When a disaster strikes, you can be ready to begin fundraising immediately. And while some nonprofits dedicate their mission to disaster relief, many organizations and schools have emergency needs that require funding. Things like property damage, unexpected dangers, weather disasters, and more can affect any community at any time.
This guide will prepare you to effectively create and promote your disaster relief fundraising in the event of a crisis.
Step 1: Set Up a Keyword for Your Organization
Text-to-donate keywords take just a few minutes to set up on a fundraising platform, such as GiveSmart, and are live on all cell phone carriers.
Best practice: Use the same keyword for all your text-to-donate campaigns. This simplifies branding and increases the likelihood of donations by reducing confusion.
Step 2: Set Up a Branded Donation Page for Disasters
Branded donation pages increase average gift size by 38% and take just a few minutes to set up. Responsive donation pages (which auto-resize for smartphones, tablets, and PCs) significantly decrease donation form abandonment rates.
Best practice: Be as specific as possible with the branding on your donation page. This will reinforce to the donor that their donation is going directly to the intended purpose.
Step 3: Plan to Promote Your Call to Action
Multiple studies have shown that people need to hear or see a message seven times before they take any action. A devastating disaster will blanket the news cycle – however local. But where are the helpers?
Make sure your community knows you are on the ground, providing relief and need monetary support. Promote your call to action on multiple channels, including:
- Television
- Radio
- Social Media
- Text
- Events
Step 4: Coordinate Your Call to Action
Develop strategic relationships with television, radio, and other media outlets, and ensure they are ready to deliver your call to action verbally and visually.
A message as concise as “Text KEYWORD to 76278 to donate with your credit/debit card” will work!
Best practice: Make donating as easy as possible by promoting your donation keyword and link across all online channels. This increases the likelihood that donations will come in quickly.
Step 5: Get Disaster Fundraising in Front of All Your Donors
Your donors are the most likely people to support disaster relief campaigns. Your audience sees 15% of direct mail, 30% of email, and 99% of text messages. This reinforces that sharing regular messaging over multiple channels is a strategy your organization should use.
Best Practice: Upload your list of existing donor phone numbers for mobile number verification. Text message blasts take only minutes to schedule/send.
And never forget to steward your donors. Their text-to-donate gift is just the start of their relationship with you. Consider sending a thank-you video link via text to all donors who contribute to your disaster relief efforts.
Text-to-Give vs. Text-to-Donate
In January 2010, the Red Cross raised $22 million with text-to-give donations. Text-to-give donations totaled 20% of the funds raised by the Red Cross for Haitian relief. Also in January 2010, just 21% of donors had smartphones.
What would happen with the same pool of donors today using text-to-donate with GiveSmart? Of course, many more people have smartphones, too. With average text-to-donate gifts being roughly $107 with a stronger fulfillment rate, they would raise $375+ million.
With that in mind, let’s compare text-to-give and text-to-donate.
Text-to-Give
- Donations are limited to $10
- Funds are received by organizations months later
- Keywords are delayed in going live
- Organizations receive no donor contact information
- Fewer than six in 10 gifts are collected (declines due to non-confirmation, blocks & restrictions)
- Limited to large, national organizations and getting partnerships with cell phone carriers
Text-to-Donate
- Donation amounts average $107
- Funds are received by organizations every month
- Keywords go live instantly
- Organizations receive full donor contact information
- More than eight in 10 of donations are collected (declines due to non-credit/debit card fulfillment)
- Accessible to every GiveSmart partner
