Churches and Nonprofits
Text Messaging for Churches and Nonprofits
Churches and other nonprofit organizations face some of the same challenges as for-profit enterprises: In an increasingly connected world filled with all sorts of messages from all kinds of sources, how do we get our message in front of the right people at the right time and in a way it will be heard. Forward-thinking churches and non-profits are taking a page from successful business models in the use of email and social media platforms. While important and useful, these tools have their limitations. Text messaging presents an opportunity to deliver specific messages to targeted audiences and do so using devices that are always on and always at hand. Choosing the right partner and platform at the beginning of a text messaging campaign is the first step toward success.
At the heart of your organization lies an important mission.
You measure your success by how well you are fulfilling it. Maybe it’s about bringing people to Christ. Perhaps it’s focused on environmental or health related issues. It could be about feeding the hungry or housing the homeless. No matter what the mission is, our many years of working in and for churches and nonprofits has taught us that everything we do toward fulfilling our mission can be broken down into three kinds of activities:
It’s no secret the internet provides a means through which even the smallest of organizations with the tiniest of budgets can reach a wide audience. On-line social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, and Linked-In have created virtual communities where people from all over the world can get together to connect with each other and share ideas. Increasingly, participants in these communities are accessing these platforms, not through desk-top or even lap-top computers, but through hand-held mobile devices such as tablet computers and smart phones such as the iPhone, Android phones, and Blackberrys. These devices represent the next wave of technological development. They’re affordable, becoming increasingly easier to use—and they’re everywhere.
Here are some statistics to consider:
…and one more that might just be the best indicator yet of how attached we have become to our cell phones:
For more and more people, a mobile device is the primary form of connection and communication, replacing land-line phones and even email. If you have a message to deliver, it makes sense to put it where it is most likely to be seen and acted on by the greatest number of people. Text messaging tied to a mobile website, and augmented through the use of QR-codes, gives every church and nonprofit organization the opportunity to cost-effectively leverage their existing communication efforts in a powerful way.
Imagine the possibilities.
For many, diving into any new kind of technology is a daunting assignment. Just figuring out the questions to ask can prove so challenging that no first step is taken. So, for a moment, let’s put aside the how and focus first on the end result. To do this, let’s assume you are a leader of a church with 1000 members and a goal of substantially building that membership while enriching the spiritual lives of your members. Now, let’s look ahead to a Sunday morning in the not too distant future…
Getting started…
It’s a typical Sunday morning, except today you surprise your congregation with an announcement: you are launching a new way to communicate with them. To get started, you ask them to take out their cell phones. Instead of your usual request to turn them off before the service begins, today you ask them to turn them on. This, of course, gets a few laughs and the irony isn’t lost on you. The reason you are asking them to do this is you want everyone to be able to participate in this new communication tool. You give them a few simple instructions and 90% of the people in the room are now in your cell phone database. Don’t worry, for those who left their phones in the car or at home today, you are passing around simple forms for them to fill out. Later that day, a volunteer will spend just a few minutes transferring the information on the form into the database.
Churches and other nonprofit organizations face some of the same challenges as for-profit enterprises: In an increasingly connected world filled with all sorts of messages from all kinds of sources, how do we get our message in front of the right people at the right time and in a way it will be heard. Forward-thinking churches and non-profits are taking a page from successful business models in the use of email and social media platforms. While important and useful, these tools have their limitations. Text messaging presents an opportunity to deliver specific messages to targeted audiences and do so using devices that are always on and always at hand. Choosing the right partner and platform at the beginning of a text messaging campaign is the first step toward success.
At the heart of your organization lies an important mission.
You measure your success by how well you are fulfilling it. Maybe it’s about bringing people to Christ. Perhaps it’s focused on environmental or health related issues. It could be about feeding the hungry or housing the homeless. No matter what the mission is, our many years of working in and for churches and nonprofits has taught us that everything we do toward fulfilling our mission can be broken down into three kinds of activities:
- Outreach—In order to be successful, we have to spread the word. People need to know we’re here and they need to know about the value we offer. They need to hear our message and do so in a way that invites them to engage with us in a deeper way.
- In-reach—Once people find us and become involved with us—as members of our congregation, donors to our cause, or volunteers at our activities and events—we need to continue to communicate with them. Through communication we build community. Do that effectively, and we get deeper buy-in and commitment which, in turn, helps us to build a sustainable organization.
- Stewardship—Unless we raise money, and spend it wisely, we won’t be able to do the other two things very well and our mission won’t be fulfilled. Sometimes raising money for our mission simply requires asking the right people in the right way at the right time. Once we bring in an additional dollar we are obligated to spend as much of it as we can on actually fulfilling our mission and less of it on raising more money. Striking the right balance is a constant focus for churches and other nonprofits.
It’s no secret the internet provides a means through which even the smallest of organizations with the tiniest of budgets can reach a wide audience. On-line social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, and Linked-In have created virtual communities where people from all over the world can get together to connect with each other and share ideas. Increasingly, participants in these communities are accessing these platforms, not through desk-top or even lap-top computers, but through hand-held mobile devices such as tablet computers and smart phones such as the iPhone, Android phones, and Blackberrys. These devices represent the next wave of technological development. They’re affordable, becoming increasingly easier to use—and they’re everywhere.
Here are some statistics to consider:
- It takes 26 hours for the average person to report a lost wallet. It takes 68 minutes for them to report a lost phone. (Source: Unisys)
- There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Source: Mobile Marketing Association Asia)
- It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message. (Source: CTIA.org)
- 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. (Source: Morgan Stanley)
…and one more that might just be the best indicator yet of how attached we have become to our cell phones:
- A new award winning device, the Zomm “phone leash” screams at you if you get too far away from your phone. Sales are reportedly up 500%.
For more and more people, a mobile device is the primary form of connection and communication, replacing land-line phones and even email. If you have a message to deliver, it makes sense to put it where it is most likely to be seen and acted on by the greatest number of people. Text messaging tied to a mobile website, and augmented through the use of QR-codes, gives every church and nonprofit organization the opportunity to cost-effectively leverage their existing communication efforts in a powerful way.
Imagine the possibilities.
For many, diving into any new kind of technology is a daunting assignment. Just figuring out the questions to ask can prove so challenging that no first step is taken. So, for a moment, let’s put aside the how and focus first on the end result. To do this, let’s assume you are a leader of a church with 1000 members and a goal of substantially building that membership while enriching the spiritual lives of your members. Now, let’s look ahead to a Sunday morning in the not too distant future…
Getting started…
It’s a typical Sunday morning, except today you surprise your congregation with an announcement: you are launching a new way to communicate with them. To get started, you ask them to take out their cell phones. Instead of your usual request to turn them off before the service begins, today you ask them to turn them on. This, of course, gets a few laughs and the irony isn’t lost on you. The reason you are asking them to do this is you want everyone to be able to participate in this new communication tool. You give them a few simple instructions and 90% of the people in the room are now in your cell phone database. Don’t worry, for those who left their phones in the car or at home today, you are passing around simple forms for them to fill out. Later that day, a volunteer will spend just a few minutes transferring the information on the form into the database.
Here’s what the form would look like:
Taking the message deeper…
Why have you done this today? You let your congregation know that now you will be able to send them daily inspirational messages, Bible verses, prayer requests, and announcements about weather related church closings. When a family in your congregation is in crises, you’ll be able to let the congregation know about the family’s needs more quickly than ever before. Perhaps you’ll send reminders on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday about the principal points in your sermon from the previous Sunday. Then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, you’ll send them a taste of the sermon you’ll deliver that coming Sunday.
Spreading the word…
Or maybe you’ll let them know to watch their cell phones around 7:00 the following evening. You tell them to expect a text from you with a link to a short video you recorded the night before on your computer. The message has to do with the theme of the upcoming outreach program and an invitation to attend the program series starting at your church the following week. You ask them to forward that message to five of their friends and neighbors. Now, instead of your message reaching just 1000 people, it’s been offered to those 1000 plus 5000 additional friends.
Here’s what the message they receive might look like:
Here’s what the message they receive might look like:
Being good stewards…
About 8:00 on Sunday morning, your congregation gets a text message from you with a link to your mobile website where they can find the bulletin for the day. (Of course, this was all set up to go on Friday. It was so easy to do that anyone who can send an email can do it!) Now, instead of printing 1000 bulletins for the service—most of which end getting thrown away on Sunday afternoon—they have the bulletin in their phones and can refer to it all week long. You’ll still need a few for guests and those who don’t participate in the program, but how much money will you be able to save in printing costs?
A few minutes later, your members get a second text message. This one lets them know that even if they can’t attend the service that day, they can still make their much appreciated and needed tithe by clicking on a link right in their phones. This link takes them to a secure site where, within seconds, they can make a donation of their chosen amount without ever taking a credit or debit card out of their wallet.
Here’s what that would look like:
A few minutes later, your members get a second text message. This one lets them know that even if they can’t attend the service that day, they can still make their much appreciated and needed tithe by clicking on a link right in their phones. This link takes them to a secure site where, within seconds, they can make a donation of their chosen amount without ever taking a credit or debit card out of their wallet.
Here’s what that would look like:
What we have just imagined together are a few examples of how mobile text messaging can be used to deepen your levels of engagement with your members through in-reach; quickly, easily, and inexpensively expand your outreach efforts; and be a better steward of your financial resources by not only saving money but also raising more of it by offering your members a convenient way to donate. We’ll suggest some other ideas about all three of these areas later in this paper, but are you beginning to see the possibilities? Would all of this be a good thing for your church?
Why Mobile Text Messaging?
You might be thinking that you are already doing many of the kinds of things mentioned above through your use of FaceBook, Twitter, email campaigns, and your website. If so, that’s great news. Many churches and nonprofits have discovered the value of using these methods to reach and engage with their audience and we encourage you to continue using all of these. However…
Text messaging is an added activity that will bring exponential improvements to all of your social networking efforts.
Here’s why:
Only 37% of adults identify themselves as frequent email users. About the same amount use FaceBook, and only 17% are using Twitter. It gets worse though because with email a 20% open rate is considered good. So, if you email an announcement to your 1000 members, only 370 will most likely get it and of those, only 74 will open it—most of them a day or two after they get it, when they are at home, and when they think about it. (1000 X 37% X 20% = 74)
Here’s the good news:
90% of the population has a cell phone and regularly uses text messaging. With text messages, the open rate is 97% and, on average, that happens within 5 minutes of the message being sent. So, of those 1000 members, 900 will be able to get the message and 855 will open it and read it within 5 minutes of you sending it. (1000 X 90% X 95% = 855) 855 views of your message versus 74—pretty good odds of more people showing up for the potluck dinner with text reminders versus email, wouldn’t you say?
To all of that, add the statistics about cell phone use from the start of this paper and you can begin to see the importance of including mobile text messaging in your communications plan.
Text messaging is an added activity that will bring exponential improvements to all of your social networking efforts.
Here’s why:
Only 37% of adults identify themselves as frequent email users. About the same amount use FaceBook, and only 17% are using Twitter. It gets worse though because with email a 20% open rate is considered good. So, if you email an announcement to your 1000 members, only 370 will most likely get it and of those, only 74 will open it—most of them a day or two after they get it, when they are at home, and when they think about it. (1000 X 37% X 20% = 74)
Here’s the good news:
90% of the population has a cell phone and regularly uses text messaging. With text messages, the open rate is 97% and, on average, that happens within 5 minutes of the message being sent. So, of those 1000 members, 900 will be able to get the message and 855 will open it and read it within 5 minutes of you sending it. (1000 X 90% X 95% = 855) 855 views of your message versus 74—pretty good odds of more people showing up for the potluck dinner with text reminders versus email, wouldn’t you say?
To all of that, add the statistics about cell phone use from the start of this paper and you can begin to see the importance of including mobile text messaging in your communications plan.
Finding the Right Partner
By now you’re probably curious to know how to get started with this powerful tool, so let’s talk a little about the how. Could you run a simple text messaging campaign from your personal cell phone? Sure. You could hold church services in a parking lot too, but you’ve probably figured out by now you can be much more effective with a beautiful sanctuary, comfortable seats, and a suitable sound system. Text messaging is no different. If you want a program that is easy to use, scalable as you grow, allows for permission-based opt-in, and seamlessly integrates with an electronic giving program, you’re going to need a fairly sophisticated platform. That’s where we come in.
Our service is part of a mobile marketing company currently servicing 10,000’s of businesses, churches, and nonprofits nationwide. We’ve been in the business for about as long as there has been a mobile marketing industry. We’ve learned through experience what makes an effective text marketing campaign work. When you partner with us, you are partnering with a company whose philosophy is based on ensuring your success.
We’ve spent years serving the market with our mobile text marketing platform. Not only have we built the technology platform needed to support our partners’ text messaging needs, we’ve developed expertise in crafting effective marketing campaigns with texting at its center. We teach you exactly how to build your database of existing supporters and key potential ones. We show you how to integrate text with your social networks. We build a mobile website for you. (A mobile website is specifically designed for ease of viewing on the smaller screens of mobile devices.) But our support doesn’t stop at the sale.
Once registered into the program, we provide you the mobile site, additional mobile websites to run your outreach programs, set up your donation pages, establish your keywords and databases to do your text-messaging, and provide an hour of training on how to modify your mobile sites, send messages, and get the most out of your new tool.
Our service is part of a mobile marketing company currently servicing 10,000’s of businesses, churches, and nonprofits nationwide. We’ve been in the business for about as long as there has been a mobile marketing industry. We’ve learned through experience what makes an effective text marketing campaign work. When you partner with us, you are partnering with a company whose philosophy is based on ensuring your success.
We’ve spent years serving the market with our mobile text marketing platform. Not only have we built the technology platform needed to support our partners’ text messaging needs, we’ve developed expertise in crafting effective marketing campaigns with texting at its center. We teach you exactly how to build your database of existing supporters and key potential ones. We show you how to integrate text with your social networks. We build a mobile website for you. (A mobile website is specifically designed for ease of viewing on the smaller screens of mobile devices.) But our support doesn’t stop at the sale.
Once registered into the program, we provide you the mobile site, additional mobile websites to run your outreach programs, set up your donation pages, establish your keywords and databases to do your text-messaging, and provide an hour of training on how to modify your mobile sites, send messages, and get the most out of your new tool.
Taking Donations on Your Website and Through Mobile Devices
The ability to accept online donations has become vital to many organizations as people carry less cash, don’t use checkbooks, and prefer to pay their bills and tithes online. It can be challenging, however, to analyze the costs associated with accepting various forms of donations. Credit card processing agreements tend to be complicated and it is often difficult to know in advance exactly what your total costs and fees will be.
Now with mobile web use set to surpass even desktop/laptop browsing of the internet over the next few years, churches and nonprofits must be ready to accept mobile donations as well. If you’re not currently taking donations on your website, we can help you get started. In addition, with our technology we make it possible for you to take donations from smart phones. Here’s how it works:
1. We set-up a secure hosted donation page on your regular website, plus provide you a mobile site and smart phone application that allows your supporters to connect and donate directly from their smart phone.
2. We set you up to accept donations via debit and credit card at a lower rate than PayPal and other merchant services providers.
Now with mobile web use set to surpass even desktop/laptop browsing of the internet over the next few years, churches and nonprofits must be ready to accept mobile donations as well. If you’re not currently taking donations on your website, we can help you get started. In addition, with our technology we make it possible for you to take donations from smart phones. Here’s how it works:
1. We set-up a secure hosted donation page on your regular website, plus provide you a mobile site and smart phone application that allows your supporters to connect and donate directly from their smart phone.
2. We set you up to accept donations via debit and credit card at a lower rate than PayPal and other merchant services providers.
More Ideas…
Here are a few more ideas you could easily execute using our platform:
Outreach Ideas
In-reach Ideas
Stewardship Ideas
These ideas are only the beginning. You will only be limited by your own imagination and creativity. And don’t forget, we’ll be there to help.
Outreach Ideas
- Put a message on your church sign such as, “Our inside is even nicer than our outside…Want to see? Text ‘Church_Info’ to 72727. They then get a text message back thanking them for their interest, inviting them to the service with the times, and a link to a video that shows a sampling of a service and has a short message from the minster.
- Put a message on your newspaper ad that says, “For a preview of tomorrow’s service, text ‘Our_Church’ to 72727.” They receive a link to a video they can watch right on their phone of the minister with a personal invitation to come to the service.
- Grow your database and spread your message by having participants at your next event “text in” their registration. Use this method to deliver important information about the event in lieu of printed fliers and brochures.
In-reach Ideas
- Daily prayer requests or inspirations with text and/or video.
- Use customized databases, one for each small group within your church, to grow and support your small group ministry.
- Communicate weather related schedule changes and closings.
- Quickly communicate emergency “calls to action” when members of your congregation need help and support.
Stewardship Ideas
- Save money on printing and be eco-friendly at the same time by replacing paper brochures and bulletins with virtual ones.
- Send tithe reminders on the 15th and 30th of the month to coincide with typical pay-days thereby creating a “5th Sunday” tithing opportunity. (Example: If you sent 1000 messages on the 15th of the month asking for an additional $40 donation and you achieved only a 2% response rate, you’d bring in an additional $800. The cost for sending those messages would be about $50.)
- Create ease of payment for the growing population that doesn’t use checks.
These ideas are only the beginning. You will only be limited by your own imagination and creativity. And don’t forget, we’ll be there to help.
Closing
Many experts have commented that mobile computing today is about where the internet was in the late 1990’s. This is a burgeoning field filled with possibilities to help leaders of organizations large and small do a better job of meeting their communications goals. Don’t you owe it those you serve to consider adding a mobile text messaging platform to the tools at your disposal?
Our program is built on years of experience in the for-profit world but specifically designed for non-profits. A technology alone will not accomplish that, but with our team, strategies, and support we can help you do all of the things we discussed.
If you’re ready to explore the tremendous possibilities of using text messaging to expand your outreach and improve your internal communications; if you’re ready to begin cost effectively accepting donations on your website and through mobile, then give us a call today and let’s get started together.
Our program is built on years of experience in the for-profit world but specifically designed for non-profits. A technology alone will not accomplish that, but with our team, strategies, and support we can help you do all of the things we discussed.
If you’re ready to explore the tremendous possibilities of using text messaging to expand your outreach and improve your internal communications; if you’re ready to begin cost effectively accepting donations on your website and through mobile, then give us a call today and let’s get started together.