SMS marketing for nonprofits: a practical guide

SMS marketing for nonprofits works when every text goes to a supporter who said yes to texts, and each one is useful to them: a shift reminder, an event update, a short note on what their gift did. Collect consent where people already sign up, register your number for 10DLC, send two to four texts a month, and let the platform handle opt-outs and quiet hours.

This guide covers the setup and the habits: where to collect consent, what to send, how often, what registration looks like for a nonprofit, and the compliance basics that keep your number deliverable. We make Ready, so the cost and feature details below are ours. The practices apply on any platform.

Get consent where supporters already say yes

Texting needs its own consent. An email address on file, a past donation or a phone number on an event form does not mean the person agreed to receive texts. The easiest way to build a list is to add a texting opt-in at the moments supporters are already filling something out.

The four places to collect it

• Donation form. Add an unchecked checkbox under the phone field. Keep it optional. A text opt-in can never be a condition of giving.
• Event registration. People who RSVP want reminders, so the opt-in is an easy yes here. Word it so it covers more than one event, or you'll be re-collecting consent every time.
• Volunteer signup. Shift reminders are the most useful texts a nonprofit sends. Ask for consent on the signup form itself.
• Keyword at in-person events. "Text JOIN to (555) 010-0199" on a slide or a table sign. The reply should confirm what they joined, how often you'll text, and how to stop.

Wording that holds up

A checkbox like this covers what carriers and the TCPA expect to see:

Yes, text me updates from Riverside Food Bank: event reminders, volunteer shifts and occasional ways to give. Up to 4 msgs/month. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not required to donate.

Name your organization. Describe what you'll send, including giving asks if you plan to send them. State the frequency. Include STOP and HELP.

Keep the record yourself

Your form tool or donor database has to store the per-contact consent record: when the person opted in, the exact wording they saw, and the page or event where it happened. Ready records the sender's attestation for each campaign you send and each API send that attests consent, meaning who sent it, to how many people, and when. That gives you an audit trail of your sends. It is not a per-contact consent record, and a keyword reply does not create one in Ready. Our guide on how to document SMS consent so it holds up covers what to store.

A common shortcut is to import a partner organization's list, or a coalition spreadsheet, because "they're all supporters of the cause." Consent given to one organization does not carry over to another. If you're tempted, read what to do before texting a partner coalition's contact list first. Contacts who never opted in should hear from you by mail or phone, not by text.

SMS marketing for nonprofits: what to send

Supporters stay subscribed when your texts help them do something or tell them something they'd want to know. Here's how the main message types compare:

Reminders and shift texts carry the program

Event and volunteer reminders reduce no-shows and save your coordinators phone time. They also teach supporters that your texts are worth opening. Many of these can be automated, such as a drip campaign that fires a day before each shift. Our post on which texts to automate and which to write by hand explains where to draw that line.

Impact updates: one fact, one link

"Your gifts stocked 412 pantry shelves this month. See where: [link]." That's enough. A paragraph of program detail belongs in an email. Use your own domain for links instead of a public shortener, because carriers filter shared short links aggressively.

Donation appeals and giving days need our written OK first

Under Ready's acceptable use policy, fundraising texts need written approval from us before you send them. Before your first donation appeal, including giving-day texts, follow the written OK steps at the end of this post. Signing up and completing registration does not, by itself, cover fundraising appeals. Leave a few days for this before a giving day.

Watch your characters

A text is billed by segment. One segment is 160 standard (GSM-7) characters. A longer message splits into 153-character segments. One emoji, or certain accented characters, drops the limit to 70 characters per segment, or 67 when the message runs to multiple segments. Ready swaps curly quotes, long dashes and ellipses for plain ones before sending, so those don't change the count. Accented letters can. If you text Spanish-speaking supporters, this breakdown of which Spanish accents break GSM-7 is worth five minutes.

How often to text supporters

No carrier sets a frequency rule. The limit is set by your supporters' patience and by what you promised on the opt-in form. If the checkbox said "up to 4 msgs/month," stay at or under four.

A workable rhythm for most organizations:

• Baseline: two to four texts a month to the general supporter list.
• Transactional texts on top: shift reminders and event-day logistics go only to the people involved, so they don't add to the general list's count.
• Giving days: a short, planned run of texts (a heads-up, the day itself, a thank-you), once our written OK is in place.
• Segment the list: volunteers, event attendees and donors want different texts. Sending everything to everyone is the quickest way to grow your opt-out count.

Watch opt-outs after each campaign. A spike after a particular message tells you more than any benchmark.

10DLC registration for a nonprofit

Business texts from a regular 10-digit number have to be registered with the carriers. This is A2P 10DLC. Unregistered traffic gets filtered, so registration isn't optional for a real program. There are two parts:

1. Brand registration identifies your organization: legal name, EIN, address and website. Enter your name and EIN exactly as they appear in IRS records. Mismatches are a common cause of rejection.
2. Campaign registration describes what you'll send: a use-case, a description and sample messages. Your samples should match your real texts, including the opt-out language.

Pick the use-case that matches what you send

If you mostly send shift and event reminders, don't register only a broad marketing campaign out of habit. If you plan to send giving asks, say so in the campaign description and samples. Carriers compare what you send against what you registered. Our guide on matching the use-case to what you actually send walks through the choice.

What it costs and how long it takes on Ready

Registration is handled in the app, with no setup fee. You pay the first month, $25, when you submit. After that the monthly cost is $25 for registration + $2 per number. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days.

You don't have to wait idle while you're in review:

• Your first 20 texts are free. They're one-to-one sends, not campaigns, and they end the moment you pay for a registration. Use them to test before you register.
• An account can send up to 500 texts a month before registering, at the normal per-text rate. After that it has to register.
• If you bought your number before registering, you send on Ready's shared registration at the same per-text rate while your own registration is in review.

To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it.

Brand vetting ($79 Standard / $179 Enhanced, one-time) is optional. It raises your trust score and daily throughput limits. Most nonprofits sending to a few thousand supporters don't need it. It becomes worth considering once your daily volume is high enough that throughput caps actually limit you.

Opt-outs, quiet hours and list hygiene

Opt-outs

When someone replies STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE, Ready honors it automatically. The opt-out applies across every campaign on the account, so that person can't be texted again by a different campaign or a different staff member. If you send through the API, opted-out numbers are refused up front and not charged. Your opt-in confirmation and occasional reminders should still say "Reply STOP to opt out." Carriers look for it, and supporters appreciate it.

Quiet hours

Ready holds sends outside permitted local hours, based on the recipient's area. A campaign scheduled at 8 AM Eastern won't reach a West Coast supporter at 5 AM. Those texts wait for 8 AM in the supporter's own time and are charged only when they send. You should still pick good times yourself. Late morning or early evening on a weekday, such as 10 AM or 6 PM local time, is a reasonable default for updates. Shift reminders follow the shift schedule. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.

Scrubbing and validation

Phone numbers change hands, and some get reassigned to people who never heard of you. Two optional tools help:

• TCPA & DNC litigator scrub (standalone): $0.005 per contact. It checks each number against known TCPA-litigator and DNC-complainer lists and flags matches before you send. TCPA exposure runs $500 to $1,500 per text, so a scrub before importing an older donor list is cheap insurance. It does not make you lawsuit-proof.
• Per-send compliance options: scrubbing and landline validation can each be switched on for an account. Each adds $0.003 per segment. Both are off by default.

Compliance remains the sender's responsibility. These tools reduce risk. They don't move responsibility for consent onto us.

What it costs on Ready

Ready's Standard rate is $0.0075/segment, plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. The rate is the same at every volume. Replies you receive are billed the same way as sent texts. The compliance options above add $0.003 per segment each, only if you switch them on. Billing is prepaid credits through Stripe, and carrier fees are itemized separately, which makes the bill easier to explain to a finance committee. Current details are on our pricing page.

To be straightforward about it: raw carrier APIs such as Twilio, and GoHighLevel's built-in LC Phone, charge less per message. You get two things from Ready for the higher rate:

• Self-serve registration: you can be live in minutes, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days.
• The full platform: contacts, campaigns, drip campaigns, a unified inbox for two-way replies, and the compliance features above.

If your team has a developer and wants to build the opt-in, opt-out and quiet-hours logic itself, a raw API is a fine choice. If you don't, the platform is what you're paying for.

If you run software that texts on behalf of many nonprofits, such as a donor CRM or an event platform, each organization can get its own sub-account with its own numbers and its own 10DLC registration through the API. The quickstart docs cover the setup.

The practical takeaway

1. Add an optional, unchecked text opt-in to your donation, event and volunteer forms this week. Store the record in your own system.
2. Start with reminders and shift texts. They're the easiest to get right and the most useful to supporters.
3. Register your brand and campaign with your exact IRS name and EIN, and match the use-case to what you'll actually send.
4. Before any donation appeal, get our written OK first.
5. Keep to the frequency you promised, and watch opt-outs after every campaign.

If you want to try it, sign up, use your 20 free one-to-one texts to test a reminder before you register, then submit your registration once your opt-in forms are live.

Frequently asked questions

Can a nonprofit text donors without their permission?

No. Texting donors requires consent to receive texts specifically. A donation, an email signup or a phone number on a form is not enough. Add an optional text opt-in to your forms, and reach people who haven't opted in by mail or phone instead.

Do nonprofits need 10DLC registration?

Yes. Nonprofits sending texts from a regular 10-digit number need A2P 10DLC registration just like businesses do. On Ready the charge at submit is $25, the monthly cost is $25 for registration + $2 per number, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days.

How many texts a month should a nonprofit send?

Two to four a month to the general supporter list is a sensible baseline. Shift and event reminders go only to the people involved, so they come on top of that. Whatever number you choose, state it on the opt-in form and stay within it.

What happens when a supporter replies STOP?

They are opted out automatically, across every campaign on the account. On Ready, that number can't be texted again until the person opts back in. Texts to opted-out numbers are refused before sending and not charged.

Can a nonprofit send texts in Spanish?

Yes. Texts in Spanish can cost more per message, because some accented characters switch the message to unicode encoding. Unicode drops the segment limit from 160 to 70 characters, so a short Spanish text can become several billed segments. Check your character count before scheduling a bilingual campaign.

Before your first donation appeal: our acceptable use policy needs Ready's written OK for fundraising texts. Email support@tryready.com with your organization's name and its charity registration, or for a candidate, committee or PAC its FEC or state filing ID, and wait for our reply before you send an appeal.