What is the texting experience with the Fundraising Thermometer?

When you are promoting your Fundraising Thermometer for your event, we do have scripts to help you speak intelligently about it and several methods to describe the process to your supporters, described in the Event Kit, but other than testing it yourself for all the ways it may work, how does it respond with various entries?

The standard format we describe is that the person pledging should send their text to the short code by entering the Keyword plus the Amount they are Pledging to donate and then their Name:

Text Message Basic Example

Keyword

Text Message Keyword Highlighted

The text message must always start with your keyword. This is the only way it can reach you as an organization. The keyword and the short code associated with it act similarly to an email address, so needs to be exact and always be the initial piece of the text.

What happens if the supporter only texts the keyword?

Text Keyword Only

If your supporter only texts the correct keyword to the shortcode, and they forget or just don't text in their pledge amount and their name, several things may happen:

Supporter not in your database:

If your supporter has not been added to a list in your database, whether from texting to another activity, entering their information on the Confirmation page, or you manually uploading their information, then the Modern Theme Thermometer page will display the "name" Anonymous and use the Default Donation Amount as entered into the Activity's Suggested Amount section.
Anonymous Example

The Classic Theme Thermometer will not show a name and only show the Default Donation Amount.

Note: if your donor would like to remain anonymous when they pledge and donate, this is NOT the way to do it. See below for the Anonymous method on the thermometer.

Supporter is in your database:

If the supporter who is already in your database with their name included and only texted the keyword by itself, or the keyword and a pledge amount only, then their name will appear on the Thermometer next to their pledge.

Amount

Text Message Amount Highlighted

While the most common and easiest way to enter the amount is just to enter the number in dollars, the system is relatively smart on recognizing other styles of amount entry. It will detect the number and correctly report the pledge. Some examples of supported styles of entry are:

$1000
$$1000
1000$
1,000
10.000.00 (This is recognized as a $10,000 pledge)
10.000 (This is recognized as a $10,000 pledge)
1,00 (This is recognized as a $100 pledge)

Note: If the supporter enters the information backwards (Keyword Name Amount), the system will still detect the number and display that as the pledge amount. But it is also looking to the end of the text for the name, so the amount will appear as the name as wekk.

Example: Texting "BALLOONS Travis 250" would result in a name of 250 and an amount of $250 displayed on the thermometer.

Name

Text Message Name Highlighted

The Name section of the texted pledge is actually a freeform part of the text message. This could essentially be anything: a dedication, pet's name, shout outs, etc. But the most common usage is to have your name with your pledge on the screen.

Because this can be anything, you may want to have someone monitor the thermometer at your event, as described here. Also, there is a length consideration; what will fit well on the thermometer. The character counts that work with the thermometer are outlined here.

The name field, since it is a freeform field, is not added as the supporter's name in the list or the contact database. Their phone number will be added, and if they enter their name when completing their donation, their name will be added to their contact information in the database.

While the donor's name will be added to the database, whatever they entered in their text will remain on the thermometer screen; it will not change to their name.

Anonymous Text

To remain anonymous on the thermometer, a supporter should always include something like the word Anonymous when they text their pledge. If they do not enter something for the name field, it will show on the thermometer as Anonymous only until they complete their donation, at which point it will change to show their name.

If they actually include something like "Anon" or "Anonymous" (or anything else) as part of their text, that "name" field will stay on the thermometer.

Response to Text Pledges

With almost every activity, when a supporter texts one of your keywords, they will get a standard reply with the link to the form.

Standard Text Reply

This message will also be sent if they text into a Text-to-Donate activity when they only text the Keyword and not the pledge amount or their name.

In order to curb accidental incorrect amounts, if a supporter enters a pledge amount in their text, the response will include the amount they've pledged to donate and the ability to CANCEL the pledge.

Note: this feature of replying with the supporter's pledge amount is a new option, that has not yet been enabled for everyone. It will be added soon, but if you would like to have this enabled now, contact GiveSmart Fundraise Support and ask for the Advanced pledge response to be turned on for your account.

Pledge Text Reply

If they reply with CANCEL (it is not case sensitive), their pledge will be removed from the thermometer and they will receive a reply confirming the cancelation.

Cancel Pledge

Note: This only works when you have a pledge amount in the text message. If a supporter types CANCEL after a general reply like if they just typed the keyword, then they will be unsubscribed from the organization's account and will no longer receive text messages from the organization. This is the same functionality as texting STOP.

General Cancel