What is Text to Give and How Does It Work?

Everybody has a phone these days, which means your nonprofit supporters text. Tapping into text donations with a text-to-give platform is an ideal way to reach people where they are and boost your fundraising efforts.

What is text-to-donate?: It’s a mobile fundraising method that allows supporters to give via text message. Donors simply text a keyword or phrase to a short phone number—often referred to as the text to give number—and are sent a link to an online donation form to complete their donation to support a cause. The process is designed to be fast and user-friendly, allowing donors to give in just a few clicks. Sharing your text to give number and campaign ID across all your marketing channels is essential to maximize donor engagement.

The Biggest Text-to-Give Example

Text donations first came into the spotlight in 2010 after the Haiti earthquake when relief organizations, like the American Red Cross, wanted a fast and simple way to collect donations to help those impacted by this tragedy. The red cross's relief efforts during this time are a prime example of successful text-to-give fundraising, demonstrating how mobile giving can mobilize support quickly in times of crisis.

In that text-to-give campaign, for example, the American Red Cross raised over $43 million. The average donation size for text-to-give campaigns is around $107, according to industry statistics, highlighting the effectiveness of this method in driving significant donor contributions. Does text-to-give work? Oh yeah!

Text-to-Give vs. Text-to-Donate

What’s the difference between text-to-give and text-to-donate? They are two different functionalities for mobile donations. Technically, text-to-give is run through mobile carriers and shows up on your cell phone bill (and you don’t get their donor information), while text-to-donate involves sending a text message and donors completing the donation process with an online donation on your website. We go into more detail on the difference.

When using text-to-donate, it's important to collect and enter billing addresses into your donor database or CRM for better donor management, compliance, and improved outreach segmentation. Choosing a PCI-compliant service provider is essential to ensure secure text-to-give transactions and protect donor data. Be aware that transaction fees may apply to each donation, affecting the net amount your organization receives. Additionally, some platforms may charge a setup fee as a one-time onboarding cost.

Bottomline: But now the old Red Cross text-to-give service happens pretty rarely. Most organizations use text to donate with online payment processing. These days the terms are often used interchangeably.

Text to Donate for Your Nonprofit

It doesn’t matter if you run a small homeless ministry, a regional campaign, or a global organization, all that is required to generate a text-to-donate gift to fund your mission is a keyword, a short code number like 24365, and a link to a mobile-friendly donation page. Donors are directed to a mobile donation page or mobile giving form, which should be mobile responsive to ensure a seamless experience across all devices. These mobile responsive donation pages can be customized with your organization’s logo, donation fields, and fundraising thermometers to enhance the donor experience. Donors can give using their credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, or the payment method of their choice.

Some platforms also allow donors to enter a custom code via SMS to make a secure, mobile-friendly donation. You can integrate text-to-give features into your existing forms, enhancing functionality without the need to rebuild them from scratch. Text-to-give enables donors to give quickly and conveniently, making it easy for donors to give and supporting your organization’s efforts to expand your supporter base.

It’s a simple way to capture donations with the least amount of effort on the part of your donors. Period. All they need is a mobile phone. And people carry their smartphones everywhere.

Text-to-donate campaigns work:

• If that were not convincing enough, according to Nonprofits Source, mobile giving donations have increased 205% over the last year
• This study shows that 51% of people who visit a nonprofit’s website access it on their mobile device.
• 25% of site visitors complete the donation form on their cell phones.

Put mildly, it’s an incredible opportunity for causes of all shapes and sizes to engage website visitors, and you should consider mobile as a means to acquire new donors.

Benefits of Text Donations

When you set up text donations you’re only going to boost your nonprofit fundraising. With texting’s incredible stats, implementing these options is a big win. Social media posts are often never seen and direct mail is ignored. Yes, you do need to use multiple marketing channels, but a text to donate platform can maximize your effectiveness.

• Comprehensive fundraising software and fundraising tools can integrate text-to-give with other fundraising methods, including mobile giving software for virtual events, charity auctions, and live-streaming, making it easier to engage supporters and raise more money.
• Having a clear fundraising plan that incorporates text-to-give, along with practical fundraising tips, helps optimize your campaigns and ensures your fundraising needs are met, especially during urgent campaigns or disaster relief.
• Text-to-give is a powerful way to address urgent fundraising needs and help nonprofits raise more money by making it easy for donors to give instantly from their mobile devices.
• Use marketing tools such as direct mail, email, and social media to promote your organization's number and text-to-give campaigns. Always prominently display your organization's number in all marketing materials to encourage engagement and donations.
• Sending outbound messages and text message reminders is highly effective for boosting engagement and donations, as recipients read texts quickly and are more likely to respond.
• Text-to-give helps engage supporters, encourage supporters to donate, and retain supporters through ongoing, interactive communication and targeted campaigns.
• These platforms keep donors involved in the giving process and can prompt supporters to submit matching gift requests, maximizing the impact of each donation.
• Text-to-give is effective for educational institutions, helping schools and colleges run successful fundraising campaigns, and also helps new donors discover nonprofits they may not have known about before.
• With a simple, step by step approach, online giving through text messaging is easy and interactive. It’s as quick as telling people to text a custom keyword to 24365. A link will take them to your online donation page to complete their gift. Done!
• Donor data: Text giving means you can collect donors’ names and other important contact information for your customer relationship management (CRM) system. That can help with future follow up and other giving options.
• Own your list: Unlike social media, text-to-give software puts you in control of your list. You can use segmentation for outreach to specific groups and maximize your contact data. You never know when social media sites will change the rules or revoke access—your mobile giving platform shouldn’t be at someone else’s whims.
• Events: Texting can work great for live events, whether it’s a gala or livestream event. The keyword and shortcode combo is easy to share from the stage, in audio, or on the screen. It quickly directors supporters to your fundraising page to complete your call to action.
• Share: It’s easy to boost peer fundraising with simple ways to share and offer crowdfunding.
• Extras: Depending on your text-to-give provider, you can access additional features such as a fundraising thermometer, ringless voicemail, and peer-to-peer texting. It makes for a complete giving experience.

Examples of Text to Give Fundraising

So what do text-to-donate messages actually look like? Here are examples of how three nonprofit organizations are making text to give work. Text to give platforms make it easy for donors to contribute during in person interactions at fundraising events, allowing organizations to capture the energy and immediacy of live gatherings.

Denver Rescue Mission: “We knew right away it would be a great tool for our turkey drive,” said Alexxa Gagner, the senior director of marketing and communications for the Denver Rescue Mission. “Which is really the main way we have used the text campaign and the way we’ve used it the best way to get people involved.” Donors simply use their mobile phones to send a text, making the process accessible and convenient for everyone. Read more about how the Denver Rescue Mission uses texting.

HEADstrong Foundation: “We try to be on the cutting edge,” said Jeff Baxter, vice president of community engagement for the HEADstrong Foundation. “We are small, but we want to be agile and really be able to communicate with our supporters wherever they are. Being able to dial right in to hundreds even thousands of people with one click of a mouse with a text is really powerful.” Supporters can participate instantly using their mobile phones, thanks to the flexibility of text to give platforms. Read more about how HEADstrong Foundation is connecting with text messaging.

My360Project: “We were raising money for our shoe die machines in Africa and we needed to raise $5,000,” said Darryl Carnley, the founder and CEO of My360Project. “Out of the three texts we did over a period of time we raised most of the money. And not from people who are normal givers.” Donors could easily give using their mobile phones, demonstrating how text to give platforms streamline the donation process for new and existing supporters. Learn more about how My360Project uses text to give.

Tracking Campaign Progress

Launching a text to give campaign is just the beginning—but here's what separates organizations that actually move the needle from those that just hope for the best: tracking your campaign progress with intention and precision. Too many nonprofits pour their hearts into fundraising efforts, yet they're flying blind when it comes to understanding what's truly working. It's not a passion problem. It's not a mission problem. It's a method problem.

You need to monitor the total donation amount raised, the number of donors engaged, and how far your campaign is reaching—but not just for the sake of collecting data. These insights are your roadmap to multiplying impact. When you spot that spike in donations after a specific text message or during a fundraising event, that's not just a happy accident—that's intelligence you can act on. That's your supporters telling you exactly how they want to be reached and when they're ready to give.

Real-time campaign analysis isn't just nice to have—it's absolutely essential for any organization serious about maximizing their fundraising potential. With the right text to give platform, you're not just accessing reports and dashboards; you're unlocking the power to make data-driven decisions that honor your supporters' time and amplify their generosity. This empowers your team to celebrate meaningful wins, identify genuine opportunities, and keep your text to give fundraising campaign on track to not just meet your goals—but shatter them entirely.

Boost Your Fundraising Efforts

Your nonprofit organization needs a streamlined fundraising solution that helps you connect and accept text-to-give donations, including secure mobile donation options. Rally is here to help.

• Fundraising events: Boost donor engagement by connecting at your events, whether it’s in-person or via livestream. Your event fundraising strategy needs to include a mobile initiative and offer mobile donation as part of your giving options.
• Connection: Text-to-donate helps you collect donor data for ongoing follow-up. Donors text and they want to hear from you. Use text messaging to stay in touch. That’s a simple way to boost donation amounts and recurring donations to reach your fundraising goals. Text to give secure platforms like Rally use PCI compliance and advanced security measures to protect your donors’ sensitive information.
• Promotion: Announce your new text-to-give campaign with a press release, including your campaign details and text-to-give number, to maximize outreach and encourage supporters to share.
• More help: We’ve got workflows, pre-written templates, FAQs, office hours for real-time and user-friendly support, integrations with fundraising platforms, and more.

Let’s. We’re happy to follow-up with a phone call to talk pricing or answer any SMS text-to-give fundraising questions you’ve got, including how to set up text donations. It’s time your nonprofit had a fundraising tool that truly helped you connect with people where they are—on their mobile devices.

If you are interested in learning how text-to-donate can help you raise money fast, book a demo here, and a member of our team will walk through one of your upcoming fundraising campaigns.