Episode 248: How to Effectively Use Texting to Build the Relationship
Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.
As always, I'm honored that you take a few minutes of your day to join me, Randall, on this edition of A round with Randall. I want to jump into a subject that ten years ago, I would have argued is invasion of privacy. And yet today, I think, is standard in something that we have to make a norm as a part of what we do in our communication, relationship building process.
And that's texting as the evolution of communication continues in the world. I see it all the time. People are unfortunately, at times I believe, spending more and more moments of their day with their noses in their phone. Texting is a big part of that. I would argue that the messaging that you do on some of the social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram and other things like that, videos aside, is along the same lines.
People are gathering more of their connection to the world, to others through artificial means. And I don't mean artificial intelligence. I mean it's not face to face. I'm old school. I enjoy being in front of people, but at the end of the day, we have to morph to where people are in everything that we do, particularly as it pertains to philanthropy, in the relationship building process.
What we want to talk about today is how to do this in in a meaningful, productive and respectful way. At the end of the day, we want to try to reinforce the ideas of donor impact, donor connection, stewardship. How do we really give a sense of attentiveness to people that are using these means and modes of what I call phone communication, texting as a large part of their connection to who we are and maybe where their world is.
At the same time, we have limited resources, so at the end, we'll get into some of the options that may be available to you to maximize this without doing 5000 texts per month individually, which is not really feasible. As I mentioned, at the top ten years ago, I would have believed this was invasion of privacy that the texting that occurs on a regular basis, much of the time is unwanted.
I might have been a little less wrong then, but I'm definitely, if I were to hold true to that today, totally wrong. In the modern world of communication, most of us have received texts from unknown people on a regular basis that we know are what it would. I would classify spam. Happens to me quite frequently. I don't know how somebody's got my cell phone number, but they keep texting me, asking me if I want to sell my house.
Let me answer that for the world. No. The next move I make is, I guess, a burial plot in the backyard. I'm not going anywhere. But, boy, people seem to send me texts all the time and you get all kinds of crazy texts. And obviously there are scams out there doing the same. So we've created an environment where people will most naturally connect to the world through texting.
And so we have to find a more effective way of doing this. And in doing so, we have to also realize that with digital saturation, we have to stand out. So let's start with kind of the philosophical why texting matters. Why is this something we have to master? So interestingly enough, different studies, statistic statistics, is a different, that we interesting website that does a lot of tracking around different statistics.
They say that Americans check their phone 96 times a day. Now, I don't think they're checking it for the stock information or what the markets are doing for half of that. Much of the time it's about communication in some way, shape or form. So I mentioned the top. I would throw Facebook and other things into this and how people choose platforms to communicate that if we don't do this, people are spending more and more time with their phone.
And what we also know is, is the open rate or the the willingness to read rate from text to email is significantly different. Mobile quarter did a study and found that 98% of the open rate occurs in texting, meaning only 2% of the time they're not. Someone's not really looking or reading the text. Email open rates are 20 to 30%.
So if we're just talking about getting in front of people, texting is more than three, possibly four times more. More efficient. More, more, more engaging. At least in terms of getting a message in front of someone. We also know when we talk about generations, that younger generations are increasingly depending on their phones. And so we might look at it from the standpoint the old school old soul and maybe just old Randall here.
Modern texting is the equivalent to old school phone calls. And yet it's faster, more direct, probably a little more informal, which has a positive and a negative outcome, which we're going to talk about here in a few minutes, about how you can use that to your advantage. The bottom line is, is that if you're not texting, if you're not engaging with donors in these, in these methods, if you're waiting for people to get back to you and not using texting as an affirmative way to get in front of people, you're already behind and I have to be candidate kind of hurts me to say that, because I was one of the people thinking about just
coming out of the great, recession from, you know, 2008 or 9 to, you know, some time at 12 or 13 saying, oh, no, no, no, no. I was wrong. It's just the way it is. So we want to try to break this down into several different pools. So how am I going to do this? We're going to start moving into the tax with which we try to do it.
Every episode here on round with Randall. We're going to talk about prospect identification and outreach how you do that. We'll take a jump into stewardship and how you might look at texting for that. We also want to talk about giving opportunities and talking a little bit about what that might mean. And finally we're going to talk about the tech.
What are some tools out there that you can use this for. So the first three are about relationships. And then giving a part of that. And then the last one is about the technology that can be a part of this. So let's start with prospect. Identification outreach. Maybe it's people you don't know. First and foremost, you need to have cell phones.
More and more often. They're easily found to research. And this is why prospect management research is critically important to give gift officers the tools they need. And if you don't have it, you've got to go do some digging on Google. But more often than not, cell phones can be found. There are several services that are out there websites free that I can get into, and I've got them tagged in my in my, bookmarks where I can do a deep dive into people.
And you might get a phone number too, and you might have to try a couple of them. But if we're identifying prospects or beginning the relationship building process, the first thing, the thing thing that I would articulate is that texting alone is not enough. I believe that texting should be part of an arsenal of outreach and trying to get in front of people that include emails and phone calls.
Everybody communicates differently. And so if you're using this proper process where you're calling them emailing, then texting, you can use the texting in a referral point, as in I've sent you an email or I've made a phone call, left a voicemail. And in doing so, it will shorten the text message. What you'll hear most often throughout this podcast is I give advice on this as I've kind of thought about it, listening to clients talk to and with some people, and also done the research is the shorter the text, the more likely it is to be read.
This is not the texting that we want in general that I do to my family, or we do with each other where there are long tax sentences. You want to use proper grammar, which we'll get to in a moment, but you have to create short verbiage. People don't want to read a lot. So if you can use the texting as a mechanism to refer to something else, that shortens the amount of characters that you might use.
So what does it look like for prospect identification? It could be. Bob, I just left you a voicemail. One thank you for your donation. Just reaching out to talk with donors about why they think we're so important and what's important to them. It might be maybe they attended an event. Gosh, Bob, I love it. Thank you for attending our event.
I'd love if we had a chance to chat. I'd love to hear more about what resonated with you most, why you came. It can be used for all kinds of things, but it shouldn't be meant in the introduction. Prospect identification stage as being used for for deep conversations. It's for appointment setting. It's for to gain access. And so if you start with that mentality, you will limit the number of characters because you're not trying to tell an entire story.
It's to get access to either talk with them or more importantly, get in front of them. So you want to have short, timely, personalized texts. I start almost every text unless it's with my family, with a name, heart and Bob, it's Randall Hallett at your nonprofit. You'd be surprised how much easier that makes it for people to read.
I use this in a personal level for people that I don't normally see or text that often, because I don't want them to be surprised. Oh, they know exactly who it is. Oh, I know what he or she wants.
The second thing is, is that while your text should be short, timely and personalized, it shouldn't be copy and paste, spam, or just constantly forwarding and or responding to your to your own self in follow up to a text you sent that they didn't answer to. If you do that, that's how you get blocked. That's how you get called spam and probably justifiably, what we need to do is concentrate on that access point and not just creating kind of a repetitious, boring copy paste, email or text.
In this case short, I would love to hear more. Think something about them. Something that connects them. Their donation, their attendance. Maybe they were grateful. Patient. You're following up. Doctor Smith wanted me to talk with you. Maybe it's educational. Hey, the dean's out talking with people or professor so-and-so. Want me to say hello to you? How do you make it personalized?
The best group of people that this is good for is kind of those mid-level donors. I talk about mid-level giving that it's a couple calls and maybe, maybe a cup of coffee if it's high enough. But texting can be a part of that in creating connection. And it's for emerging major donors. It's for trying to get in front of people.
It's not meant to completely replace the voicemail, but as I mentioned, augment it in a positive way. So the first group of people we can use texting with is prospect identification or new relationships trying to get in front of people. The second is impact. And this is all about stewardship. This one is the most underutilized aspect of texting, and I think the most vibrant tell you a story which has nothing to do with philanthropy.
I attended a Nebraska football game here recently where they did a light show which is, full of, on the field. They put, I guess, cauldrons out or something where flames come out, the lights all go down, everyone's got their cell phone lights on, there's a drone show, there's lights going all over the place. I mean, it's really kind of amazing.
I videotaped or videotaped shows you how old I am. I recorded this on my phone for my daughter because she didn't attend the game too late, and she did things she loves. But what I thought about was my the rest of my family wasn't there, and what kind of Nebraska homers and attended enough games as a family in the years past, and none of them were there except for my son that I sent to my two sisters, my mom, my wife, my brothers in law, just for context, the reason I'm telling you this story is, is that it's kind of like stewardship.
It was a three minute video clip of this Late Show, and the responses I got back from my sisters in particular and my mom were like, that is unbelievable. Thank you so much. I felt like I was there.
It's the same kind of thought process we have with stewardship. I wanted them to enjoy this as much as I was. I wanted my sisters, my mother, the family that I grew up with had been attending these games for more than a century. If we go back, in the harlots of the past, to feel that emotional connection, I wanted to share this kind of emotional center that I had with this particular moment, with them.
Well, I thought about it when I was putting this all together, and I thought, that's exactly what stewardship is. How do you elicit emotion and wanting to share something that they were involved with? So these can be quick impact reports, a photo of a new lab, or maybe a new professor or somebody teaching in a class that they've supported, or a scholarship recipient, a thank you note, a quick video of something we want to follow.
All privacy. We're not looking to exploit anybody. We want to make sure all permissions are granted. But how cool is it to send something of that nature very quickly from a stewardship perspective? And with iPhones today, you can or Google phones, you can do this in simplicity. It's easy, even something as simple as birthday messages. I'm finding myself sending more and more gifts.
Birthday messages. Hey, was thinking about, you know, your birthdays today. I'm going to do one here in a moment saying I'm thinking about you. Hope you're having a great day. Simple, easy.
You could do things like program milestones when something happens, maybe again with that picture or something that says, you were part of this, you made this happen. The idea is, is that you bring them into a space that they don't normally see, feel or know by using texts. And this should be done constantly. How easy is this? And yet I don't think it is elevated to the level it should be.
What it's all about is reinforcing that donors impact and connection, and that shows a kind of a sense of a sense of attentiveness that comes with that relationship. But it doesn't take a lot of immense time in this process. Texting for stewardship can elevate relationships. It's not a substitute for that individual conversation. As we've talked about another podcast, that really stewardship is another term that should be overlaid with cultivation, but it's that additional emotional connection that might be useful.
The third major area that we want to talk about before getting into some of the kind of technical, tech driven ways to use this, is the idea of giving. Now, this is probably not going to be used for $100,000 gift. So I want to be honest upfront, but from a leadership annual giving perspective or an annual giving ship perspective, what a great way to give people an opportunity to be engaged at a level they may not have thought of in the previous moment, if the open rate is 98%, as we discussed earlier, sometimes lives are just busy and people forget giving Tuesdays.
Hey, did you know it's Giving Tuesday? Just a reminder, you can match that gift with a double impact, match that we have going currently or that you can find a way of connecting someone's previous gifts to elevate. Maybe it's. You gave them enough money to sponsor one students summer stipend or program. Would you do a second?
You could do follow up on pledges. This is could be highly effective. You're in and might actually be in the major gift conversation. Probably more on the stewardship side. But hey you you your pledge payments to here at the end of the year, what can I do to help you get that done? Here's a link to do it online credit card, or I'll be glad to come by and pick up a check.
All of these are ways in which you can nudge people towards a gift. Now there's a couple things you need to realize in this process, and I would call it discretion. That should be paramount is number one is this is when a relationship already exists. This is where nonprofits have got themselves in trouble when they're blasting out email or excuse me text messages.
I'd say emails as well to people they have no idea and we get a bad name. This is when we have a relationship, when we want to do this text for giving opportunity. It's not meant as a blanket, it's meant as a relationship enhancer. And number two, it can't be pushy. It's just got to be a reminder. Hey, here's an option.
Take advantage of it. Don't. We're good. It's almost as if you're saying if you don't respond or don't do what I say, everything's still totally okay. Between us, our relationship with the organization.
This is really important in smaller organizations as well, because you can use this texting effort as a peer to peer fundraising campaign with volunteers. So it's a way to expand your horizon with people again that you already know or that you're, let's say, fundraising captains or committee or whatever board already know.
Giving opportunities in the world of digital giving is just where we're all going to land. Most of us have already kind of gotten there. It's amazing. I do all of our philanthropic giving now online, all of it. And I am not. Mr. technology is. If you've listened to any podcast or have the probably the unfortunate distinction of knowing me would say a brand doesn't know anything about this is not his go to thing.
So use it as an opportunity to remind not to push. I want to spend just a couple minutes enclosure talking about technology that exists. This has been an amazing jump in the last particularly five years, but I'd say ten overall. In terms of what technologies out there, there are the simple things. Many CRMs now include some type of it's a custom additive, solution or add or add on.
It may cost you just a little bit of money, but it's an add on to your CRM that you can do. Texting is a part of it. Now, in that vein, I find it to be more.
Basic, not as, the ability to to craft individual eyes is a little more challenging depending on the system. So it's something to keep in mind. But you should start with if cost is a consideration and time asking the question, does our CRM possibly provide this opportunity? There are texting online platforms you can use not quite apps per se, but if you are a small nonprofit and you don't have a lot of staff time, you can look at things like texted Lee or easy texting that provide mass texting and personalization as a part of that.
Again, got to be careful where you use these. In the three areas we discussed, whether it's an individual relationship and or already established relationship versus just blasting things out through text and get through. Those are two separate are good for one on one texting. If you don't want to use your individual cell phone number, so provides a platform to do so.
Twilio is for organizations and these are custom based solutions where you got a kind of a developer tech lead who's helping you build out customize texting. So if you're trying to do a lot of, let's say, a campaign and you want there to be a lot of videos going out to donors or prospects that are more mass, but they look more individualized.
This is a project or service, and I'm not here to endorse one over another. I'm just giving you examples. The point is, is that there's technology out there to help you. By the way, not very expensive. So you've got multiple options. You've got your own cell phone to do it. Got that putting in the text, taking videos. You've got online platforms that can do it to help you build relationships through texting with identification of or entry into the relationship.
So we talked about getting that time in front of someone, stewardship, making them feel emotionally connected in a quick and meaningful way, and then also the giving opportunities, probably not on the highest end, but on the mid-level and maybe some reminders, but also on, our annual giving platforms. All of this is to bring us to the final thought I was wrong.
I've said this 2 or 3 times. You gotta use texting, dear Advantage. It's another arrow in your quiver of options to build out the ability to deepen relationships. And that's the important piece of this. It's another tool in that long term transfer, transformational giving process that we aim for. And I'll take anything legal and ethical that allows me to do that and help my clients do that with their donors.
Don't forget to check out the podcast. Here, you can go back. It's more than 250 of them now on any platform you download. Certainly on YouTube. I also recommend checking out the blogs at Hallett philanthropy.com two per week or so of different things that I see read here. Might be leadership related, maybe philanthropy related, or combination thereof.
If you'd like to talk with me, that's podcast@hallettphilanthroppy.com.
Philanthropy is something that I take for granted because it's almost now part of my existence that I live and breathe it every day. And I'm thankful to my creator for the opportunity to serve in the philanthropic way or the fundraising way with the clients that I am privileged to work with. And I look back on the 18 years as a practitioner, and much in the same vein, at the end of the day, our world needs philanthropy to fill that gap that I always talk about between the corporate world, the for profit world that doesn't want to do certain things.
It's not. There's no money to make and government which doesn't do things efficiently. And there's nonprofits in the middle that kind of partner with both or some that make a difference. And you're one of those people, whether a board member, a head of school, a CEO, a gift officer, you're in the infrastructure team, prospect managers, you are someone who makes things happen.
One of the three things I always talk about. Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. Then there are those who wondered what happen. You're someone who makes things happen for the people and places and things in our community that are wondering what happened. I hope you feel it in your bones like I do. That's a part of who you are professionally, because at the end of the day, there's no better way to spend a career.
I can't imagine doing anything else because this is my way. Small, tiny, not earth shattering, but my way. Hopefully your way of making your world your community a better place. We'll look forward to seeing you the next time. Right back here on the next edition of Around with Randall. Don't forget. Make it a great day.