{"id":9224,"date":"2018-03-27T19:49:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T23:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qgiv.com\/blog\/?p=9224"},"modified":"2023-12-07T11:44:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T16:44:14","slug":"run-text-giving-campaign-like-red-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qgiv.com\/blog\/run-text-giving-campaign-like-red-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Run a Text Giving Campaign like the Red Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Text giving has been a useful tool for more than a decade. The Red Cross was one of its earliest adopters \u2013 and one of its most successful. Here are some text fundraising lessons<\/a> you can learn from the pros.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, The American Red Cross stepped in to help. To fund their efforts, they set up an enormous text fundraising campaign. It was one of the first of its kind, and it raised $250,000 in mobile donations. A few years later, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti. Again, the Red Cross began appeals for text donations. At its peak, the post-earthquake text campaign saw donations pour in from all over the country \u2013 at one point, they were processing $500,000 an hour in text-based donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your organization might not ever process $500,000 in an hour (although that would be super great!), but there are definitely some fundraising lessons to be learned from The American Red Cross!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text fundraising pro tip: create a sense of urgency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We hope you never have to set up emergency fundraising after a natural disaster<\/a> or other catastrophe. But the sense of urgency that follows any disaster is part of what has made so many Red Cross campaigns successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t have to wait until after a catastrophe to impart a sense of urgency in your appeals. When setting up the basis for your campaign, don\u2019t think only about why donors should give. Instead, think about why donors should give right now. <\/em>What will happen if they don\u2019t donate right now? What will happen if they do? Why are the funds so necessary?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ease of donating via text is part of what makes a text fundraising campaign successful. But it\u2019s also what makes it easy for donors to put off making a gift. Making your appeals urgent will help prevent donors from putting off (and forgetting) to make a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text giving pro tip: make it visible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The American Red Cross desperately needed funding for their efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. To get the money they needed, they decided to make their fundraiser as visible as possible, and partnered with the NFL to make appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might not be able to plug your campaign during NFL games, but the takeaway is that visibility for your campaign will boost donations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you make your campaign more visible? Options will vary from nonprofit to nonprofit, but some basic guidelines are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n