Case in point, when Haiti experienced an earthquake back in 2010, the Red Cross managed to raise more than $32 million dollars within a year to help the victims. These efforts, in large part, succeeded due to the nonprofit’s text-to-give campaign, urging people to contribute.

Here are some ways your social impact business can use SMS text message marketing to raise money, spread awareness, and gather support for your cause:

Why Text-To-Give Is a Successful Channel for Gathering Donations

By using text-to-give as a fundraising channel, you’ll be reaching out to people right where their attention is: their phones.

There are multiple reasons why text marketing works so well. For starters, it takes 90 seconds on average to respond to a simple text message in comparison to 90 minutes for emails. Since texts are less formal and more concise, people find it easier to respond. This means that using texts as a fundraising channel will increase the speed at which you collect contributions. 

Texting is also a universal mode of communication, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Older generations might not be online as much as their younger counterparts, but most have access to text messaging. This means that you’ll be attracting donors across all age groups, unlike internet-based means that limit you to those with constant internet connection. 

How to Use SMS Marketing in Your Social Impact Business

It’s clear that text marketing is an effective communication channel, but how can you use it effectively in your social impact business? Here are a few ways to get the most out of your text marketing campaigns.

• Spread the word about your campaign. If your business already has a contact list, launch a marketing campaign that informs them of your next social impact event. If you don’t have a list, start by populating it through your website or social channels. 
• Educate potential donors. People will have questions about how their contributions will impact the recipients. They’ll also have questions on how to donate. Texting your contributors will help you keep them informed through a fast and stress-free communication channel.
• Follow up with contributors. Text is a great channel for reminding past contributors about your ongoing work to encourage ongoing donations.
• Build relationships. Even a simple “thank you” to contributors can go a long way toward turning a one-time donor into a long-term benefactor. Make the message more impactful by sharing real-world examples of your organization’s effects on communities and individuals. By forging a personal connection between contributors and your organization, you can build the groundwork for more sustainable fundraising efforts.

How to Launch a Successful Text-To-Give Campaign

Picking the right strategy is essential for the success of your text-to-give campaign. Here are a few tips to ensure the success of your campaign.

Keep the Process Simple

You’ve already made contributing to your cause easy by choosing text marketing. Unlike other contribution channels that have a learning curve, people are already used to texting, which makes contributing intuitive. 

Why not make the process even simpler? Using keywords can make giving even more frictionless. Choosing a single word that potential donors can text you for more info makes it easy to convince interested parties to contribute, and with less work from your team. Don’t get caught up with making too many keywords or complicating your system with too much detail. Text is useful for quick, digestible pieces of information to keep people engaged and excited about your organization.

Market Your Text-To-Give Campaign

People need to be educated on your text-to-give campaign throughout the different touchpoints with your brand. You should be informing people about what cause they’re supporting, how to contribute, and the impact that their donation will have. For this to be effective, you need to give people plenty of opportunities to learn about your campaign. This is where combining text with other forms of marketing, like content and email marketing, becomes especially useful.

Advertise your campaign by:

• Posting the contribution process and details on your socials and email newsletter. 
• Adding a banner on your site that informs people about the campaign.
• Adding a link to the contribution page on your board member’s email signatures.
• Purchasing Google and Facebook ads to spread the word.
• Asking people to share the campaign with friends and family.
• Sending a press release to major news platforms that your potential donors will be tuning in to.

By embracing this multichannel approach to promote your campaign, more people will hear about it.

Protect Your Donors’ Privacy

Your donors have entrusted you with their inbox. Be sure to only share useful information with them, from details about how to contribute to notes of appreciation for their contributions. 

More importantly, protect their privacy by giving them a hassle-free option to opt out of receiving your messages. Doing this ensures your compliance with privacy laws and protects you from legal issues. It also ensures that users won’t report your business, which will result in your messages being marked as spam by telecom companies. 

Follow Up With Donors

Donors will be interested in knowing the impact their donations had. Sending donors a simple text explaining the impact of their donations is a good way to keep them informed, but there are multiple more ways to communicate this:

• Share a scrolling list of the contributors on your website to celebrate them.
• Create a countdown that showcases how close you are to your contribution goals. Share this countdown on your site, social media, or email newsletter. 
• Create a blog post that contains pictures and videos as social proof detailing the impact of the contributions. 

While a follow-up might not seem essential at first glance, it will be quite impactful when it comes to encouraging future contributions. It makes contributors feel appreciated.

Boost Your Social Impact Business with SMS Text Message Marketing

The easier it is to contribute to your cause, the faster you can reach your contribution goals. Use the strategies above to improve the success of your text-to-give campaign. If you’re looking for a text marketing platform that will make receiving contributions faster and more efficient, sign up for launchimpact.ai today.