Whether you are purchasing groceries or giving to your church at a kiosk, swiping your credit card at a point of sale system is something that everyone is very familiar with.
In fact, POS systems have been in existence since the late 19th century and have rapidly advanced technologically in the past 40 years.
Text to give is a more recent innovation pursued by Anedot and other financial technology companies.
Text to give allows you to set a specific keyword to a specific phone number and receive an immediate text back with a link to complete an action.
For example, someone could text "Anedot" to 800-500-5858. If Anedot was a keyword tied to a giving page, then that individual would receive an automated text back with the giving page. Our text to give product called SMS Actions is free to use.
Text to give has many advantages over a POS system for churches, nonprofits, and political campaigns and COVID-19 only added to the list.
In this blog post, we will look at the weaknesses of POS systems and why text to give is the future of in-person giving for not-for-profit organizations.
Text to give is cleaner
The most obvious reason why a text to give system is preferred over a POS system is for sanitary reasons.
Kiosks and similar systems encourage individuals to congregate in a single area and touch a device multiple times. It has a high likelihood of spreading germs.
A text to give system avoids that issue because people are utilizing their own cell phones.
This will help you comply with any social distancing rules and make many donors feel more comfortable with the giving process.
Text to give is easier and faster
What's easier than someone swiping their credit card? If they already have their credit card information on file.
Systems like Anedot work directly with PayPal, Apple Pay, and more to utilize pre-saved credit card information for contributions.
Other payment methods like bank drafts do not work with most POS systems. By only having a credit card swiper, you are limiting the options of your supporters.
Further, if someone has given with their credit card before on a different system, it will most likely have their credit card saved as well. It is far quicker for someone to be able to reference a saved card.
Many times even if you swipe a card, you will still need to collect their email, name, and address.
POS systems increase wait time for entry lines at events
Credit card scanners are often used to scan cards for events, but there are a limited number of these devices.
Along with the issues about sanitation and ease of use, you are encouraging a line at the door if there are only 1-2 credit card scanners.
Instead, you could have a volunteer at the door giving someone the text to give information so that way they just show their receipt at the door to confirm they have paid for the event.
Text to give helps you collect legally required information
Many political campaigns are required to collect employer and occupation for any contribution.
→ Learn how to use texting to improve direct mail fundraising
Other organizations are required to have specific language for communications consent. A POS system does not allow you to collect any of that information easily.
What's the point of scanning your credit card if someone needs to manually key in a lot of other information?
Text to give makes it easy to collect all of this information as it's all on a single form with the payment information.
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