The 2010 text-to-give campaign for Haiti is one for the history books. After a major earthquake struck Haiti, up to 3 million people were killed, injured or displaced. And in the wake of that disaster, a notable text message campaign was launched by the Red Cross.
The donate-by-text program (donating $10 at a time by texting the word “HAITI” to a short code) was heavily promoted by the U.S. State Department and mainstream media. Relief agencies collected an astounding $43 million in donations and each donation appeared as a charge on donors’ phone bills.
The down-side
That’s an incredible sum, and there have been many more successful text-to-give campaigns since then. But what you DON’T often hear about is the major drawbacks to such campaigns through carriers:
For example, carriers wait until customers pay their phone bills, which can delay nonprofits receiving their donor dollars for up to 90 days.
Mobile phone companies usually charge high fees for these campaigns–often these fees are 20 to 50% (making a $5 donation, for example, is now really worth $2.50).
Sometimes, the carrier will restrict the amount of times a donor can give (in the Haiti case, people were restricted to giving only $10 up to 3 times a month, limiting the total amount to be donated to $30). Many people would donate significantly more money if given the opportunity to do so easily.
Not only is it a lengthy process to set up (often ranging 4-6 weeks), many carriers also require that the nonprofit have fundraising revenues greater than $500,000, which restricts smaller nonprofits or less popular campaigns from even using the text-to-give method.
To make matters worse, nonprofits do not receive any reporting/donor data from the carriers.
*Sources cited below.
The @Pay Solution
@Pay’s text-to-give solution bypasses the carrier and solves all of these problems. Nonprofits of any size can be set up in a matter of hours; nonprofits keep the money they raise; nonprofits receive much more of their money in their merchant account the same day; and best of all, nonprofits can integrate their donation data with their donor management system. Bonus? Because @Pay’s patented technology receives donations via email, nonprofits can now grow their email list as well.
How does it work?
Nonprofits are given a long code which donors can text a “trigger word” to, such as “Give.” They immediately receive a link back in their text message which will take them to a mobile web site with @Pay buttons to select from. Nonprofits can decide the donation amounts for these buttons. Once they click that, a “Payment email” pops up on their smartphone prompting them to press “Send” to confirm the donation. Once they press “Send” the donation is processed and they receive a receipt in their inbox immediately. (If they are a first-time donor, they will be prompted to fill out a short, standard payment information page).
We also offer an “Instant Donate” option, where donors can give a set amount in just two clicks. Both options can arrive in the same text message so a donor can decide to give the set amount, or to click the link to select a different amount.
Donors can give in just 2 or 3 clicks!
With the rise of mobile, text messages have become a terrific way to communicate with donors as they boast a 95% open rate or better. Nine in every ten American adults own a mobile phone and may be able to receive a text or short message service (SMS) message, including an incredible 98 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 and 97 percent of folks age 30 to 49, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2014 Mobile Technology Fact Sheet. Furthermore, about 94 percent of SMS messages are read within 5 minutes or less, again according to several sources, possibly making the medium better for getting a quick response from customers.
Providing a Text-to-Give donation option for a fundraising campaign is the epitome of offering the ease of technology at your donors’ fingertips. Now, nonprofits can finally collect their donations and data without the traditional hassles.
Try it yourself!
You can try a demo of @Pay’s Text-to-Give solution by texting the word “Give” to 505-492-0917.
You’ll immediately receive a text in return prompting you to Donate $25 at {mobile link} OR visit {mobile link} to donate a different amount. Choose and click one of those links.
The first link (an “Instant Donate” example), will pop open a Donate Email, asking you to simply press “Send” to confirm your donation. (Remember this is just a demo! No real transaction will take place).
The second link will take you to a customized mobile web site, where you can select the amount you would like to donate. Click the amount you would like to give. A Donate Email will pop up asking you to simply press “Send” to confirm your donation.
Both demos will also give you a (demo) receipt in your inbox, confirming your (demo) donation.
Click here to try our other demos.
More from @Pay:
@Pay also offers 2-click donations from email, mobile web and QR codes. Make donating easy! @Pay is proud to be a Preferred Technology Partner of Blackbaud. If you are an existing Blackbaud customer, look for us in their Marketplace!
Sources for article:
https://revolutionmessaging.com/2011/08/02/the-drawbacks-of-text-to-donate/
http://badgergroup.com/mobile-marketing-for-nonprofits-is-more-than-text-to-give/
https://www.2donate.com/blog/online-donations-go-mobile-with-text-to-donate-services.php
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/72255-Using-Ecommerce-Text-Messages-in-2014