As a camp professional, you understand the importance of running fun events that will keep your campers engaged and help them grow as individuals. However, to upgrade your camp programming to the next level, your organization will likely need more funds. Your camp may have hosted family-friendly fundraisers like walk-a-thons or product fundraisers in the past, but have you tried text-to-give? 

Text-to-give is a modern approach to fundraising that makes giving convenient and easy. With text-to-give, your camp can reliably reach camp parents and supporters and motivate them to give. In fact, studies show that text messages have a 99% open rate and 90% read rate within just three minutes of sending. When supporters receive your text donation appeals, they’ll feel inspired to give quickly to help your camp meet its fundraising goals. 

To add text-to-give to your camp fundraising strategy, use these key tips:

• Work with a text fundraising platform

• Build your contact list

• Personalize your messages

Running a text-to-give fundraiser is easy when you have the right tools and strategies. Whether you want to pair your next fundraising event with text-to-give or run a text-to-give campaign year round, this convenient fundraising method can help you bring in extra revenue to power your camp’s activities. Let’s begin. 

Work with a text fundraising platform

To launch your text-to-give campaign, you’ll need to partner with a text messaging platform with fundraising experience. According to Tatango’s guide to text-to-give, your camp should look for a text fundraising platform with the following features:

• Automation. To save your team time, your text fundraising platform should allow you to automate messages based on certain supporter actions. For example, you should be able to greet supporters with a welcome text as soon as they opt-in to your text campaign. Sending a thank-you message right after donors give—without having to manually power off these texts—is another way that automation will save you time.

• Segmentation. Your text messages should be highly personalized to the recipients so they’re more likely to act. A text messaging platform with robust segmentation capabilities will allow you to break down your contact list into subgroups based on similar characteristics, such as demographics, recency of opting into your campaign, and donation frequency, recency, and amount. 

• Reporting and analytics. To assess the performance of your text-to-give campaign, partner with a text fundraising platform that will generate real-time analytics for each message. Specifically, you should be able to track metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate. 

Depending on the size of your camp, you might need to reliably reach thousands of supporters ahead of a tight fundraising deadline. Look for text fundraising software that is able to handle fast messaging speeds and large lists so supporters will receive your texts just a few moments after you send them. 

Build your contact list

To get the ball rolling on your text-to-give campaign, you’ll need to build out your contact list. The best way to get the word out about your text-to-give campaign and encourage supporters to opt-in is with multichannel marketing. According to Getting Attention, multichannel marketing allows you to create multiple touchpoints with donors and connect with as many parents, community members, and supporters as possible. 

Consider marketing your text-to-give shortcode or long-code along with your keyword on the following channels:

• Your camp website. Create a landing page on your camp website that advertises your text-to-give campaign. Here, you can list the various benefits of signing up for your campaign, including the added convenience and ability to receive regular text updates from your camp. You can also highlight your text-to-give campaign on your donation page so donors can try out this giving method the next time they donate. 

• Social media. Generate engaging content, such as video tutorials or graphic designs, that explain how to opt into your text-to-give campaign. You can even develop a social media challenge, such as asking people to share a video about why they’re supporting your camp through text-to-give, and use a memorable hashtag to reach new audiences. 

• Direct mail. Some of your campers’ parents may not be online as much. To reach these supporters, send letters that outline how to sign up for text-to-give or include a QR code that takes supporters directly to your text-to-give landing page on your website. 

You can also reach out to well-connected and influential parents to help amplify your marketing efforts. For example, a parent with a sizable social media following can repost your content onto their platforms so more people in their network can learn about your text-to-give campaign and opt-in. 

Personalize your messages

Whether you’re thanking donors for giving to your campaign or inviting them to increase their donation amount to help you meet your goals, it’s a best practice to make your messages tailored to the recipient. This creates a one-on-one communication experience that helps supporters feel truly appreciated by your organization and connected to your cause. 

For example, let’s say you’re a church professional running a summer camp for children. To raise money for a field trip to the local nature center, you decide to invest in a texting service for churches and run a text-to-give campaign. Follow these best practices to strengthen your text donation appeals: 

• Add supporters’ preferred names. Rather than opening your messages with a generic greeting like “Hi Donor,” leverage your text messaging software to automate your donation appeals with churchgoers’ preferred names. 

• Use segmentation. Segment your texts to different audiences and create highly relevant messages that are likely to inspire churchgoers to give. For example, if you have an audience subset of parents whose children attended camp last year, you might appeal to them by explaining how their contributions can help more children have an equally memorable camp experience. 

• Reference past donations. After donors give, make sure to thank them by referencing their specific contribution and how it will benefit your camp. This will help churchgoers feel recognized and therefore more likely to give to your camp again in the future. 

The right text messaging software will make it easy to add a highly personal touch to each of your messages, ensuring that supporters are likely to read and act on them to push your camp’s fundraising goals forward. 

If you’re a mission-driven camp that wants to make its programming even better, text-to-give is the perfect tool to take your fundraising to the next level. A strong text messaging campaign will allow you to reach supporters quickly and reliably with your donation appeals, fundraising updates, camp reminders, and more. Do you research to find a comprehensive text software solution that will take care of the heavy lifting for you so you can focus on creating inspiring text messages. Good luck! 

Author: Mike Snusz, Director of Nonprofit Customer Experience at Tatango

Mike Snusz brings 19 years of digital fundraising experience to his role as Director of Nonprofit Customer Experience at Tatango, a text messaging platform for nonprofits and political campaigns. Prior to Tatango, Mike spent 15 years at Blackbaud leading a team of digital consultants that helped nonprofits improve their online fundraising, monthly giving, email marketing and peer-to-peer fundraising programs. Mike started his nonprofit career managing the Ride For Roswell from 2003 to 2005 in his hometown of Buffalo, NY.