. Word of Mouth
Finally, mobile giving can increase word of mouth marketing for non-profit organizations that want to increase their fundraising efforts. Creating a simple donation option also makes it a shareable option with friends and family...which can ultimately result in an overall increase in donations.
4 Best Practices for Ramping Up Your Text-To-Give Efforts
Creating a text-to-donate campaign doesn't have to be complicated. But it does require a few best practices to make giving by phone an attractive option.
1. Keep It Simple
A mobile giving campaign should be simple. Don't over-communicate instructions, or make a simple task more complex than it needs to be. Remember that mobile giving is intuitive. Most of your donor base (or potential donor base) will understand the concept of text-to-give donations.
2. Shout It From the Rooftops
Find ways to share your text-to-give campaign from all your channels. You can use social media posts, your website, and even a blog post to talk about your new text-to-give option. Effectively marketing your text-to-give option can expand your donor database, and increase the likelihood of future donations.
3. Make It Easy
Make it easy for potential donors to quickly respond to your appeal for donations. Give them quick, simple instructions that direct them to give right away, and provide a mobile-friendly online donation form.
4. Don't Forget to Follow Up
By collecting donor names and email addresses, you can follow up with potential donors on whether they've responded to your mobile giving campaign. You'll also want to take action to measure and analyze your campaign progress. How are your social media posts, blog articles, and website banners helping to generate a response?
Text-to-Give Fundraising Statistics
The average text donation size is $107. The average response time to a text message is 90 seconds. Adults under the age of 45 send more than 85 text messages a day. And text messages have 45% response rates (compared to only 8% for emails). The stats speak for themselves: A text-to-donate campaign can be an effective, powerful way to increase donor revenue.
Common Questions About Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
How Does Text-to-Give Fundraising Work?
To begin running text-to-give campaigns for your non-profit, you'll want to first choose a text-to-give platform that meets your non-profit's needs. Pay close attention to the key features for the different platforms you discover, and make sure the software you choose has mobile giving that will work for your specific needs. Some excellent choices are Tithe.ly Text Giving, Snowball, and OneCause.
Once you choose your software, your organization will receive a unique text number to distribute. All donors will need to do is message this number a keyword and dollar amount, and the automatic response will be a clickable link for the donor to give directly to the non-profit. The whole process takes only a few seconds and is incredibly easy to teach.
What Kind of Organizations Use Text-to-Give Fundraising?
Non-profits organizations–including churches, foundations, and other charitable organizations–use text-to-give fundraising. While churches may use text-to-give fundraising as a part of a digital discipleship plan, secular non-profits may use text-to-give fundraising as a simple strategy for increasing fundraising revenue.
What types of payments does text-to-give accept?
Text-to-give fundraising makes it easy to make a tax-deductible donation via credit or debit card, and in some cases, direct bank payments or even cryptocurrency. This increases fundraising potential by providing more options for donors.
Is there a cap on text-to-give donation amounts?
There is no cap on text-to-give donation amounts! In some cases, there may be a fee for donation processing.
Is there a way to keep track of mobile donor data?
Depending on the platform you use, you can keep track of mobile donor data for future outreach to donors. A mobile-friendly online donation form will make it simple to collect information such as email addresses, average donation size, and more.
Can Text-to-Give Donors Set Up Recurring Donations?
Yes! A reputable text-to-give application will prompt the donor to select the frequency of their donation right from their phone, whether it be one time, or recurring. This will often result in an increase in mobile donations because donors simply have to select the amount and frequency once, reflect that amount in their personal budget, and the giving is automated from then on.
How Can Nonprofits Incorporate Mobile Fundraising?
Some primary benefits of text-to-give for fundraising efforts include:
• donors give with ease while social distancing
• easily schedule recurring giving, or give one simple time
• streamline tax season for your organization with a modern tool like Tithe.ly Giving
• make fundraising easier by allowing donors to use their mobile phone, debit card/credit card, and receive electronic receipts per transaction, making it easier for them and for your organization during tax season
How to Choose the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits:
- Who will be using the program?
Donors, organization administrators, and any staff or volunteer that would ever like to help with fundraising events or donor engagement.
- What features do you really need?
The features and functionality needed will all depend on your fundraising goals. Having a fundraising platform that makes the donation process easy for the donor is what's most important. Usually this means a unique phone number for text-to-give messages, and a simple donation option so users can text their donation amount give in real time.
- Will it actually save you time and money?
Yes, absolutely. Fundraising success has so much to do with an organization's fundraising tools. If your non-profit's fundraising campaigns limit donors to giving with cash or check, then expect to be limited to fewer people who have quick access to those old-fashioned payment methods. According to Nonprofit Source's 2018 Giving Statistics report, the average text-to-donate gift is $107. Giving generously is easier for donors when there are less mental blocks and hurdles to overcome, and text-to-give will likely increase the average donation size.
Not to mention, the best online fundraising tools will boast a suite of resources for accounting and tax purposes, making tax season much easier for you and your organization. Digitally track your fundraising progress with easy accounting tools instead of using an archaic mobile donation form that you fill out by hand.
- Where will you be in five to ten years?
Did you know 5 billion people own smart phones worldwide?
Looking into the future will be helpful for your non-profit. Technology is growing more quickly than ever, and preparing now to make donations easy in five to ten years will save you a world of headaches. Eventually, online giving may be the only safe way there is for potential donors to consider donating.
Here are the Best Text-to-Give Platforms for Nonprofits in 2021
Jump to review:
1) Tithe.ly
With Tithe.ly, giving to your favorite non-profit is as easy as sending a text.
With Tithe.ly, you'll get 30 days for free, during which time your organization will receive a unique giving number that your donors can text. In order to begin giving, your donor will simply need to text the word "give".
Once the automated response replies, the donor will have a clickable link to navigate to a mobile-friendly donation page, where they will fill out their card information in real time. They will also be able to choose how to categorize this giving, and whether to make it a one-time donation or an automatically recurring donation.
If your donor wants the application to remember their card information, this will make it easier in the future to give with a simple one-word text. But no pressure, they can choose to type it in manually each time also. Both ways are safe and secure.
If the donor chooses to have their card remembered, then all future donations are as simple as texting a donation amount to the unique giving number.
Made a mistake? All you have to do is text "refund" and the amount your donor gave will be refunded.
When you sign up for Tithe.ly Text Giving, Tithe.ly will instantly generate a text giving number for you, and you’re done! You can locate your text giving number by clicking on "Text Giving" on your Tithe.ly admin site. Your text giving number will be instantly created and ready to accept donations. Text “Give” to your new text giving number to see how it works!
After a 30 day free trial period, your text giving subscription will cost $19.00 per month.
Text messages have an open-rate of 98%, making text-to-give a no brainer to boost engagement.
Please use the below graphic and video to demonstrate to your non-profit how easy text giving is with Tithe.ly.
2) Give By Cell
Give By Cell has the option to use a fundraising thermometer, which is a pretty cool way to show your donors how far away from the goal the fundraiser still is. Peer fundraising is also easier with a thermometer (or any type of meter, really) because you can share with your close friends and family to to help reach the overall goal.
3) The Mobile Fund
The Mobile Fund is a way for mobile donors to tack on a tax-deductible donation directly to their phone bill. This is a good application to use if you prefer that your donors not give with a separate debit card, but instead give directly through their cell phone carrier.
4) Pledge
Pledge allows a connection between a fundraiser and a giving page (sort of like GoFundMe). Instead of donors giving in a text message chat box, the donor will be redirected in the text message to the specific mobile-friendly fundraiser page, where they can see the progress of the fundraiser and then choose how much to give.
5) Qgiv
QGiv has two texting options, one tacks on a bill directly to your cell phone carrier, and the other allows the donor to give directly through a mobile-friendly online donation form.
6) Double the Donation
With Double the Donation's suite of tools, you can track match-giving, analyze fundraising progress, and automate outreach to donors via simple application "triggers".
7) Donr
Donr allows customizable messaging and unlimited keywords, making it another good solution for real time text-to-give fundraising and progress reporting.
Final Thoughts
Running a mobile giving campaign can be a powerful fundraising strategy for any non-profit. But using inbound messaging and outbound messaging for giving and receiving donations relies on using the right software provider. A tool such as Tithe.ly will help non-profits, churches, and charitable organizations reach attainable goals towards fundraising. To learn more about Tithe.ly–and how it can help you pioneer an effective new fundraising effort with mobile giving–click here.
Sign Up for Product Updates
Daniel Berk is the Managing Editor at Tithely. A student and teacher of the Bible, he is a lover of theology, church history, and... TV. Daniel and his wife Courtney reside with their Bernedoodle in Charleston, SC.
You Might Also Like
More Resources
From increasing giving, managing your congregation, and engaging your church, our collection of resources will keep you up-to-date on the latest church and ministry trends.
Free Resources
