Set up text-to-give

Text-to-give gives supporters a keyword to text. They send it to Donately's number and get your donation link straight back on their phone, which is handy on signage, from a stage, or anywhere a URL is awkward to type.

This used to be called Text Engagement and lived on its own page. It is now a Text-to-Give card on the sharing tools for a campaign or a form, so the keyword is set up next to the thing it points at.

Create a keyword

1. Open the campaign or the form you want the keyword to point at, and go to its Share tab.
2. Find the Text-to-Give card and select Create keyword.
3. Enter the Keyword. It can be 3 to 30 letters or numbers. Keywords are shared across all of Donately, not just your account, so short and distinctive works better than a common word.
4. Enter the Reply message, which is what gets texted back. It must contain your campaign or form link, or donors have no way to give. The limit is 500 characters.
5. Save. The card then shows Text KEYWORD to 844-701-5181 with a copy button, so you can paste that line straight onto a flyer or a slide.

Use Edit to change either field later, and Remove to retire a keyword.

The number

Donately uses one shared toll-free number for the United States and Canada: 844-701-5181. You cannot get a dedicated short code or a vanity number, which is why the keyword has to be unique across all of Donately. What makes your call to action yours is the keyword, not the number.

Limits worth knowing before you plan a campaign

Five keywords per account. If you are at the cap, remove one before creating another. The card tells you when you have hit it.

United States and Canada only. The Text-to-Give card does not appear at all for accounts outside those countries or on other currencies.

One keyword per campaign or form. The card manages the keyword for the page you are on. There is no separate screen listing every keyword in the account, so keep your own note of which keyword points where.

Sample data accounts do not show it. The card is hidden while you are looking at sample data.

Test it

Text your keyword to 844-701-5181 from a real phone. Give it a few minutes after saving.

If you are working against a non-production environment, Donately warns you that the keyword saves but will not answer a real text, because the live number only reads production keywords. Create the keyword from your live account to test it properly.

If the reply comes back without a link, check the Reply message: Donately warns you when the message no longer contains the page's link, and a keyword in that state stops being advertised on the share page.