What is a basic mass text alert system for a small nonprofit to use?

May 31, 2019 1:57 PM

I am part of a 501 c4 non-profit that is interested in a mass text alert system to notify our supporters about occasional critical news. Below are the criteria that we care about. What should we use?

1) We have a small budget, and cost is a factor.
2) We expect around 200-300 people will sign up for our alerts.
3) This only needs to be one way. We don't need people to be able to respond to us.
4) Messages will be short, and don't need to include pictures or videos. Sample messages might include "Our meeting tonight was canceled because the building is unexpectedly closed." or "Because of weather, we are moving our event at 5pm from Central Park to the Oculus."
5) We would prefer a solution that allows multiple people to be able to use it to send texts, and doesn't require extensive tech knowledge for us to implement.
6) We want it to be easy for our supporters to be able to subscribe and unsubscribe. Some of our supporter base are in their sixties and seventies and not technological advanced.

What would you recommend that best suits our needs?

posted by andoatnp to Technology (7 answers total)

Remind is built for teachers but anyone can use it. The “class size” is capped at 150; when I have worked with parent groups larger than this I just made two classes. Classes can have multiple “owners.” It is free, so definitely worth playing with. Participation can be set to two-way or own-way. People can download the app to use it, or just get texts, or choose to get emails instead. When you create a class, you get very specific, printable, clear PDFs that show even the least-savvy users how to sign up.
posted by charmedimsure at 2:44 PM on May 31, 2019

I don't want to derail, but just in case this isn't on your radar make sure that your organization is familiar with the laws in this area before implementing this. The TCPA is a place to start but there could be others depending on where you're located. This isn't my area of law but I vaguely recall that you may need to allow opt out via response to the text, so something to look into. You may be exempt from parts (or maybe all?) of the law as a non-profit, but IIRC the penalties are steep for non-compliance so it's not something you want to mess up. Good luck! (This isn't legal advice and I definitely don't practice in this area or purport to have any expertise in it.)
posted by wuzandfuzz at 3:14 PM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

If you know the recipient's carrier, you can send texts via email in the format [e-mail]. It's just like doing a mass email at that point. It's something you can ask for at signup.
posted by kevinbelt at 3:45 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

> It's just like doing a mass email at that point.

Which is also governed by various laws, and behoves the mass mailer to familiarize themselves with what's required and what's allowed.
posted by humboldt32 at 5:22 PM on May 31, 2019

Response by poster: We have the legal aspects covered. We are only interested in tech advice. Thanks!
posted by andoatnp at 7:04 PM on May 31, 2019

Twilio offers non-profit assistance and discounts through its Twilio.org Impact Access Program.
posted by migurski at 7:29 PM on May 31, 2019

I have used Text Magic for political campaigns and party fundraising and I am very happy with it.

IIRC, you load your account with a certain amount like $25, and then they charge you per text -- looks like their current rate is 4 cents/text. Then you just reload as necessary.

It has mail merge features so you can personalize the text messages.

To unsubscribe people just have to text back "STOP" and the service automatically unsubscribes them from future text alerts to that list.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:46 PM on May 31, 2019