Getting donors to open email messages, respond to direct mail, or answer the telephone is getting more and more difficult. To cut through the noise, a growing number of nonprofits are integrating text messaging into their fundraising. Groups say that text messages are a good way to cultivate supporters and that people who are active in their mobile programs are more likely to give, either by text or in another channel.
The Chronicle talked with fundraisers and consultants who offered the following tips:
Be creative as you build your list. To start text messaging supporters, you need to collect their mobile phone numbers. An easy first step is to add a new field to your organizations’ forms asking for the number. But you don’t have to stop there.
The thank-you messages Wildlife SOS USA sends to acknowledge donations describe the different ways donors can stay in touch with the organization and asks them if they would like to receive text-message alerts about the group’s animal rescues in India.
Contests are also a big draw. Email blasts that ask supporters to sign up for the text list for a chance to win a Wildlife SOS gift pack usually win several hundred subscribers, according to Nikki Sharp, executive director of the group’s U.S. branch. The most successful incentive the group offered so far was the chance to win a gold pendant one of the elephants had “blessed” by touching it with its trunk, which led to nearly 1,000 signups.
Get the lay of the land. Signing up to receive text messages from a wide variety of nonprofits is a great way to see what different organizations are doing, says Lesley Hostetter, senior vice president at the fundraising consultancy Lautman Maska Neill & Company.
Welcome supporters. It’s good to have at least one or two text messages that people receive automatically when they subscribe to your text list, Hostetter says. A key goal is to get them to take a second action. For example, one of the messages might say how glad the group is they signed up to receive text alerts and that it would like to send them a sticker, which is a way to encourage subscribers to provide their mailing address so the nonprofit can communicate with them that way, too.
Most groups have all their text messages come from the same person. Hostetter advises against using the CEO or executive director. “It’s usually someone who’s not that high up,” she says. “It’s more like a field organizer or a membership person, someone more relatable.”
Write for the medium. Text messaging is a channel where what you send will be seen, says Chrissy Hyre, vice president at Fearless Mobile Strategies. Open rates often top 90 percent so it’s critical to strike the right tone. Texts should be short and engaging, she says.
“That means sending messages that feel like a message you would get from another human,” she says. “It’s not an email that you’ve put into a text message.”
Mercy for Animals sometimes uses abbreviated language in its messages — “Could you help us before tmrw’s deadline?” — just like many people do in their texts to friends and family.
“It would be weird to receive a super formal message via text,” says Liz Quick, the organization’s senior vice president for development.
Remember that not all information belongs in a text. Wildlife SOS uses text messages to keep supporters informed about its rescues, often of abused elephants, and people become attached to the animals whose stories they follow.
One time, Wildlife SOS made the mistake of sending a text message to let supporters know one of the elephants had died, says Sharp, the executive director. The group heard back from people who got the news while they were driving or at work. “A text message sometimes sends a message to people when they’re not ready to hear that kind of information,” she says. “It interrupts what they’re doing.”
If an update has the potential to be upsetting, it’s better to send that information in an email or on social media where it won’t be as jarring, Sharp advises.
Be ready to respond. If your goal is to talk to supporters one-on-one, asking questions is a great way to draw people in, Hyre says. “The main thing that we want to try to do here is foster conversation,” she says.
When texting is done well, the number of people who respond is considerable. To keep the exchanges going, nonprofits need to make sure they have enough people to answer incoming texts, says Shea Morrissey, senior director of client success and product strategy at Hustle, a text-messaging company.
“If you wait longer than 20 minutes to respond to a text, your engagement rate will begin to drop pretty dramatically,” Morrissey says. “So you want to get back to people pretty quickly.”
Nonprofits take different approaches to keep up with messages during campaigns. Some recruit staff members from throughout the organization to talk with supporters. Others recruit volunteers or even contract with a contact center.
Don’t be afraid to use emoji. The goal for a nonprofit text is that it seems like a message from a well-informed friend — and these days a lot of friends are using emoji. When Hustle analyzed its client data, it found that the number of people who responded was 10 percent higher for texts that included emoji.
“It adds a little fun,” Morrissey says. “Some people get really creative. A lot of animal-rights organizations and environmental organizations go wild with it, which their donors love.”
Nicole Wallace has been reporting on nonprofits for the Chronicle for more than 20 years. Her areas of expertise include data, technology, fundraising, and innovation. She recently wrote about leaders of color and how they feel about being underestimated and breaking barriers.
