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Text2Give

This feature is only available for United States organizations. 

Text2Give allows donors in the United States to give online through text message, which is included in your Giving pricing package. Once this is enabled by an administrator and the donor has completed the initial setup, all they have to do is text a dollar amount to 84321 to donate!

Tip

Want to see other ways to use texting in Planning Center? Check out our Texting Reference Guide!

Enable Text2Give

You can turn Text2Give on or off, set up fund shortcuts, and track text donations from the Settings.

Enabling or Disabling Text2Give

Enable or disable Text2Give from the Settings tab on the Manage page.

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Sharing Text2Give Instructions

To help donors give using Text2Give, you can add these instructions to your church bulletin or website:

Text any amount to 84321 to give. Standard message and data rates may apply. 

Setting Up Fund Shortcuts

By default, incoming text message donations will go to your default fund, but donors can give to other funds by adding the name of their desired fund to their text donation ("$5 building").

If some of your fund names are long, you can set up shortcuts for your funds to help donors choose a fund more easily. For example, a fund called Domestic Missions could be changed to missions.

To enable a shortcut for your fund, check this box in your Fund settings and enter the shortcut name.

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Notice

Fund shortcuts must be at least two characters to work correctly.

Tracking Text2Give Donations

Donations initiated by text message will get an "SMS" stamp, so you can filter and report on these types of donations.

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Text2Give for Donors

Donors can initiate a donation by texting the amount of their donation to 84321, but the main setup is completed on Church Center.

Setup

When donors initiate their first Text2Give donation, they'll receive a message with a setup link. Tapping this link will take them to Church Center on their mobile browser and walk them through these steps:

  1. Find your church.

  2. Log in to your profile.

  3. Add or select a payment method.

  4. Submit the donation.

After setup, donors can text their donation amount to 84321 to initiate an online donation.

Notice

Donors can only have Text2Give enabled with one organization at a time. If a donor has given via Text2Give to another church that has used Giving in the past, they must disconnect from that other organization by texting STOP before they can set up Text2Give with your church.

Giving to Different Funds

By default, Text2Give donations will go to your account's default fund. A donor can indicate a specific fund by adding the fund name after the donation amount. (For example: "$5 building")

Donors can also split donations between funds in a single text by listing the amounts and fund names. (For example: "$5 missions $6 building")

Account Management

Donors can update their Text2Give payment method or disable Text2Give from their donor profile on the web.

  1. Access your profile from Church Center web.

  2. On your profile, click My Giving.

  3. In the Text2Give section, you can update your payment method or disable Text2Give.

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Notice

You can give donors a direct link to the Text2Give settings on Church Center web. Example: https://centerville.churchcenter.com/giving/profile/Text2Give

Text2Give Keywords

The following keywords are available:

REFUND: Donors using a card can reply with this keyword within two hours of donating to initiate an automatic refund. This is a refund, so this donation will be refunded on the donor's profile.

MISTAKE: Donors donating using ACH can reply with this keyword within two hours of donating to cancel their donation. There will be no record of a canceled donation on the donor's profile.

STOP/START : The STOP reply immediately disables Text2Give for the donor. The START reply will lift any carrier blocks and allow the donor to use Text2Give in the future.

Danger

The STOP reply immediately disconnects the sender's phone number from Text2Give, and the sender will no longer receive texts until the START reply is sent. Many carriers require this opt-out functionality.

HELP: The sender receives a link to a help page with tips on how to use Text2Give.

Limitations and Troubleshooting

Text2Give works well in most situations, but some limitations and possible issues can arise with certain situations and carriers.

Limitations for Text2Give

  1. Recurring donations cannot be managed by Text2Give. They must be managed in the Church Center profile.

  2. A phone number can only be attached to one church at a time.

  3. A text donation cannot be more than $9,999. This helps avoid accidents, like adding an extra zero to the donation amount.

Troubleshooting

Larger carriers (like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) typically work fine with Text2Give. However, smaller carriers (PCS Metro, U.S Cellular, C Spire, Freedom Pop) have limited SMS functionality. If Text2Give doesn't work for your donors, encourage them to give through Church Center.

Carrier Preventing SMS Messages from Short Codes

If the donor tries to set up Text2Give and receives a "Service access denied" message, their carrier is likely blocking the message. The donor can ask their carrier to allow shortcode messaging.

Carrier Preventing SMS Messages Over 140 Characters

If the donor tries to set up Text2Give and the return message is incomplete, the donor will have issues with Text2Give because most of the messages (and the URLs in the messages) will be more than 140 characters.

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