TL;DR:
- Offer value first: Share useful resources and impact updates before asking for a gift.
- Make room for replies: Have a team and process ready to respond.
- Keep messages personal: Use donor context and natural language to make outreach relevant.
- Automate timing: Use workflows to prompt communication while keeping a human voice.
A donor receives a text from your organization. What have you given them a reason to expect: another request for money, an update about the work they care about, or a chance to tell you something about themselves?
That question belongs at the center of a nonprofit texting strategy. Text can support a fundraising appeal, but it also creates opportunities to ask questions, share resources, and continue a conversation after someone gives.
In a conversation on the Responsive Lab podcast, Aaron Dolton, chief revenue officer at Powered By Text, joined Scott Holthaus to discuss how nonprofits can use mobile messaging to build more personal donor relationships.
His starting point was simple: “It all starts with the personal connection and giving something before asking for something.”
Putting that into practice takes more than choosing a texting platform. It means thinking through what you send, how you listen, and what happens when a donor responds.
7 Ways to Build Personal Donor Connections Through Text
1. Give Donors Something Useful Before Asking for a Gift
If your organization primarily uses text to send donation receipts or fundraising appeals, start by considering what else supporters might appreciate receiving.
Before planning your next appeal, ask:
- What can we share that would be useful to this group of supporters?
- How can we show what their giving supports?
- What could we ask that helps us understand them better?
Start with something your organization can meaningfully provide. A question about a donor’s needs should lead to care and follow-through.
2. Write Like a Person Having a Conversation
Use the kind of natural language you would use when writing to a friend. A text gives your team an opportunity to communicate personally, without the polished, corporate tone of a marketing campaign.
Think about how someone on your team would naturally explain an update to a supporter. Use that as your starting point. Keep the language direct, make the purpose clear, and consider whether the message relates to the person receiving it.
Personalization also depends on context. Donor information such as names and giving history can inform your messages. Whether someone is a first-time giver can also shape what you say.
As you review a text, consider whether your organization already knows something that should change its wording. A message to a new donor may need a different introduction than one sent to someone who has supported the work for years.
The goal is for the message to make sense within that person’s relationship with your organization.
3. Prepare for the Replies You Invite
Asking a donor a question creates a responsibility to listen to the answer.
A donor’s reply is an opportunity for the engagement your team wants to build. Having a way to manage those responses makes it possible to continue the conversation.
Before sending a message that invites conversation, decide:
- Who will monitor incoming replies?
- Who will respond, and how promptly can they do it?
- How will the team handle questions or requests that need additional attention?
- Does the texting platform support the two-way communication you want to offer?
A shared inbox can help your team manage text conversations. Whatever system your organization uses, make sure someone is responsible for following through.
4. Use Automation to Support Timely Personal Outreach
A small team cannot manually coordinate every message to every supporter. Workflows can help determine when communication should happen.
Start by deciding which parts of the timing you can automate while keeping the message itself personal.
Use touchpoints within a workflow to trigger messages and donor information from your CRM to personalize the content. The timing can be automated while the language still reflects how your team speaks to people.
Consider three parts of that process:
- Timing: What donor action or relationship touchpoint makes the message relevant?
- Content: Does the wording reflect what you know about the recipient?
- Follow-through: Can someone on your team respond if the donor replies?
Automation can help your team coordinate outreach. The conversation still needs attention from people who understand the donor and the organization’s work.
5. Match the Approach to the Donor Relationship
Broad donor communication and individual portfolio outreach may need different approaches.
One approach is to use a short code for broader messaging, with variations for different donor groups. Major gift officers can use individual numbers within a shared platform to communicate directly with smaller portfolios.
That distinction gives teams a useful planning question: does this message belong in a broader campaign, or should it come through an individual relationship?
A shared resource may fit a larger group. A personal conversation with a donor in a gift officer’s portfolio needs room for direct follow-up. Choose a setup that supports how your team actually manages those relationships.
6. Look Beyond the Donation Channel When Evaluating Text
A gift’s arrival channel may tell only part of the relationship’s story.
For example, one broadcast ministry spent the months leading up to GivingTuesday offering devotional content and prayer opportunities through text rather than financial asks.
Supporters could share a devotional landing page with others. One person joined through a shared devotional and later replied to a prayer invitation saying they were writing a check for more than $200,000. The check arrived by mail.
That is one organization’s experience. It illustrates why teams should pay attention to the interactions leading up to a gift, even when the donor ultimately gives through another channel.
Alongside donations made through text links, consider what donors tell you in replies and how those conversations inform your understanding of their connection to the mission.
7. Start with a Conversation Your Team Can Sustain
To put these ideas into practice, choose a donor group, identify something useful to share, and prepare your team to respond. Use what you learn from those conversations to guide the next message.
The question to keep returning to is straightforward: what would help this person feel heard and connected to the work they care about?
That gives your texting strategy a purpose beyond the next appeal and gives your team a clear place to begin.
Bring Texting Into Your Donor Management With Virtuous CRM+
Texting works best when it connects to what you already know about each donor. Virtuous CRM+ brings integrated email marketing, SMS, and physical letters into one platform alongside your donor data, so you can send the right message to the right person without adding lift for your team.
With CRM+, your team can:
- Automate tasks, emails, texts, and letters at key donor touch points
- Build personalized sequences based on donor behavior
- Use dynamic segmentation and campaign analytics to see what is working
- See giving, engagement, and relationships in a 360° view of every supporter
FAQs
1. How Can Nonprofits Use Text Messaging to Build Donor Relationships?
Nonprofits can use text messaging to build donor relationships by sharing useful resources, showing the impact of giving, and inviting two-way conversations. Having a team ready to respond helps those invitations lead to meaningful follow-up.
2. What Should a Nonprofit Text Donors Before Asking for a Donation?
Before asking for a donation, a nonprofit can text donors a relevant resource, an impact update, or a question that helps the organization understand and support them. The message should offer something the organization can follow through on.
3. How Can a Small Nonprofit Team Personalize Donor Texts?
A small nonprofit team can personalize donor texts by using CRM information, tailoring messages to donor groups, and using workflows to coordinate timing. The wording should remain natural, with people available to handle replies.
4. How Should Nonprofits Respond to Donor Text Messages?
Nonprofits should respond to donor text messages through a monitored process with clear responsibility for replies and follow-up. Before inviting responses, make sure the team has the capacity and tools to manage the conversation.
5. How Should Nonprofits Evaluate Donations Influenced by Texting?
Nonprofits should consider the conversations and engagement that precede a gift alongside donations made directly through text links. A donor may engage through text and ultimately give through another channel, such as a mailed check.
