Texting is a powerful tool for you and your dedicated volunteers. Learn how to use GC Texting within Volunteer Management.

Did you know...? A solicitation from a volunteer is 44% more likely to be successful than one sent from an institution. 

We are excited to be able to equip your volunteers with texting as a communication and solicitation option. As an administrator in GC Volunteer Management, you will also be able to text your volunteers.

1. Getting Started: 

Once texting is enabled for your institution, you can access it through the Volunteer Management solution. If you haven't set up your texting preferences yet, refer to our GCU article GCU article "Getting Started with GC Texting" to ensure compliance and optimize your experience. 

 

2. What can we do with Texting?

At a high level: 

• Admins can send text messages to any/all constituents within the system. 
• Admins can text volunteers 1:1, or in bulk by role or class year.
• Admins can text volunteers in groups, like lead class agents or reunion chairs.
• Admins can choose which volunteers have access to texting via Role-based settings.
• Admins can create text message templates for volunteers to use.
• Volunteers can text their assignments.

 3. Adding and Updating Cell Phone Numbers:

In order to text volunteers within GC Volunteer Management, your volunteers' records must include a cell phone number in the Cell Phone field and an External ID. Follow these steps to update a cell phone number and External ID on a volunteer's record:

• From the Volunteers tab from the admin dashboard, click on a volunteer's name to open their record.
• On the volunteer's record, add/update the cell phone and external ID fields. Note: using special formatting including parentheses and dashes is acceptable. We’ll clean up all formatting when creating participants in text conversations.
• You may also add additional constituents and numbers to be texted by clicking the "Upload Cell Phone Data" tap at the top of the page. This will take you to the Data Importer. 

4. Text Templates:

School admins may create volunteer-specific and admin-specific Text Templates for volunteers and admins to use. Navigate to the templates page by clicking the "Templates" button in the top right of the conversations page.

From here, click "New Template" - you'll be required to provide a unique name for your template and add text in the Content section in order to create the template. Note that there are merge fields available as gray buttons to the right of the Content section for your use. You can also toggle between "Template Type" to choose between Admin and Volunteer. This determines which type of user will see which templates.

To update an existing template, click on the template's name to navigate to the update page. 

To remove the template as an option for volunteers or admins, simply uncheck the active checkbox. When this is unchecked, we will not display the template within the texting interface.

To use a template, head back to the Conversations page and click into a conversation. You'll see gray template tokens above the "Type reply here" section. Click on a template token to add the template's text into the message box.

5. Text Conversations:

What is a text conversation? This functionality allows admins to create either a 1-1 conversation or a group conversation with up to 9 volunteers (10 users total). This is different from Text Campaigns, which allows you to send a 'mass' message to a defined segments, initiating a 1-1 conversation with each recipient. Campaigns are akin to the email experience volunteers currently have. 

Great! I want to create a text conversation. To create a text conversation either 1-1 or with up to 9 participants, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the texting page by starting at your Volunteer Management admin dashboard, then clicking on the Texting tab.
2. Click on "New Conversation" to head to the New Conversation page. You can choose a nickname for the conversation. This is an optional step, and if a nickname is provided, it will appear in the sidebar on the conversations page).
3. Set your first message to be sent. Note: If an Opt-out message is required, it will be automatically included
4. Select your participants (up to 9 volunteers) and click the "Create conversation" to send your text(s) - your new conversation will appear on the right window, and a list of your previous text conversations will appear in the left window.
   1. Note: If you've selected multiple participants, you'll see an option to Create Group Conversation with all selected constituents in a single text, or to Create Individual Conversations to send a message to each recipient individually.

 

6. Text Campaigns:

What is a text campaign? A text campaign gives admins the ability to text many constituents or volunteers at once based on a segment of who should receive the text. When a text campaign is sent, it creates 1:1 conversations between the school and the selected recipients. Note: text campaigns are only available for admins. Volunteers will not be able to create text campaigns.

This functionality is different from text conversations (described above in "Text Conversations"), which allow users to create either a 1-1 conversation or a group conversation with up to 9 other people (10 total).  Campaigns are akin to the email experience volunteers currently have in GC Volunteer Management, where users are initiating a mass message that constituents receive as a 1-1 message.

Great! I want to create a text campaign. To create a new text campaign, click on “New Text Campaign” in the top right of the "Conversations" page. 

Set a nickname, then use the query builder to determine which group of constituents should receive this text campaign. Be sure to click "Save Condition" and then you can use the "Continue" button to move on to the sending page:

 

Use the "Message" section to customize the message you would like your volunteers to receive. Feel free to add in merge tokens from the drop-down. 

Use the "Opt-Out Message" section to customize the message that any volunteers in the list who have NOT yet received the opt-out/identification compliance message from your school phone number will now receive. Within the Volunteers list on the left, the “Opt Out will be sent” message will display next to volunteer's name in the Volunteers list for whom this applies.

Click the "Send text campaign" button at the bottom of the page to begin sending your 1-1 text campaign messages.

7. Admin Notifications:

We currently have two texting notifications that can be sent to admins in GC Volunteer Management. An admin must enable the option to receive text message notifications in order to receive either type of notification when the relevant action takes place.

You can enable notifications for any admin by navigating to the "Administrators" tab on the Volunteer Management Dashboard. On this page, you should see the column “New Text Message Notifications”:

When you select “Yes” for an admin, that admin will receive a pop up confirmation the choice. After confirming you want to make the change, you will receive a final confirmation.

Admins who have been selected to receive text message notifications will receive two notification types:

New Text Notification - When a new text comes into the Volunteer Management, we set a timer to notify school admins in 5 minutes. If any admin reads the new text within that 5 minute window, we will not send the notification. If a notification is sent, it will look like the screenshot below, and the link included in the notification will direct the admin to the conversation that contains the new text message.

New Opt-Out Notification - When a constituent uses the STOP message to Opt-out of additional text messages, we set a timer to notify school admins in 5 minutes. If the user accidentally opted out and decides to opt back in before that 5 minute window passes, we will not send the notification. If a notification is sent, it will look like the screenshot below, and the link included in the notification will direct the admin to the conversation that contains the opt-out request.

 

8. The Volunteer Experience:

Volunteers within GC Volunteer Management are able to text their assignments 1:1 or by sending a group text to their assignments. 

Enabling Volunteer Texting by Role

To enable texting for your volunteer role(s), navigate to the Roles page by starting at your Volunteer Management admin dashboard > click on the Roles tab > select the role for which you'd like to enable texting. The permission will appear on the role page within the “What this role can do” section:

 

Be sure to save your changes by clicking the "Save Role" button at the bottom of the page. Repeat this process for all Volunteer roles who should have access to this texting feature.

Testing the Volunteer Texting Experience: Ghost as a Volunteer 

Once the texting is enabled for the relevant volunteer roles, you can choose to Ghost as a volunteer within a role to test their volunteer experience with the texting feature. To Ghost, search for that volunteer within the "Volunteers" tab, click into a Volunteer's record, and click the "Ghost User" button in the upper right. 

Once you are ghosting as a volunteer, click into “Texting” section from the sidebar to view the texting page.

Click "New Conversation," and you will see Conversation Settings and Select Recipients sections. Note: We will exclude constituents who do not have cell phone numbers from this list. 

Select a recipient by typing "All" to see a full list, or typing a specific assignment's name to add. Once recipients are confirmed, click "Create conversation" to create a conversation with the assignments. To continue the conversation, the volunteer can use any templates that admins have previously created with type set to "Volunteer." Those available templates will display just above the "Text reply here" section as gray buttons to select.

Volunteer Notifications

When a new text for a volunteer is delivered, we set a timer to notify the volunteer who created the text conversation in 5 minutes. If the volunteer reads the new text before that 5 minute window passes, we will not send the notification. If a notification is sent, it will look like the screenshot below, and the link included in the notification will direct the volunteer to the conversation that includes the next text.

 

9. Questions?

Visit our Texting FAQs article here to explore some of the most common texting questions! Email us in support@givecampus.com if your question isn't covered! 

10. Quick FAQs

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.