This article explains Kindful's Text to Donate feature. Learn how it works and how to configure it, and see an example.
Overview
Text to Donate is an effective tool for modern fundraisers. With Text to Donate, you can quickly inform your donors in direct response to needs that arise.
How It Works
To use this feature with Kindful online donation tools, you must have one of the following Payment Gateways connected:
- Bloomerang Payments
- Stripe
- Authorize.net
To connect, go to Settings > Fundraising Settings > Payment Gateways. Or, click here.
In Kindful, in the Text to Donate settings, you select a Text to Donate phone number from a list of options. This is a standard, 10-digit US phone number (555-555-5555), which is also supported in some areas outside of the United States (e.g., Canada). International SMS rates can apply with this feature. We recommend choosing a standard number rather than a vanity number.
In the Text to Donate settings, you also enter keywords and response messages. Be sure to set a call-to-action (CTA) in your response message. For example, your CTA might link to a:
- Donation page or plugin
- Crowdfunding team campaign
- Registration form
- Event signup
You can add an unlimited number of keywords and response messages.
Ask donors to text a specific keyword to your Text to Donate phone number. In response, donors receive the response message that you created. The message might be a general update, a link to a donation page, information about a new fundraising event, or something else. Donors follow the prompt in the response message to interact with your organization.
| Note: Text to Donate is different than Text to Give. With Text to Give, donors text to give directly through their phone carrier. Text to Give isn't offered at this time because of high carrier fees and long turnaround times for getting your funds. |
Before You Begin
Before you configure Text to Donate, set up one or more fundraising forms. We recommend the donation plugin, which creates a streamlined donation page that works well for mobile customers. See Creating a Donation Plugin.
Configure
To configure Text to Donate:
- Click Fundraising.
- Click Text to Donate.
- Click Get Started.
- Enter an area code. A list appears that includes 12 phone numbers in that area code.
- Select a phone number. You cannot change this phone number later or add more phone numbers.
- Click Verify. The Text to Donate configuration page opens.
- In the text box below the phone number, search for the name of your fundraising page.
- Select the name of the fundraising page.
- Click Copy URL. In Step 11, you paste this URL into the response message that donors see.
- In the Keyword text box, enter the word that donors should text to the phone number. You can add more than one keyword. For example, you can add keywords for each campaign.
Tip: Keywords are not case sensitive. - In the Response Message text box:
- Enter the message that donors see when they text the phone number.
- Paste the URL that you copied.
- To discard all changes that you made on this page, click Discard Changes.
- To save all changes that you made on this page, click Save.
- To add another keyword, click Add Keyword.
- To delete a keyword, click Delete.
Example
Here's how a typical Text to Donate scenario would look on an iPhone.
First, donors will text the keyword you set up – "GIVE" (for example) – to the number Kindful has provided for your account.
Donors will receive the custom message you created to be sent in response. In this example, we placed a link for them to open.
Their interaction with the link will take them to a destination of your choice. We recommend a donation page. They will be able to select the amount and fill in their payment details from this screen on their mobile device.
After donating, donors will receive the same automatic email receipt you have designated for normal donations to that campaign.
How to Track
You may want to track which donations came in via Text to Donate. There is not a label or other identifying component on these donations, as they are simply normal donations made on a mobile device.
Our recommended path is to go through the process of creating a Donation Plugin. You will create this Plugin, but you will not need to worry about embedding anything onto your website. The final step of the creation process gives you a public facing URL. You can use this URL in your automatic response message when configuring Text to Donate. You can title the plugin whatever you like (we advise something like Text To Donate Link). Once donations come into Kindful via this URL, you can filter "By Plugin: 'plugin_name'" to find all donations linked. This will be your most efficient way to track and filter for these.
Alternately, we advise creating a unique Campaign for this purpose.
You could make a campaign that has a Title of "General Donations - TTG" to easily identify. You could also do something a bit more discreet like titling the Campaign "General Donation" as opposed to "General"/"General Donations".
After you have tracked these donations that come in via Text to Donate, you can always perform a Bulk Edit and move these donations to a singular, previously existing campaign if you choose.
Cost
| Package Description | Cost |
| Up to 5,000 texts per year - Paid Annually | 540.00 USD / Year |
| Up to 5,000 texts per year - Paid Quarterly | 135.00 USD / Quarter |
| Up to 5,000 texts per year - Paid Monthly | 45.00 USD / Month |
| Up to 2,500 texts per year - Paid Annually | 300.00 USD / Year |
| Up to 2,500 texts per year - Paid Quarterly | 75.00 USD / Quarter |
| Up to 2,500 texts per year - Paid Monthly | 25.00 USD / Month |
| Up to 1,000 texts per year - Paid Annually | 180.00 USD / Year |
| Up to 1,000 texts per year - Paid Quarterly | 45.00 USD / Quarter |
| Up to 1,000 texts per year - Paid Monthly | 15.00 USD / Month |
Still have questions?
Feel free to send our support team an email, or you can chat with a representative from the lower left hand corner of your Kindful Admin account.
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