With Qgiv's Text Fundraising package (formerly Mobile Suite), you can give donors the option to opt in to text message communications. Donors can subscribe to specific lists by texting a keyword you set in your control panel to the Text-to-Donate number. You can use the outbound message system to provide news and information, remind your donors about events, remind your donors about direct mail appeals, provide donation impact information, and more!
It's important that you employ best practices to get the word out about your campaigns and build your outbound text message subscription lists! It's up to you to market your chosen keyword on social media, your website, on printed materials, etc. so donors can send the keyword to your Text-to-Donate number and be opted in to communication from your organization!
Please note: If you're a former Connect2Give customer, you may be using a different number!
Contents:
- Text Messaging Compliance
- Confirm Shortcodes
- Outbound Text Messaging History
- Set Up an Outbound Message Campaign
- Send Text Messages
- Messages Tab
- Templates Tab
Text Messaging Compliance
When marketing your text messaging campaign, it’s important to remain compliant and include information about your campaign, how often donors can expect to receive messages, and that you'll be using Qgiv by Bloomerang!
To ensure compliance on our end, all outbound SMS messages will begin with “Qgiv:” and will include the phrase “Msg&Data rates may apply.” These elements cannot be changed or removed.
Here's an example of some additional messaging you can include to ensure your supporters understand what they should expect to receive from you:
Text [keyword] to 50155 to sign up for updates. Message frequency may vary. Reply HELP for help or STOP to cancel. Qgiv Terms of Service: qgiv.com/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: qgiv.com/privacy-policy
Confirm Shortcodes
You can confirm which shortcode you're using by checking your control panel and going to your Form Settings and scrolling down to the Text-to-Donate Settings area.
Please note the following limits on Outbound Text Messages and their associated keywords:
- 10 Outbound Text Message keywords overall for your organization
- 2,000 Outbound Text Messages per month for the period you signed up for (example: sign up for a quarter, you get 6,000 messages to use however you want; anything over that is 2.5 cents per message)
- No limits on number of subscribers per contact list
- Only 2,500 subscribers can be uploaded to a list at one time
Outbound Text Messaging History
Nonprofits can check their messaging history to determine how many texts they've sent per billing cycle and keep track of any text overages. From the Send Text Messages menu, click the History tab to view your messaging details.
If your organization exceeds its outbound message limit, you will still be able to send messages. When billed, you'll see a message stating how many messages over the outbound text message limit were sent. Starting November 2020, overages are billed monthly rather than daily after text message limits are exceeded.
On the first of each month, a new history row will be added. In this new row, SMS Credit will show any remaining SMS from the current billing cycle.
Set Up an Outbound Message Campaign
To set up an outbound message campaign, open the Fundraising menu on the left of the dashboard.
From there, you’ll see two options: SMS Management and Send Text Messages.
Select SMS Management first so you can create a list, which is a requirement for setting up an outbound text message campaign.
Once you've created a list or lists, you'll visit this area to view and/or edit them. Creating a list gives you the ability to send tailored text campaign messages to different groups of donors. If you select an existing Contact List, you’ll be able to see and edit the existing list settings and members, as well as import contacts to your list.
Add New Contact List
Click Add New Contact List to make a new list.
You’ll be taken to a screen where you can update your List Settings.
General Settings
When creating a new list, you must assign a List Name and a List Keyword. It’s also helpful to describe the list. For instance, you could describe the criteria of donors added to the list if sending segmented text campaign messages or describe the purpose of the list if the text campaign is for an existing event or was established for a specific, one-time purpose.
Opt-In Settings
From there, you can customize automatic messages that are sent to donors when opting in or out of your contact list. Under Opt-In Settings, the Confirmation Text field displays “You have been opted into this list,” which is the default text donors will receive when they opt in to your campaign messaging for this specific keyword. The donor will receive this after sending the list keyword as a text to your Text-to-Donate number.
If the donor is already subscribed to the Contact List and texts in that Contact List’s keyword again, they’ll receive the message you enter in the Already Subscribed Text field. By default, it reads, “You are already subscribed to this list.”
Opt-Out Settings
The Confirmation Text in the Opt-Out Settings section defaults to read “You have opted out of this list.” This can also be modified and can be up to 136 characters.
For your convenience, you can insert tags into the Opt-in and Opt-Out messages to display the Organization Name and/or List Name so those opting in or out know exactly which organization and list they’re subscribing or unsubscribing to. These tags will appears as follows in your control panel: %example%, but will populate with the list name or organization name when the text is sent to your donors. Tags will NOT populate information if there isn't any information to populate. For example, the message won't show %FirstName% if one was not entered -- it will appear blank. Tags estimate the number of characters that will be populated in the text message when it is sent. For instance, using a tag to insert a contact's first name estimates that six of the available characters will be used to insert a first name. %LastName% estimates ten characters will be used.
For all messages, including Opt-In and Opt-Out messages, compliance text will be added to your messages letting subscribers know messaging and data rates may apply. This compliance message is not editable and reads “Msg&Data rates may apply.”
Make sure you click Save List before navigating away from your List Settings!
Sort Contact Lists
If you create multiple lists, you can use the Sort dropdown to sort them Alphabetically Ascending, Alphabetically Descending, or in a Custom order.
To use custom sorting, select Custom from the dropdown, and then drag and drop the lists into the order you want.
Contact List Import & Members
Once you save your work for a new list, you’ll see two new tabs appear along the top of the screen: Import and Members.
Once you’ve set up your Contact List, you can either manually add contacts for smaller lists, or import a contact list. Clicking Import will allow you to select a file to upload.
It's important to note that donors must have selected to be opted in for communication from your organization before you upload their contact information!
When adding contacts for your list, the only required information is the donor's phone number. You can add their first name, last name, and email if you'd like to have additional personalization options while customizing your outbound messages.
To easily import your data and ensure your fields are populating correctly, download the Example Template by clicking the grey button on the Import tab.
This will download a .csv file with the correct format for your contact list. You can then copy and paste the required and optional information from an exported list from your donor database into the template, and then save the file.
Please note: Phone numbers in the import spreadsheet must contain only numerical characters. If you need help removing additional characters from your list of phone numbers, check out our Excel formatting tips below.
Before saving the template, make sure that the field names haven’t changed from the original list and that the contact data you’ve added are in the correct fields.
After you upload your .csv file, make sure that the Activated column is marked “Opted In” for each contact on your list.
If your Contact List is incorrectly formatted, you’ll receive an error message that states “Your list appears to be empty,” which indicates that your file needs to be corrected and imported again. If you select an incorrect file type the message “[file name] failed to upload” will appear. If you get this second error message, make sure you’ve selected the correct file and that the contact list was saved as a .csv file.
Please note: You can only upload 2,500 contacts at a time using Import Contacts. If you have more contacts to add, that's fine. You'll just need to upload them in increments of 2,500.
Once your contacts are correctly imported into your Contact List, you can view and edit the contacts by clicking Members. Clicking on Members will show you the list of subscribers for this Contact List. You can also add individual members from this tab.
To add a contact, select Add a Contact to the right of Manage Contacts.
Text fields will appear that prompt you to enter the Phone, First Name, Last Name, and Email for the contact you’re adding. Once the information is added, click Save to the right of the information you entered.
The new member will be added to the list and will automatically be opted in. Contacts imported or manually added to the Contact List will not be sent an automated message alerting them they’ve been subscribed to the contact list.
Under Date Added, the date and time the contact was added to the Contact List will be displayed. The list will be sorted by Date Added by default, but you can sort by any of the column heading fields using the sort arrows next to each column title.
If you need to update a contact’s information to correct a misspelling or change the phone number or email address, select Edit to the right of their contact information.
You can change the Phone, First Name, Last Name, and Email fields under Edit. You cannot change the Opted In status or Date Added fields.
To remove a contact from the list, select Delete to the right of Edit. A pop-up asking if you’re sure you want to delete the contact will come up.
You can choose Yes, delete contact, or Cancel. You can’t undo a contact deletion. If you remove a contact by mistake, you’ll have to manually import them into the Contact List again.
Excel Formatting for Phone Numbers
If the phone numbers in your import spreadsheet are formatted with any non-numerical characters, the .csv won’t import them properly.
For example, if you have a spreadsheet with phone numbers formatted like this—(555) 555-5555—you’ll need to remove the parentheses, spaces, and dashes before you copy the numbers into the import file.
You can remove extra characters using Excel in two ways.
Please note: If you’re not comfortable using functions in Excel, the Find & Replace method is recommended.
The first option is to use the Find & Replace feature.
Please note: This technique will remove all instances of these characters from the whole sheet. You may want to copy your phone numbers into a blank sheet before you start removing the characters to avoid removing characters from other fields. Then, paste the values into your import spreadsheet.
Type Ctrl + H to open the Replace dialogue box.
In the Find what field, you’ll input one of the characters you want to replace. Leave the Replace with field blank. That way, you’ll replace the character with “nothing,” effectively deleting it.
Click Replace All to remove all of that character from the sheet.
You’ll need to perform the Replace operation four times, once for each of these characters:
- ( – open parenthesis
- ) – closed parenthesis
- – space (type a single space in the “Find what” field to indicate a space)
- - – dash
Once all the non-numerical characters are removed, you can paste the phone number values into your import spreadsheet.
The second option is to use Excel’s SUBSTITUTE function.
Please note: To avoid messing up the formatting of your import spreadsheet, we recommend applying the SUBSTITUTE function to your phone numbers in a separate spreadsheet and then pasting the resulting values into your import spreadsheet.
Next to your phone numbers column, insert the following function:
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"(",""),")","")," ",""),"-","")
Please note: The cell in the formula (in this case A2) should correspond to the cell that contains the phone number you want to reformat. You may need to adjust the formula to match the layout of your spreadsheet.
The SUBSTITUTE function substitutes a character or string of characters with something else. In this case, the function has been nested inside itself to replace four separate characters with nothing, effectively deleting them.
Apply this function to each cell in the phone numbers column.
You can then copy and paste the resulting phone numbers as Values in your import spreadsheet.
Send Text Messages
Once you’ve created a Contact List, you’re ready to start sending your supporters text messages. Select Send Text Messages within Fundraising in your org-level control panel.
This opens the Outbound Text Messaging interface. You’ll land on the Messages tab by default. This tab displays your Messages and is where you can create new outbound messages. To create a new message, click Create Text Message.
Message Content
This will open the Message Content editing interface.
The first step to creating the campaign is to assign a Message Name.
In the drop-down shown below, you can select an existing text message template if you’re sending an existing message to a new group of donors. Create a new template is the default option selected. If you have no pre-existing templates or want to send a completely new message, leave this option selected to create a new template.
Next, create the Message Content. You have 136 characters for your message. Like the Opt-in and Opt-out messages, the text field can’t be left empty. One major difference between the Outbound Text Messaging content and the Opt-In/Out messages is that there’s an expanded list of tags you can use to personalize outbound messages.
Select Insert Tags to access a drop-down menu of existing tags.
You can still select Organization Name so your recipients know who sent the message. You’ll see additional options that allow you to insert the donor’s contact information. If you select First Name or Last Name, the system will automatically display the contact’s first name or last name information in the text that is sent. You also have the option to insert the contact’s phone number or email address by selecting the Phone Number and Email tags from the drop-down menu. Remember that tags will appear as blank in the message if your donor did not enter the associated information.
Like the Opt-In and Opt-Out messaging, the compliance text, Msg&Data rates may apply, will be sent automatically.
Also, please note that emojis are not supported in outbound messages. If you attempt to send a message that contains an emoji, an error message will appear.
When your message is ready, you can continue or save the message as a template. If you’d like to save it, give your template a name and then select Save Template. This is helpful if you’re creating a new template or want to change the existing template you started composing the message with. Then select Continue at the bottom of the page.
If your messages follow a similar format with only minor language changes, you can create new templates based on your existing template. To do so, click Create Text Message from the Outbound Text Messaging menu. Then, from the Message Content screen select your template from the drop down menu.
The template's text will appear in the Message Content text box. Modify the copy as needed then return to the drop down menu and select Create a new template.
Below your message content, is a new text box where you name your new template. Once you've named your new template click Save Template to make an additional template based on your preexisting message template.
Select Recipients
Once you've finalized your message you’ll now Select Recipients.
For outbound text messages, you can select a single contact list or multiple contact lists to receive your messages. When you click the text box to select contact lists, a drop-down of your contact lists will be made available. Choose a list, and if you want to add additional lists, click the text box again to add another.
If you accidentally add a contact list that shouldn’t receive this message, you can easily remove it. Click the x next to its name to remove the list.
If you want to review the contacts in a list selected to receive your message, select the black arrow to the left of the list name to display the contacts included on that list.
This provides you an opportunity to exclude individuals from receiving a message without removing them from the original Contact List or to find certain individuals across multiple lists. The ability to select individual recipients only applies when the contact lists contain fewer than 2,000 contacts.
Being able to view the individual contacts included in each list allows you to find any duplicate supporters from the recipients list. Duplicate contacts can occur when importing lists or when supporters have opted to receive messages for more than one of your organizational keywords.
When your list of recipients is finalized, select Continue at the bottom of the page.
Schedule Delivery
This takes you to the third step of setting up your campaign, which is to Schedule Delivery of your message.
Your choices are Send it now or you can send At a later date.
If you choose to send at a later date, calendar and time options will appear. Choose the date and time you want the message to send to your recipients.
To finalize your outbound message, select Continue at the bottom.
You’ll see a preview of your message. You can choose to Schedule Message (this will say Send Now if you chose that option earlier), Send Test Message, or Save as Draft so you can come back later. You can also cancel your message altogether.
Your outbound message will send if you chose the Send Now option. If you scheduled a time and date for the message, your message will be automatically sent when that date and time are reached.
Messages Tab
Once you finalize the message details, the message will appear in the table under the Messages tab. Note that your messages cannot be deleted once they’re sent.
The Messages tab of the SMS/Text page will display messages you've created and sent as well as information on when the messages were sent and to whom.
If you have lots of messages, you can use the search bar to search for a specific message or filter by status and date.
You can also use the page controls at the bottom of the screen to skip to another page and to decide how many messages per page to display.
Templates Tab
If you want to create templates for outbound messages or to review the existing message templates for your nonprofit, select the Templates tab.
If you want to add a new template, select Add New Template to the right of Text Message Templates.
Enter a Template Name and create the Message Content. Like creating your campaign message, you have the use of tags to personalize your message with your contacts’ details and the organization name for your nonprofit. To finalize your message, select Add New Template at the bottom of the page.
Your template will be saved and viewable in the Templates table. The table displays the template name and gives a preview of the template’s message. You can edit or delete your templates at any time using the Edit or Delete buttons found on the template list.
If you select Delete, a pop-up message will appear to confirm you want to delete the template.
Please note: You'll see that we track character limit when you're composing your messages and wanted to explain why and how that impacts you and your recipients. SMS concatenation built into most newer phones helps keep messages in one block, but recipients under the hood receive one message for every 160-character block in most cases. So, it may look like one message, but if the person receiving is being billed per text, they will have that count increase by count/160.