How to Activate and Customize Text to Give

Did you know that texting is the preferred communication method among donors of all ages? By allowing donors to text to give, you can meet them right where they spend the majority of their time - on their mobile devices - and make it easy for them to give generously to your mission.

Overflow's Text to Give solution offers a simple, secure, and convenient channel for donors to give cash, stock, or crypto to your nonprofit. 

Ready to set this up for your organization? Great! Check out the video below or scroll down to read step-by-step activation instructions.

⚠️ NOTE: Your organization settings can now be found in the dropdown under your name in the upper right hand corner of your Dashboard.

ACTIVATE TEXT TO GIVE: STEP-BY-STEP

1. Log in to your Dashboard and navigate to Settings, then Customization. The Text to Give configuration section can be found at the bottom of the customization page.

2. Select Yes to activate Text to Give. This will open a pop-up window with instructions to contact the Overflow support team.

3. Click "Contact" to automatically email [e-mail]. We will set up a custom number for your organization and activate the Text to Give functionality for you.

• If you'd like to use a specific area code when creating your custom number, please indicate which area code in the email.

CUSTOMIZE TEXT TO GIVE: STEP-BY-STEP

1. Once you receive notice that your number is configured, log back into your Dashboard to complete the setup of this feature. You'll notice that the Text to Give option is now activated and you have a few customization options. If you have cash, stock, and crypto donation processing with Overflow, you will see all three options in this window. If you only have one or two of those asset classes, you will only see those options displayed. 

Using a 10-digit text-to-give number can be localized to your end users (like customized area codes for example). 

2. Set up keywords. 

• For Overflow cash clients, you can customize the keyword donors use to give by editing the default GIVE and clicking Save. Note that you can use a single keyword of your choice, but there are some words that are restricted because they are tied to various commands within the feature. For example, you can not use the words STOCK, CRYPTO, HELP, STOP and more.

• For stock and crypto clients, the keyword is not customizable at this time and is defaulted to STOCK and CRYPTO respectively. 

3. Choose a campaign. You can select any active campaign that you've already set up with your Overflow Dashboard as the default to which ALL text to give donations will be assigned. Note that donors can't choose to give to different campaigns within the text to give feature at this time.

• If you'd like to track which donations are from text to give, you can create a new Text to Give campaign.

RECEIVE TEXT TO GIVE DONATIONS

To begin receiving text to give donations, share the phone number shown in your Dashboard with your donors. 

• For cash donations, instruct donors to text your unique phone number with the keyword you've selected and an amount. For example, "Text GIVE 100 to [phone] to donate $100 today".
• For stock donations, instruct donors to text your unique phone number with the keyword STOCK. For example, "Text STOCK to [phone] to donate shares from your portfolio today".
• For crypto donations, instruct donors to text your unique phone number with the keyword CRYPTO. For example, "Text CRYPTO to [phone] to donate cryptocurrency to our organization".

Click here to watch a video describing more about the text to give experience for donors.

FAQs

How can donors get help when using Overflow's text to give feature?

Donors can text "Help" to your custom number to get in touch with Overflow's support team.

Can I customize the messages donors receive when they text certain words or phrases?

No. At this time, all messages are defaults and can not be edited.

Can text to give donations not be assigned to any campaign?

No. You will be required to select a campaign option to which all text to give donations will be associated.

Why am I not seeing the campaign to which I want to associate all my text to give donations?

Only active campaigns will appear in the Campaign dropdown menu of your Text to Give configuration screen. Make sure that your campaign is active or, in other words, has a start date that is before today and has not expired.

Learn more about what the donor experiences when interactive with Text-to-Give by visiting this article.