Let’s talk how to do text message donations. Hosts James Martin and Jack Bobin explain the difference between text to give and text to donate. The terms can be interchangeable these days, but technically text to give is a donation process directly through the carrier that’s deducted from a donor’s cell phone bill, while text to donate sends a link to your donation form via text message and the donor completes the donation on your website. They explore the history, why it’s changed (security!), and how using your existing donation form is ultimately better for your nonprofits—higher donation amounts, data for follow up, and more.

What You’ll Learn

• The difference between text to give and text to donate.
• The actual text-to-give process, which is rare, can be expensive and limiting.
• Most nonprofits use text to donate, which goes through your online donation form.
• That online donation process is more secure.
• Using an existing donation process also means nonprofits get donor data.
• Reducing barriers to donation increases overall contributions.
• QR codes are great for live events, until WiFi doesn’t work—then texting is critical.

Resources

• Text-to-Give vs. Text-to-Donate
• $600+ Average Donation

Quotables

• “People are realizing that we got to pick up our base foundational fundraising.”
• “A foster care place… they told me they have 13 kids in their office, sleeping in the conference room because they didn't have foster homes for these kids. And so our hope is that they can use our tools to go find and discover new volunteers and people that would gladly be foster parents. We talk business here and we talk about technology, but at the end of the day, that's what we're doing here and that's what we love.”
• “We're taking technology—ones and zeros—and meeting people in the moment who are doing the work. Our customers and those who are listening, we're helping them really create this perfect intersection between what wasn't and what now is. And if that results in kids getting into homes and food shelters being full, folks off the streets, people in rehab, the needy being cared for—man, I tell you what, that's a fantastic place to be.”
• “Everybody has a donation page.”
• “I'll meet with somebody and I'll go create a text program for them to show them what text to donate looks like. I do it myself and it takes me less than 10 minutes because you know what I do? I simply copy their call to action and their web address.”
• “When you reduce the barriers to someone donating to your nonprofit, your donations go up.”
• “Here's my promise to folks—it's not complicated. We're talking one more path to your donation form.”

Skip to What You Want to Hear

• 00:00 - Introduction to Text to Give and Text to Donate
• 05:28 - Understanding Text to Give
• 13:11 - The Evolution of Text to Donate
• 22:32 - Text to Pledge and Thermometers
• 26:53 - Future of Donation Technologies

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