Why and How to use SMS in Your Nonprofit Strategy

Charity and another non-profit activity has high significance for society because this is a possibility to help others. Contemporary charitable, educational, and service organizations need promotion similar to marketing in usual business. Thus, the traditional methods of staying in touch with the audience are suitable for nonprofits. One of them is SMS sending.

Here are some cases when non-profit organizations may need them:

SMS messaging can help nonprofits to inform donors and volunteers. For example, bulk SMS service can send a reminder about donation to all active donors.
Also SMS texting could be used for confirmation of actions. A new potential donor can input a phone number for further contact and then confirm his number via SMS.
Another example of mass SMS is sending thankful messages. A nonprofit can express gratitude to all donors using a bulk SMS message.

So, you already know why you need to send the messages to the target audience. But why should you prefer mobile text sending for donations and other nonprofits to the other channels of communication? Here are some reasons for choosing SMS texting:

Almost all adult humans use cell phones. There are 3,5 billions of mobile owners in the world, according to the Statista latest data.

SMS doesn’t require the Internet connection. That’s why this channel of communication can be used in any region, even in those ones where there are problems with the Internet.

Information is delivered quickly. Just one second, and the notification about your message is shown on the receiver’s mobile phone screen.

Mobile messages have an impressive open rate. It reaches 98%, according to the Campaignmonitor statistics. This is an enormous figure. Just imagine, 9800 receivers out of 10000 recipients from the contact list will read your information. So, SMS is the best way to reach the target audience.

SMS are read by the recipients immediately. On average, it takes only 3 minutes for a person to open the message since it has been delivered. So, mobile texting is the best way for sending the urgent information.

It’s easy to set up the SMS sending process. For example, in Atomic SMS Sender, it’s enough to register, get the Sender ID (if you need it), upload the contact base to the service, insert the text, and start sending.

Four easy steps to start sending text messages using Atomic SMS Sender

How Text Messaging Sender for Nonprofits Work

There are several key things that will help you to understand text message system for non profit organization. Here are the definitions of some terms you will face while learning how to send SMS:

Subscription form. This is the tool that requires to enter a phone number and then to confirm it via SMS in order to get registered. After successful confirmation, the phone number will be added to your list of subscribers.
Unsubscription link. It gives the possibility for the people to remove themselves from the list of subscribers. After successful unsubscription a user will be excluded from the list of recipients.
SMS campaign. This is the whole process from setting up the aims of reaching out to people with SMS and up to clicking the “Send” button.
SMS service. This is an online tool which sends mass SMS. One of them is Atomic SMS Sender. This is an unlimited mass texting service for nonprofits. You can reach as many people as you need because the size of the contact list has no restrictions. Register and try for free.
Personalization. This is adding personal information of the receivers to the text of the messages. Most frequently, this is the name of a recipient.
Call to action. This is a verb or a word combination with a verb that expresses what you want a person to do.

Now you know the theory. But how to launch the first campaign in practice? Let’s look more detailed at how to set up text message sending for fundraising and other nonprofits.

Text Marketing for Non Profits: Quick Start Guide

Nonprofits should maintain connection with supporters, donors, members and staff during their activity. Let’s overview the stages of how to set up text messages sending for donations services and other nonprofits. Create a subscription form on your website. This will let you get the phone numbers of the people who are interested in charity for sending text about donations. Don’t forget about GDPR rules. According to them, you should put an option “I agree to receive SMS” to the registration form. This way you will collect the contacts in a legal way. Also, if you need to send some cold SMS use the other ways to collect phone numbers. For example, web phone number extractor. It will help you in searching for the target audience. Think of the text of the message. There are a lot of causes for sending text messages by nonprofit organizations.

You can:

send out invites using SMS;
make announcements about planned activities;
send short reports about the activities that have already been held;
write thankful messages;
send auto replies that are necessary to inform people that their donations were received.

All these types of SMS will contain different texts. You will see the examples of SMS for nonprofits further in this article. And now we will just remind you of some basic rules of creating the text of an SMS:

Be laconic. The character limit is 160. So, do your best to place all the needed information in this number of characters.
Don’t forget about personalization. Though far from all senders add it to their messages, this is a very important thing. If you call a recipient by name, you will gain more trust.
Add the call to action. If you want a person to do something for you, don’t hint with the help of general sentences. Ask about it directly. Formulate call to action in 1-3 words. For example, donate, check our website, register, come, etc.
Add your contacts. This can be the link to your website or your phone number. Also, if you send an invitation to an event write the address where it will take place.
Insert an opt-out link. If you are trying to engage some new people with the help of an SMS campaign then this is a required element of the text. Let people unsubscribe if they are not interested enough. This way, you will stick to GDPR rules and save your budget on SMS campaigns by getting rid of the people who are not going to commit the target action.

Choose the bulk SMS service. Here are the signs of the perfect tool for text message sending for charity, donations, and other nonprofits:

User-friendly interface. Of course, you don’t want to read the documentation for hours in order to learn how to start your SMS campaign. So, choose the services with the understandable interface.
24/7 support. It is very convenient if customer support works uninterruptedly, so that you can contact it in case you face some difficulties in working with the service. It’s much easier to consult with a specialist than to look for the needed information in FAQ and read it by yourself.
Pricing. These criteria don’t need to be explained. The lower is the price the better (of course if it doesn’t influence the quality in a bad way).

All these signs of a good service are combined in Atomic SMS Sender. Register and get 10 free test messages to try how the features work.

10 Examples of Messages for Nonprofits

Non profit activity usually envisages appealing to an audience with purpose to donate their time, treasure or labour. We provide you with several examples of SMS for nonprofits which show how you can use text messages to communicate with active and potential participants. So, here are the samples of how and why you can use SMS of different types:

Send invitations to your volunteers. For instance:

Hello, John! It will be nice to see you at the meeting of our volunteers. Come tomorrow at 10:00.

The message is short and laconic, but contains all the needed elements: personalization, the description of the event, and call to action. As it is addressed to the active participants it doesn’t contain the opt-out link as all the recipients belong to the target audience.
Send recommendations to your volunteers. For example:

Hello, Jimmy! Weather forecast informs us that tomorrow it will be raining. Thus, take a coat and gloves during our activity tomorrow!

This message shows the care about the organization members. But still, it is written according to the classic rules: with personalization and call to action.
Send thankful messages to your donors. For instance:

Hello, Mr. Brown! We want to express gratitude for your consistent support. Your contribution is very important for us!

This is a good instance of using SMS texting for donations service. It shows that you appreciate contributions. And this way you establish more close contact with the person. So, he/she will more likely make one more contribution.
Send short reports about activity of your nonprofit. Here is the example of using SMS text for donations for nonprofits:

Hello, Mr. Johnson! Thank you for your consistent support. We are glad to inform you that our organization collected 11200 USD this month for the support of orphans.

This example shows how to use a text message for charity donations. Such a message makes a person believe you more. The contributors see that their money really helps those in need. So, they will be more loyal when you ask them to donate once again.
Send announcements about the future events. This is an instance which shows how to inform supporters:

Hello, Mr. Peterson! Our organization will participate in entertainment. Come to watch the performance with our members in the central park tomorrow at 16:00.

The message is short and informative. Also, pay attention that there is the compulsory element of the announcement message: the time, date, and address of the event.
Send warnings about fraud. Here you can see an example which shows how to warn participants.

Hello, Mr. Nikhil! Important information. Our participants received offers of cheap food for dogs. Indeed this is a food for chickens in the packets of dog’s food. Be careful!

This is one more way to care about your members. Sending such texts to volunteers will make them trust you more and be more loyal.
Send apology messages. They are very important in case something went wrong. You have to return the client’s trust. Here is an instance which shows how you can use SMS texting to apologize:

Hello, Mr. Decker! Sorry that our service for donation was not available yesterday. We have already resumed stable work of our website. We appreciate your support.

The message describes the reasons for apologizing, and shows that the sender is sorry about the unpleasant situation.
Send reminders about monthly donations. Motivating people to donate to charity by text messages is rather effective. Here is an example of of texting by donation services:

Hello, Mr. Harish! Thank you for your consistent support. If you have a possibility, please, support us this month. To donate, go to https://example.com

Such a message has more similar structure to the promotional ones than the other types. The only peculiarity is that there is an element that expresses gratitude.
Send confirmation of donations. This is one more instance when charities can use SMS text for donations. It is very important for any person to understand if his/her money came to the right place or not. So, send them the confirmation of this. Adding such text to donate programs increases the trust of contributors. Here is an example of setting up a text to donate campaign:

Hello, Mrs. Douglas! We just received your contribution. Thank you. Your support is very important for us.

This is a very successful example. It combines the confirmation of the transaction with expressing gratitude.
Send confirmation of subscription. This is a kind of test SMS for establishing contact with a new person in a contact link. It informs a person that he/she has just subscribed to the messaging. And at the same time, it gives the chance to unsubscribe if a person has subscribed by mistake. Here is the example of this kind of SMS for non-profits:

Hello, Mrs. Morrison! You have just subscribed to our announcements. Thank you for your interest in our activity. To opt-out click https://example.com
Send propositions to potential supporters. This is one of the most effective outreach methods for nonprofits. And this kind of SMS for non-profits has the most similar structure to the promotional messages. It contains all its classic components: personalization, offer, call to action, and contacts. Here is an example of promoting a charity with SMS:

Hello, Mr. Chester! Do you want to help homeless dogs? We appreciate every dollar. Please, support our asylum for dogs: https://example.com

So, now that everything is clear with setting up text to donate campaigns and other nonprofit activities, get registered on Atomic SMS Sender and be always in touch with your target audience.