Answers to the most frequently asked questions about GC Texting!
General Questions:
Q: How long will it take to onboard?
- A: As of October 2023, onboarding for partners may take up to 2 weeks from the time the GC Texting onboarding information is submitted to Twilio, while Twilio works to implement new A2P 10DLC regulations (see Twilio communications here). While this may cause delays, these regulations are designed to reduce SPAM, making your texts more effective.
Q: What should I know about texting compliance?
- A: While GiveCampus helps with SMS compliance, it's ultimately the school's responsibility to essure adherence to US SMS guidelines and institutional policies. You can read more here. The most critical compliance information to be aware of is:
- Any number that the school texts through GiveCampus should have received previous opt-in consent before being texted.
- Whenever a school uses a new number to text someone, they must identify who they are and how a user can opt out of receiving messages from them.
Q: Can we choose the number our texts come from?
- A: You can choose the area code, and you can state a preference for the next three digits but it will depend on what is available from our provider as the whether we are able to honor that request.
Q: Can we text international phone numbers through GiveCampus?
- A: No, international texting is not currently supported.
Q: What happens if a recipient calls the phone number sending texts?
- A: The recipient will receive a voice response that you have set up in your Settings > Voice Response.
Q: How many texts can our school send per day?
- A: A school can send 5,000 text per day, based on the standard contract, but be mindful that you will be invoiced for texts above your subscription level.
- You can view your daily and overall texting usage on the “settings” page within the texting solution. It should be noted that this hard cap also includes messages received. EX: you send 4,500 texts and get 600 responses. You will only be able to respond with 500 texts in response that day. If you have a use case where you would like to extend this limit, please reach out to support@givecampus.com to start the conversation.
- If you want to see how many texts you've sent for your whole subscription you can reach out to your support@givecampus.com
Q: How fast do texts go out?
- A: We are able to send 1 message/second (~3600 texts/hour), so very large campaigns can take a long time (hours) to go out and administrators should plan accordingly.
- GC Texting uses the A2P 10DLC system and, under that system, Client is assigned a trust score that may limit message sending throughput (messages per second) and message limits on a carrier-by-carrier basis.
- There are two types of messages: SMS and MMS messages. MMS contains additional data and may take longer to deliver.
Q: What happens if we think we will exceed our texting subscription level (number of texts)?
- A: If you identify the fact that you are likely to exceed your subscription before you go over, you can reach out to your Partner Success Manager and purchase an addendum texting allowance. However, if you exceed your allowance already you will be charged the standard fee of $0.04 per text segment sent or received message above the Subscription Level in a given Subscription Period but please confirm price and terms via your texting contract. You will be invoiced monthly for any texts sent above your subscription allowance.
Q: Can we add emojis into texts and text templates?
- A: 👍🏼🎉👍🏼🎉 (yes)
Q: Will administrators receive a notification outside of the GiveCampus platform if a constituent replies to a text?
- A: Yes, but only if the administrator has enabled “New Text Message” notifications within the Administrators tab and more than 5 minutes have passed without the message being read.
Q: How many numbers can we purchase?
- A: You may purchase 1 number for the Admin Dashboard and up to 5 for use within GC Volunteer Management - for a total of 6.
Q: Does a GC Texting conversation have to be initiated by an Admin or Volunteer, or could a donor text one of the designated numbers to initiated a conversation and have follow up occur in the dashboard?
- A: GC Texting conversations must be initiated in the platform by an Admin or Volunteer.
Q: What columns are included when I download a CSV of text messages from the "Settings" and have it emails to me?
- A: The columns included in the CSV are as follows: Text Conversation ID, Text Message ID, Sender Name, Sender Number, Direction, Message, Created At
Data Upload:
Q: How do I get cell phone data into GiveCampus
- A: Using the Data Import tool in the School Dashboard.
Q: Is there a limit to the number of constituents that can be uploaded?
- A: No, not at this time!
Q: Does GiveCampus validate that the cell phone numbers uploaded by schools are valid cell phones (i.e. not landlines)?
- A: Yes. If you try to text an invalid number, GiveCampus will let you know.
Q: Are the phone numbers that are loaded into the texting solution all verified cell phone numbers?
- A: No, it depends on the data that you load but the system will recognize when a number is not a cell phone number and it will not text those numbers.
Q: Is there a way to merge the informal salutation instead of the first name?
- A: No, you would need to upload a new file that places the informal salutation in the first name field.
Opt Outs:
Q: What does it look like when a constituent opts out of a text?
- A: When a user opts out of the texting platform, the conversation page will display a message that they can no longer be texted because they’ve opted out. They will not be selectable when creating a new conversation or when sending a text campaign
Q: Can a constituent opt back in?
- A: Yes! If the constituent sends a text "Start" to the same text, that user will be opted back in. It will look like this:
Q: What happens when one individual unsubscribes by typing “STOP” into a group text?
- A: School administrators using GC Texting would no longer be able to text the group and would need to start a new conversion without the person who unsubscribed. The constituents that did not unsubscribe would remain textable. With this said, the individuals in the group text COULD continue to text the person that unsubscribed from the thread as they are not administrators and subject to the same texting rules.
Q: If someone opts out and we upload a new cell number for them, will they be textable again?
- A: Opt out is by unique number versus constituent. However, only updates to cell phone made by the Data Importer will be updated. Cell phone changes made within the VMS will not be updated. EX: If someone has a work number and a personal number that both accept SMS messages, that person can opt our of just one and will continue to receive messages on the other.
Q: If someone opts out of our GC Texts, will they be opting out of our emergency texting system?
- A: Opt out is by number when replying STOP. Most of our partners use a dedicated emergency system, and therefore different number, for emergency texts.
Q: Where can I export a list of Opt Outs?
- A: Texting > Settings > Export Text Messages > Opt Out Message
Q: Can school admins opt out constituents from the dashboard?
- A: If you need to add a constituent to the opt out list manually, you can do so in two ways:
- Create and upload a custom segment of opt outs and filter that segment out of text campaigns that are sent
- Create a solicit code (ex: Do Not Text) and upload those through the School Level Data Importer and configure that solicit code to remove them from texting. You can configure that solicit code from your School Dashboard > Settings > Restrictions.
Text Campaigns:
Q: How can we segment text campaigns within the GiveCampus platform?
- A: We have different options to segment your texting campaigns below:
- Computed Donor Status
- Given to Campaign / Giving Form
- Class Year
- Custom Segment
- RSVP'd to an Event (GC Events only)
- Registered for an Event (GC Events only)
- Volunteer: Affiliation (VMS only)
- Volunteer: Role (VMS only)
*Note: ‘computed donor status’ and ‘given to campaign/giving form’ are updated when a donor gives via a GiveCampus fundraising solution or updated by VMS data automation or the Data Importer.
Q: Can we segment by other constituent affiliations beside Class Year?
- A: Yes, you'll just need to ensure you add affiliation data when you upload to the data importer.
Texting in the VMS:
Q: Will an admin be notified when a volunteer is texted?
- A: No. Admins will only receive unread message emails for texts from volunteers. Similarly, volunteers will only receive unread message emails for texts sent by their assignments.
Q: When multiple admins text the same volunteer, will these messages come from the same phone number?
- A: Yes. And the messages will be in the same text thread.
Q: When multiple admins text the same volunteer, will each admin need to include the identification and opt-out language in the first message they send, or will only the first admin to message the recipient need to do this?
- A: Only the first admin will need to include the identification and opt-out language.
Q: If admins set an Auto Response, does that Auto Response get sent in response to ALL inbound texts for the school? Or only inbound texts coming to admins (but not to volunteers)?
- A: Only inbound texts from volunteers to admins will receive the Auto Response.
Q: How many volunteers can text a single, shared assignment?
- A: Up to four volunteers can text the same, shared assignment.
Q: When multiple volunteers text the same assignment, will each volunteer need to include the identification and opt-out language in the first message they send, or will only the first volunteer to message the recipient need to do this?
- A: When volunteers text the same shared assignment, we use a new phone number to manage the conversation. Each volunteer will need to include the identification and opt-out language because they are using a new phone number.
Q: If two volunteers text with the same (shared) assignment, will they see one another's texts?
- A: When volunteers text the same shared assignment, we use a new phone number to manage the conversation. Each volunteer will only see the messages they have sent and received.
Q: Does GC Texting feed into a volunteer’s outreach and dashboard?
- No, not at this time.
Q: If someone receiving a text sends back something like “Please stop sending me texts”, will GiveCampus unsubscribe them automatically?
- No, they need to text the word “STOP” specifically. We would recommend sharing that with them so that you facilitate thoughtfully honoring their wishes.
Q: If two different volunteers are assigned to the same constituent, what happens?
- A: If two different volunteers are texting the same constituent then we will use two different numbers for the conversation so that this is no overlap in numbers. When a volunteer is unassigned from a constituent we will archive the conversation so that the number becomes available for another volunteer to use in the future.