CDP Conversational Texting is a highly versatile form of communication that can be done all through coordinated campaigns developed exclusively for public media stations in partnership with ACD Direct or by using a simple self-serve online platform (Station Text Portal). Conversational texting, executed by real people (not bots), is key to the future of donor communication. Our agents are fully trained for engaging conversations and ready to assist in your text communication needs. CDP is on the cutting edge of this fundraising channel. 

Texting is an engaging channel: 

• 90% of texts are read within 3 minutes. 

• 74% of consumers will respond to a business text within an hour (compared to 41% for email). 

• 97% of companies found they communicated more efficiently after launching texting initiatives. 

• Texting is the most widely used form of written communication humanity has ever known (more people text than watch TV, and twice as many people text than use social media.) 

Inbound Texting can be used during on-air pledge, spots, events, etc. with a simple call to action like: Call or Text “GIVE” to XXX-XXX-XXXX; the donor takes the initiative to TEXT [to donate]. An agent then responds to the text and provides the donor with information and/or a campaign - specific url to take action (i.e. donate). 

Outbound Texting can be used to communicate with your donors through text as a cultivation or solicitation channel to supplement your current fundraising efforts in mail or email (i.e. renewal reminders, add-gift appeals, membership, event or general station info, etc.). We feel strongly that outbound texting campaigns can offer your station not only the opportunity to communicate and engage more with your donors but also to further improve response rates and revenue. We hope you will take advantage of the many texting campaigns currently available to you. 

Campaign Reporting:  

• Stations can use vendor-provided reports for tracking text activity/volume, conversations, opt-outs, etc.  

• If you use ACD’s Pledgecart donation pages, you can access real-time campaign donation results via their CWW reporting portal. 

• Gifts are sent directly to you via a campaign-specific url on your website for processing. 

• If the donor opts out of texting, that information can be referenced within the vendor report and is stored in the vendor texting platform and suppressed from receiving any future texts. 

• Stations can request a file of mobile numbers identified which can be updated in your CRM manually. 

Texting Campaigns Available:  

• Pledge Drives (promote Text-to-Give to your donors on-air) 

• Renewal Reminders (monthly at end of month; we send two hits around donor’s expire date) 

• Add-Gifts (CYE and FYE only at end of campaign month) 

• Giving Tuesday (includes a thank-you on Thanksgiving Day plus an appeal on Giving Tuesday) 

• We are currently testing the following outbound texting initiatives:  

• Sustainer Recapture (for those sustainers with recent credit card declines) 

• Sustainer Conversion (convert recent one-time donors to sustainers) 

• Thank-you’s 

• Events 

• … and many, many more! 

Costs: 

You only pay $0.20/text—incoming and outgoing. All initial outbound text messages are discounted at the rate of $0.15 (initiated by agents for any outbound campaigns); plus $10 per line each month to cover the service and maintenance of the line for sending and receiving SMS messages.  

Setup is quick and easy; we manage all the data, scripting, and texting.  

Worried about cost? Texting is very cost-effective way to communicate with your donors. Ask about an estimate for any of these text campaigns — we promise you’ll love how affordable texting can be. 

Texting Regulations: 

Because you have an existing relationship with your donors and are texting from an existing station phone number with live agents available to respond, you can text your donors. 

With recent developments in the mobile industry, our texting service provider is working with us to help navigate any new requirements imposed by mobile carrier networks (like Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T). These requirements include registering any text-enabled business phone line(s) used to text your donors and helping protect the consumer from fraud/spam messaging. 

Milestone Alert:  

Stations have raised over $1.5 million in Pledge Drive Revenue via texting since CDP introduced this new giving channel to stations in 2020. There is no longer a question of whether this is a channel that should be a part of your fundraising mix.  

Regardless of where you are in optimizing texting into your channel mix, we recommend that stations - specifically tv stations - have this optimized. PBS has started promoting “Call or text the number on your screen” messaging during national pledge breaks. Activating this new channel and promoting it during your pledge drives will prepare your station to receive donations via text when donors start texting you. 

Testimonials: 

We’ve heard from a few stations that were excited to participate in a recent outbound texting campaign centered around Giving Tuesday. They saw some pretty good results and plan to do more texting soon. Not only did these stations see significant dollars raised for the campaign, but each station also had donation response rates that were 2-4x the group average. We’d say that’s exciting news worth sharing. Congratulations! Thanks to the following stations for their feedback: 

• “This is really exciting to see…Looking forward to more successful texting campaigns.” - Lynn V. (WMHT Public Media) 

• “We were very pleased with the results of the outbound text campaign…We appreciate all of the help you guys provided.” - Kevin C. (WKAR Public Media) 

• “KSPS PBS considers this a major success, and we’d love to be part of future efforts.” - Skyler R. (KSPS PBS) 

Questions? 

For more information about Conversational Texting, please fill out the form below or email Alexa Eliason directly.