Donations are essential to your nonprofit organization’s mission. One of the easiest ways to raise funds is to convert your existing subscribers into repeat donors. For more than 14 years, the experts at Tatango have provided our partners with the best SMS marketing solutions. We know what it takes to encourage supporters to donate to your cause.
Building and growing your donor list from scratch can be challenging. Cold calling and knocking on strangers’ doors aren’t the best use of your time and resources. These efforts often yield minimal results and rarely attract repeat donors. Tatango has streamlined our partners’ SMS marketing experience to ensure their fundraising efforts are successful.
Implement the following simple strategies, and you’ll soon be converting your existing subscribers into repeat donors.
Integrate Your SMS Campaign with Your Website
By far, the simplest way to convert existing subscribers into repeat donors is to integrate your texting campaign with your website. By adding a simple line of code to your site, you can ensure that whenever someone submits their phone number via a web form (such as to donate, join your mailing list, register for an event, or purchase merchandise), they are automatically synced with your SMS marketing program at Tatango. This process increases the likelihood of future donations from people who have already expressed interest and commitment to your cause.
Segment Your Subscriber List
Tatango’s platform allows our partners to segment subscribers into different categories. Someone who has donated before is likely to give again. We make it easy for you to identify subscribers who have already donated to your organization and group them to send targeted messages that yield successful results.
When you send a message to a segmented group of supporters, you’ll be able to choose between the subscriber’s location and SMS Keyword. Tatango helps you group supporters based on specific information and send messages tailored for them. For example, use the keywords repeat donor and future donors to separate subscribers who have donated to your campaign and ones you hope will contribute in the future.
Send Personalized SMS Messages
Addressing supporters by their first name shows them you know who they are and that you appreciate their continued support. To personalize SMS messages, you’ll first need to capture some information from your supporters when they opt-in to receive text messages from your organization.
One way to obtain and additional information about supporters is to send them an opt-in text message with questions about their interests, birthday, or email address. When you pair that with other information already gathered, such as their city, state, or first name, you can customize your text messages accordingly.
Merge tags help you personalize messages for segmented groups of supporters. With merge tags, it’s possible to include a donor’s first name, location, prior donation amount, or any other details that make text messages more personal.
Include a Call to Action
Before contacting supporters who haven’t donated to your organization, identify what you want to ask them to do. Subscribers don’t respond well to confusing or unclear messages. Send messages that include a clear call to action (CTA), such as, “Donate $5 now.” Simply letting them know what you need may spark enough interest for them to give. And of course, remember to add a link along with your CTA so subscribers can go directly to your website and financially support your mission.
Your supporters also want to know how your organization is using their funds. If your CTA asks subscribers to send your organization a specific amount of money, include a few words about what the funds are for. Also, some supporters respond well to receiving a gift. With that in mind, take your targeted text message a step further by creating exclusive merchandise for supporters who have donated to a specific area of your organization.
On Tatango’s platform, our partners can use multimedia message service (MMS) to create eye-catching and enticing texts. For example, a message from an animal shelter could say, “Donate $20 now to sponsor vaccines for a stray dog, and receive an exclusive T-shirt.” The MMS message could also include a video of the stray dog your supporters will help and a photo of the T-shirt they’ll receive. Text messages that include CTAs and use MMS will surely capture potential donors’ attention.
Take Advantage of Tatango’s Messaging Report
When you partner with Tatango, you’ll have access to a message report after every message you send. Information from this report can help you convert existing subscribers into repeat donors. For instance, check the click-through rate for each message to analyze the effectiveness of your CTA link.
Review the donations section in the messaging report to identify how many existing subscribers you can convert into donors. To identify supporters who have successfully converted to donors, cross-check the number of donations your text message received and the number of users on your future donor segmented list. Then, send those donors a personalized thank-you note and move them to your donors segmented list.
Ready to Begin Converting Your Subscribers into Donors?
Contact your Tatango account representative for expert guidance to help you turn your subscribers into dedicated donors. Our team is committed to helping your organization reach its fundraising potential. Not a Tatango partner yet? Get in touch today to learn all about the exclusive benefits you’ll receive when you partner with us.
