Text-to-Give explained

There’s no doubt that mobile fundraising has increased in popularity over the last few years, primarily due to Text-to-Give (also referred to as Text-to-Donate). Text-to-Give lets a supporter contribute to their favorite cause with the stroke of a few keys on their mobile phone. And text donations are not always just small $5 contributions. The average donation size for text fundraisers is $107.

What you may not know is that there are two types of Text-to-Give—one where the money goes through the donor’s phone carrier and the other where the money goes directly to your nonprofit. For the sake of this article, we’ll call them bill-to-carrier and mobile checkout. While being similar at first glance, these two types create very different results for both the donor and the nonprofit. We’ll cover their main differences below.

Bill-to-carrier text donations

With bill-to-carrier text donations, the funds are sent by the donor’s phone carrier. Text-to-Give first came out when our smartphones weren’t as smart, so this was the available method for taking donations by mobile phone at the time. The “Text HAITI to 90999” campaign that the American Red Cross used to solicit donations for Haiti earthquake relief in 2010 is a popular example of this method.

When a supporter texts a keyword to the phone number or short code provided by your nonprofit, their mobile carrier adds the donation amount to their next phone bill and then sends your nonprofit the funds once the supporter pays their phone bill. This means you may have to wait up to 90 days to receive the funds from the mobile carrier! Also, the donation amount is preset with bill-to-carrier, so there’s no way for the donor to give a larger amount or sign up for recurring donations. And most importantly, because the donation is going through your donor’s phone carrier, your nonprofit doesn’t receive any information on who donated. So there’s no way to contact that donor and build a relationship with them, which could increase the likelihood that they will give again.

Mobile Checkout text donations

This version of Text-to-Give offers a much more modern donation experience. Since smartphones can now display mobile responsive web pages, the need for a phone carrier to act as a middle-man for a text donation has become obsolete. With mobile checkout, supporters text a keyword to a phone number or short code. But instead of having a predetermined donation amount added to their phone bill, the supporter receives a custom message with a link to the organization’s fundraising page.

The mobile checkout version comes with several benefits missing from the bill-to-carrier method. Since the supporter is directed to your donation page, they have the flexibility of choosing the amount they want to contribute and will have a more personal interaction with your organization. You can give the option for supporters to make recurring donations. And instead of waiting up to 90 days, your organization receives the funds immediately. This can be reflected in your campaign’s progress in real-time. You’ll also know who’s donating, and you’ll have their contact information so you can steward that relationship. And since this method provides the supporter with a link to a webpage, you can use mobile checkout for things like email list signups, selling tickets to your event, or even volunteer recruitment.

Comparing the two

As you can see from the chart above, there are in fact, many differences between bill-to-carrier and mobile checkout. These two types of Text-to-Give create very different results for both the donor and the nonprofit. The bill-to-carrier method might be the most convenient for the donor since they don’t leave their SMS app, but the cost of this convenience is a huge missed opportunity for your nonprofit to grow your long-term supporter base. This method is best for massive-scale emergency relief efforts or for larger organizations that don’t depend on building relationships with their individual donors. For most nonprofits, the benefits of mobile checkout far outweigh the minor convenience gain with the bill-to-carrier method. Hopefully, this explanation clears up any uncertainty about Text-to-Give so that you can choose what’s best for your organization.