Guide to SMS Marketing for Charities

Simple and affordable, text messaging platforms can help you ask for donations, organize volunteers, express appreciation, and share results, progress, and heart-warming stories.

One of the most significant benefits in using SMS marketing for charities is the ability for you to maintain regular communications with your key audiences. In addition, text marketing platforms allow you to segment your subscriber lists so that your messages are extremely targeted to those you wish to reach.

For example, you may have one segment of your subscriber list dedicated to volunteers. Send text messages when you need to round up help for an event or to address an emergency need. Another segment of your subscriber list may include donors. Regular text messages that share success stories of how your organization, with donors’ financial help, has affected those you serve.

How Charities Can Use Text Marketing

SMS marketing for charities can be used in many ways to further the mission of your organization. In order to serve your charity SMS marketing programs can be employed. Sending regular text messages to those who support your charity with money or time can help build stronger, long-term relationships. Text messages are an easy and affordable way to coordinate and recruit volunteers who are willing to donate their time, talent, or muscle to a project.

Raising money is always a key priority for charities and nonprofit organizations, and SMS marketing is an excellent way to request financial response on a regular basis. For example, if you have donors who want to make monthly contributions, automated reminders can help you ensure those funds arrive on time. Because the cost of sending mass text messages is relatively low compared with other marketing initiatives, SMS marketing for charities can help you reduce and contain costs. Finally, if you rely on the participation of the public in large fundraising events, text marketing is an excellent way to increase attendance. There are numerous charity SMS marketing examples.

Build Stronger Relationships

Relationships are critical to any non-profit business or charitable organization. If you have a loyal, dedicated, and engaged group of donors, volunteers, supporters, and others, you will have the ability to meet the objectives of your charitable organization much more easily.

SMS marketing for charities can help build those relationships simply and affordably. For example, those who donate to charities typically want to know that they are making a positive difference with their financial support. You can easily use regular SMS text messages to share how your organization is reaching those in need. Make those heartwarming stories come alive through MMS marketing, which allows you to incorporate images and video.

Text message marketing for charities can also be used to build relationships with more tangential, yet interested, supporters. Although they may not contribute time or money currently, staying in touch may mean converting them from an observer to a participant down the road.

If your charitable organization serves an audience that regularly uses text messages to communicate, you can also use this channel to reach those in need. For instance, one of many  charity SMS marketing examples may involve community members who need food, housing or medical assistance. They can text a keyword to reach your organization for referrals, assistance, and benefits.

Coordinate and Recruit Volunteers

Coordinating and recruiting volunteers can be a mammoth task for some charitable organizations. By using SMS marketing for charities, you can avoid frustrating experiences such as telephone tag, unanswered emails, or lost snail mail invitations. With open rates exceeding 98 percent, texting is an excellent way to ask for help from those who have opted into your volunteer subscriber list.

Once you have secured volunteers for a particular event, you can use text messages to remind them of the commitments they have made. Text messages are a great way to share location and other details as well as last-minute changes or updates.

If your nonprofit organization provides emergency assistance, using text marketing for charities can help you secure assistance for those you serve at lightning speed.

After an event has concluded, don’t forget to send SMS text messages to all your volunteers to express your gratitude for the time and effort they put into your event to make it a success. Everyone appreciates gratitude. SMS messages are an excellent way to nurture long-term relationships with your volunteers.

Fundraising

Most charitable organizations need to secure a significant amount of funding in order to continue operations. SMS marketing for charities is an excellent, cost-effective way to communicate regularly with your donors.

Since your subscribers must opt into receiving text messages from your charitable organization, they will automatically be more engaged. Whether you conduct a quarterly or annual fundraising drive or request financial assistance for a particular cause, your dedicated subscriber list will be an invaluable resource for your organization. Charity SMS marketing ideas can include creative fundraising campaigns.

Many nonprofit groups have found that asking for a smaller weekly or monthly donation can help provide a steady, reliable stream of income. If this type of financial agreement would be appealing to your financial supporters, such text marketing for charities efforts can be an excellent way to remind your donors when their next donation is due.

Finally, text messages are an excellent way to express your thanks and appreciation to your financial supporters as well as share how their money has positively impacted those you serve. Charity text marketing examples that show gratitude include a simple thank you text, an update on the progress toward a goal, or a heartfelt success story that couldn’t have been possible without donors’ funds.

Reduce Costs

When you consider the cost of traditional marketing campaigns, it’s easy to realize how much money can be spent on promoting your organization. Using SMS marketing for charities is a significantly more affordable way to reach all your target audiences on a regular basis.

This can benefit a charitable organization by ensuring that more resources are spent directly on providing services and not on overhead activities such as marketing. In addition, using a low-cost communication channel such as text message marketing for charities can improve the image of your nonprofit group by illustrating your dedication to cost containment in order to serve more people.

A charity text marketing platform usually requires only a small monthly fee that allows you to send as many text campaigns as you need. The time it takes to craft a brief text message is short, and even if you choose to use MMS marketing, those campaigns  are much less simple and easier to put together than conventional marketing campaigns.

Increase Attendance to Events

If you are a charitable organization that relies on money made from large events, then it’s  critically important to increase attendance of those events to maximum capacity. SMS marketing for charities can help you accomplish that goal by reaching a large group of people quickly.

As you continue to grow your subscriber list, you’ll have a ready-and-waiting audience that has already exhibited support of your organization. A simple text message can reach all interested parties inviting them to attend your next event as well as to share the details with their family and friends. This is only one of many charity text marketing examples.

Although you need to secure express written permission to send marketing texts to your subscriber list, you can certainly ask your supporters to share the information on their own social media feeds.

Be sure to ask for feedback after events as well as express gratitude for their participation.

How to Get Started with Text Message Marketing for Charities

In order to grow your subscriber list, you may need to use some other marketing channels to attract an audience. For example, you may want to invite people to subscribe to your text marketing list through your website, social media platforms, print materials, or other fundraising communications.

Once you have an established set of subscribers, you’re ready to start conducting your SMS campaigns. Simply select the segment of your audience you want to reach, and create your text message within seconds.

After you’ve run a few SMS campaigns, you’ll want to measure the success rate of your charity text marketing. Keep an eye on things like opt in and opt out rates so that you can continue to improve your SMS marketing campaigns in the future. Don’t forget to ask for feedback so that you can deliver what your audience wants to hear.

Charity SMS Marketing Examples

There are many opportunities to use SMS marketing for charities.  Here are a few charity text marketing ideas to get your imagination going:

Request Volunteers – Charity Text Message

Fundraising Request – Charity Text Message

Reminder – Charity Text Message

Thank You – Charity Text Message

Sharing Success – Charity Text Message

Emergencies – Charity Text Message

It’s easy to get started with SMS marketing for charities. Simply go to DialMyCalls, and sign up for an account. You’ll have a free trial so you can experiment with a few SMS campaigns to see how the platform works.