Welcome! Texting is one of the most personal — and most effective — ways to reach the people in your portfolio. A text gets read in minutes, not days, and it lets you show up like a real person, not another email in a crowded inbox.

This guide walks you through everything you need to start texting constituents from GC GO/Students: what to set up first, how to send your first message, how to stay organized as conversations come in, and how to keep every message compliant. You’ll be texting with confidence in a few minutes.

Before you start: the two prerequisites

Texting only shows up when your school is set up for it. If you don’t see it yet, check these three things with your GiveCampus admin:

1. Texting is enabled for your school. Texting is a feature your school turns on. See this guide for the requirements and onboarding. 
2. You have a phone number assigned. Every gift officer/students texts from their own dedicated number. You can set this up in your Settings page on the Text Messages tab. Each gift officer/student needs to enter in the preferred area code, then click the Create New Texting Number

Send your first text

The most common place to start is right from a task in your portfolio. 

1. Open a task for the constituent you want to reach or assign them to a cadence with a texting step
2. Click Text Constituent in the task’s navigation bar (look for the chat bubble icon).
3. The compose box opens right there. Type your message — or start from a template.
4. If this is your first message to this person, opt-out language will automatically be included. 
5. Click Send.

Your message appears in the thread right away as Pending, then updates to Sent and Delivered as it makes its way to your constituent’s phone. If something goes wrong, you’ll see Failed or Undelivered so you’re never left guessing.

Work faster with templates

If you are using a cadence or find yourself typing the same intro, thank-you, or check-in over and over, save it as a template.

• Create a template from the Communications > Text Templates tab 

Manage your conversations

As replies come in, your Text Conversations inbox keeps everything organized.

• Find it in your GC GO sidebar under Communication > Text Conversations.
• See every thread at a glance — constituent name, a preview of the last message, and an unread badge when someone’s written back.
• Open a thread to see the full back-and-forth in order, with the constituent’s details right alongside it.
• Reply using the same compose box you already know — templates, personalization, and photos all work here too.