In a recent blog post, we covered the basics of what goes into a successful text-to-donate campaign and the reasons why it’s such a powerful fundraising method in today’s digital age.
Read that post here: The Reasons Why Text-To-Donate Campaigns Are Super Effective In 2019
Today, we dive deeper into four critical things your nonprofit needs to consider before choosing to move forward with a text-to-donate fundraiser. Be mindful of these, and you’re sure to have a killer campaign!
Use a Simple Campaign Keyword
A simple keyword will increase the chance that donors actually make it to your mobile giving page! Make sure your campaign keyword still a real word that’s easy to spell. Why? A keyword that’s difficult to type out (or worse, made-up) is at risk for getting mistyped by your supporters or butchered by autocorrect.
With that being said, you can (and should!) have fun with your keyword and personalize it to your organization’s mission.
Examples of Great Campaign Keywords:
•"GIRLPOWER” for your nonprofit supporting girls’ education
•"PETRUN” for your animal shelter’s 5K fundraiser
•"BREAKFAST” for your homeless shelter’s meals on wheels service
Don’t Overestimate Your Donor Retention Rate
Are text-to-donate campaigns super convenient and user-friendly? Absolutely! Text links accounted for 49% of mobile donations in 2018, and the average donation size for text-to-donate fundraisers was $107. It can be a lucrative fundraising method that’s growing in popularity in recent years.
However, the median retention rate for first-time donors dropped to just 20.2% in 2018 — meaning 4 in 5 of your donors will disappear and never give again. Ouch!
So while text-to-donate campaigns can certainly be a lucrative fundraising method, keep these numbers in mind when calculating your cost-per-acquisition and deciding on your marketing budget for the campaign.
Prioritize A Mobile-Friendly Donation Page
If your supporters are getting to your giving page through a text link, it stands to reason that you would prioritize the mobile view of your donation form! Most modern website builders will by default create a mobile version of your site that might work… nevertheless, you will still want to go over it with a critical eye to ensure your donation form functions smoothly on mobile.
Good news! Donor Engine makes this even easier for you (and your supporters!), because we support text-to-donate right out of the box. Our software features your mobile-friendly giving page and pre-fills the donor’s information so long as the number they texted from already exists in your donor database. This way your donors can complete the giving process faster, which is proven to boost your conversion rate.
Tips to optimize your donation page for mobile:
•Use large text.
•Ensure any clickable elements aren’t too close together.
•Less is more; use ample white space and minimize design elements.
•Keep required fields short and sweet — everything looks longer on a small screen!
•The quicker and easier your form is to complete, the higher your conversion rate.
Don’t Try To Personalize It Too Much
Personalizing your email campaigns and appeal letters is a smart way to go… but with text-to-donate campaigns? Not so much. Unlike email campaigns where you have the ability to segment your audience, the text-to-donate method is considered more of a mass marketing approach. If you try to personalize your messaging, you might end up alienating a large number of potential donors.
Also, the text format may make it tempting to use a casual, fun tone with your supporters — but it’s better to err on the side of professionalism in this case! Too many victims have fallen prey to texting scams disguised as fundraising appeals from their favourite nonprofits. Of course, you always want to maintain a professional tone across all your fundraising initiatives, and that includes text-to-donate campaigns.
