Maximize Your Social Media Fundraising With Text-to-Donate

In 2022, it was recorded that  70% of U.S. adults use social media, either online or on their cell phone. With such a large majority of people on social media, it’s crucial your organization is maximizing its posts and reach.  

Text-to-donate can be an incredibly effective tool when promoting fundraising on social media. Text-to-donate allows a donor to text in a keyword from their mobile device and receive a donation form directly to their cell phone where they can donate.  

Getting donation forms to your donors as efficiently as possible makes it easy for them to donate. There are many best practices to consider when you are promoting text-to-donate keywords through social media channels and tools. Let’s examine a few of the best practices: 

Social Media Posts

Facebook

Posts on your social media platforms are one of the first opportunities that you have to share your text-to-donate keyword. These let you tell your organization’s story and demonstrate the impact of your work. 

When posting your call to action through Facebook and Twitter posts, be sure to include: 

1. The link to your donation form
2. Your text-to-donate keyword and shortcode
3. A graphic or video including your text-to-donate keyword

By including both the link and keyword, you’re giving your donors options in which they can choose the easiest way for them to donate. Plus, graphics and videos are a fun way to create engaging content. 

Instagram

Where Instagram tells your organization’s story in a visual way, it’s not as easy to share outside links. While you can’t have a link in your post, you can have a link in your bio.  

Services like Linktree let your organization centralize all their links in on one webpage that Instagram users can easily navigate to your donation form. 

Text-to-Donate is also a great solution for this scenario. Within the graphic or description of your Instagram post, you can include your Text-to-Donate keyword so that donors can have your organization’s donation form sent to them directly. 

Live Streaming

Live Streaming gives your organization the opportunity to share experiences with your followers online and allows online supporters the chance to participate virtually. The next time you have a fundraising gala, press conference, or other in-person event, consider streaming the event through Facebook Live to involve your social media following.  

Text-to-donate is extremely effective with a verbal call to action, and Facebook or Instagram Live gives your organization room for this. While streaming, consider making a live call to action using your organization’s keyword. This way, viewers can participate immediately by texting in.  

Instagram and Facebook Stories

Stories are brief videos that can be posted to your organization’s page that disappear after 24 hours. They provide a great opportunity to give a “behind the scenes” look into your organization’s day to day operations or to highlight special events or milestones.  

Additionally, by using either the Instagram or Facebook Stories feature, your organization’s content is more likely to be seen by your followers.  

Because stories are more personal and direct to your audience, they present the perfect opportunity for a call to action. As with some of the other tools, this could be a place where your organization makes a verbal call to action. Even something as simple as your Executive Director or Founder making a verbal call to action with a sign with your keyword can have a big impact.  

A simple graphic within your stories could also work, where the keyword and shortcode are easily visible for the donor. 

When developing your social media strategy, it’s important to be strategic and think about which platforms and which social media tools your audience responds to best. Be sure to follow your strong storytelling with strong calls to action by following the best practices for text-to-donate and by making it as easy as possible for your donors to support you! 

Our goal at GiveSmart  is to help nonprofit organizations create and manage successful digital fundraising campaigns, raise more money and retain donors longer. Request a free demo with one of our fundraising experts to learn, step by step, how GiveSmart can simply help set up your campaigns while transforming your results.