GC Outreach 202: Sending Text Messages

Learn how to send text messages through GiveCampus by leveraging GC Outreach Texting.

This course will cover:
- Building your messaging
- Defining your audience using segments
- Sending your text message
- Text conversations

Finding and Managing Text Conversations

Text Conversation Initiation Requirements

When Text Conversations Are Created

Text conversations in GC Outreach are only initiated when you send a text message to a recipient from the platform. Recipients cannot initiate conversations by texting your GC Outreach number first.

How it works:

1. You send a text message through GC Outreach to a recipient
2. A text conversation is automatically created
3. The recipient can then reply to that message
4. Their replies appear in your Text Conversations dashboard

Important Limitations

GC Outreach cannot function as a general chat system:

• Recipients cannot start new conversations by texting your GC Outreach number
• Messages from numbers you haven't texted first will not appear in your dashboard
• There is no "cold contact" messaging capability

To enable two-way messaging:

• You must first send an outreach text to establish the conversation
• Only after receiving your initial message can recipients reply and engage

How to view text message conversations

To see all text conversations and replies from recipients:

2. Search for specific conversations: Use the search bar to find conversations by:

- Recipient name

- Phone number

- Message content

3. View conversation details: Click on any conversation to see the full message thread

Go to Outreach > Conversations

All subsequent replies will be visible in Outreach > Conversations

The Conversations page also includes filter panels to help narrow your results:

• Conversation Status: Filter conversations by those with unread messages, no unread messages, or pending responses.
• Opt Out Status: Show conversations that contain an opt-out message, an opt-in message, or neither.
• Included in Text Campaigns: Filter by the specific text outreach or campaign the conversation originated from.
• Message Senders (admins only): Filter by the team member who sent the initial message.