The first principle of Neon One's Generosity Experience Design is to "focus on people, not their money." To focus on people, you have to meet them where they are and respect their engagement preferences. One of those preferences may be to receive communications via text message. Neon One's Text-to-Communicate option allows clients to leverage an additional communication channel to reach their supporters, members, volunteers, attendees, and more! Releasing June 29, 2024. 

Content

• Why would I use Text-to-Communicate
• Recommended Reading Before You Start
• Getting Text-to-Communicate Enabled for Your Organization
• Communicating using SMS/MMS
• Billing
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why would I use Text-to-Communicate?

In a world where 89% of Americans check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking and check them 144 times a day (reviews.org, 2023 article), text messaging is an important channel to reach your supporters. 

The Research 

• A 2024 M+R benchmarks study found that for every 1,000 email subscribers, nonprofits had 158 mobile messaging subscribers. 
• Text messages have a higher open rate, between 95% and 99%, according to Sender.net, ProTexting, and Tatango. 
• 90% of text messages are opened within 3 minutes according to Sender.net in 2023.
• According to NonProfit Source, “Millennials ... respond best to text messages and social media, but rarely check personal email or respond to voice calls.”
• Another M+R Benchmark study from 2022 indicated that adding text messaging to an existing email fundraising program can increase the amount of revenue raised per person by 30%.

How you might use texting?

A few examples of how you might leverage text to communicate at your nonprofit include:

• Share last-minute event changes with event attendees due to weather
• Share important safety information
• Reach out for time-sensitive fundraising campaigns
• Communicate with volunteers about their schedules
• Request donations from supporters  
• Provide links to relevant information on your website with subscribers
• Send a quick reminder about a meeting with a constituent

Recommended Reading Before You Start

• 2-Step Verification
• Data Privacy and Consent
• S.H.A.F.T and Prohibited SMS/MMS Content in the US and Canada 

Key Definitions

Here are some key definitions to help anchor us throughout the rest of the article:

• SMS - stands for Short Message Service and is commonly known as texting. It’s a way to send text-only messages.
• SMS Message Segment - a single SMS segment contains up to 160 characters.
• MMS - stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. Whenever you send a text with an attached file, like a picture, video, emoji, or a website link, you’re sending an MMS.
• MMS Message Segment - a single MMS segment contains up to 1,600 characters. The maximum file size for attachments is 525 KB (total for all files that can be included in a single message, with a maximum of 10 files).
• S.H.A.F.T - is an acronym that stands for Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco which outlines the categories of text messages specifically regulated due to moral and legal issues. Learn more here. 

Getting Text-to-Communicate Enabled for Your Organization

Sign-up

Before you gain access to the text-to-communicate options in Neon CRM, your organization must agree to the relevant terms and conditions. This can be done at any time in the product but it may have been completed during the initial sales process. Only users with the authority to make financial decisions for your organization are able to complete the initial contracting process. Once this is complete, the verification application will become available and you can select a toll-free phone number.  To use a step-by-step guide to help you during the application process click here!

Note: Texting capabilities with Neon One are only available for United States of America and Canada clients. 

Application and Onboarding

As telecommunications is a regulated space, there is an application process for your organization to obtain a toll-free number. During this process, you'll review and complete the key information required to apply, enable a few required settings, and set a monthly budget for your organization's texts. To use a step-by-step guide to help you during the application process click here!

After the application is complete, your request will go for verification. It normally takes 2-5 business days for this to be completed but can take up to 5 weeks to be completed by the third-party review board.  

You can see the status of your review on the Global Settings > Communication > Texting > Text Messaging page, but don't worry we'll notify you via email when the results are in! 

Gaining Consent

While you're waiting for the approval, now would be a great time to communicate with your constituency to get people to consent to receiving text messages. Before you send a communication via text message, you must have direct consent. Neon CRM will prevent you from sending text messages to those who have not affirmatively consented to receive text messages from your organization. 

To obtain consent,  you'll want to start collecting mobile phone numbers and text message opt-ins from your constituents. 

Opt-In

1. In your Neon CRM system, have an administrator navigate to Global Settings > Data Privacy & Consent (inside the Forms & Pages section, middle column).

2. Activate the SMS Consent option using the toggle button. And, optionally, edit the consent statement to personalize it.

3. Save changes at the bottom of the page.

With this change, you have now added a consent option to every Neon CRM online form, and constituents can begin to opt in by entering a mobile phone number when the consent field is checked. You may also find it helpful to create an Account Form (detailed guide here) to share with constituents who will not otherwise be filling out a form in the next several months.

When your phone number in verified and a constituent opts in to receive messages, Neon CRM will automatically trigger a confirmation message to the constituent. This is a recommended best practice by the text messaging industry. Your message should include a confirmation of enrollment and opt-out information. The default confirmation message sent by Neon CRM is "<<Your Organization's Name>>: Thanks for opting in! Message frequency varies. Reply STOP to end. Msg&Data Rates may apply." You can edit this message in Global Settings > Text Messaging.

Importing/updating historical opt-in data

If you are importing data into Neon CRM for the first time and you have active SMS/MMS message subscribers, you can maintain their opt-in status by importing mobile numbers to the SMS/MMS Phone Number field and Opt-in status to the SMS/MMS Consent field. Before starting your import, make sure to turn on the SMS/MMS Consent field in the Data Privacy & Consent Global Settings page. Active SMS/MMS message subscribers imported via the Import Manager will not receive an opt-in confirmation text message from Neon CRM, since their opt-in status has not changed with your organization.

Similarly, if you have existing accounts inside your Neon CRM and a record stored outside of Neon CRM or in a custom field that they have consented to receive SMS/MMS messages, you can use the Import Manager to update existing accounts. Again, active SMS/MMS message subscribers imported via the Import Manager will not receive an opt-in confirmation text message from Neon CRM, since their opt-in status has not changed with your organization.

For a detailed walkthrough showing how to import accounts with the Import Manager, review the guide for Importing Your Account Data without Account ID Column. For updating existing accounts to add SMS/MMS Consent and/or phone number, use the guide for Importing Your Account Data with an Account ID Column.

Communicating using SMS/MMS

You've made it! You're application and verification have been approved and now you're ready to send messages to your constituents! Remember not to send prohibited content such as federally illegal substances or S.H.A.F.T-based content. There are several options for you to leverage to communicate via text messaging (and more will be added in the future)! 

Campaign Texts

After setting up a Texting Audience, you can send a text as part of a campaign. You can do this through Texting > Text Campaigns. 

To see statistics about your Texting Campaigns, access Texting > Text Statistics.

To learn more about Campaign Texts, access this guide!

Individual Account Texts

You may find that you need to message a single constituent for any number of reasons. To do this, you can access the account and use the "..." next to a phone number in the contact section to send a text. You can see a history in the text pop-up but you can also review texting history in the Text Communication option on the side navigation.

It is important to note that consent for texting is required for each constituent. If you're not seeing the option to send a text and you have a mobile number, it may be that they haven't consented to receiving text messages from your organization. 

Viewing Sent and Received Texts

Your constituents can respond to your messages in 2-way communication! You can see a view of everything you've sent or received in the Texting > Text Messages page. 

From here, you can also resend individual messages that might have failed. 

Billing

You set your budget with the SMS/MMS Monthly Budget options. Those with the authority to make financial decisions in the organization can update the monthly budget to set a cap for texting expenses. 

Billing occurs monthly for Text-to-Communicate, regardless of the billing terms for other products. Neon One seeks to align the billing period for Text-to-Communicate with your Neon CRM subscription monthly billing date for ease. 

Clients can access the "Text Messaging" section in Global Settings (Global Settings > Communication > Texting > Text Messaging) to view totals for each billing period that will be included in the monthly billing cycle. Official billing and payment will occur in the Neon One Standard Billing process. 

FAQ

Does Neon One support text-to-give (through phone carriers) options? 

Not at this time. 

Does Neon One provide Short-code or Local 10DLC phone number options? 

Not at this time. 

What is meant by "authority to make financial decisions" for my organization? 

We realize that each nonprofit will be different in who can commit funds on behalf of the organization and sign contractual language. In order to support the different needs of our clients, we have created a new permission (Financial Authority) that will be used when in-product opportunities to enable a new service or product are available. This will limit who can commit your organization to new terms and billing requirements. 

By default, this permission was applied to Admin users in your Neon CRM system. Please ensure the right people are listed for your organization in alignment with the Terms of Service, section 4.11. To make changes to this manually, you can assign the "Financial Authority" permission to the user or user group in the User Management section. 

Why can I not buy a bundle of text messages? 

While purchasing a bundle of text messages is not available at this time, Neon One is always assessing the best approach to pricing its products and services. When asking clients in the lead-up to the launch of Text-to-Communicate it was 50/50 on the preference for bundles of texts v. transactional charges with a budgeted cap. Neon One is beginning with transactional pricing to better understand volume costs for our clients and will reassess the pricing approach each year to best align with client needs.

What happens when I'm getting close to my monthly budget for text messaging? 

Neon One will provide notification in the product and via email that you're getting close to (90%) your monthly budget limit. Users will also receive messages in the product if the budget limit would prevent all texts they are about to send from sending. Users with the authority to make financial decisions for the organization will be able to increase the budget from Global Settings > Communications > Texting > Text Messaging to ensure all messages are able to be sent.  

I plan on sending a lot of text messages. What do I need to do to ensure they are delivered? 

Neon One manages the rate of text messages across all clients. If you have a specific period that you will be sending a higher number of messages than usual, share that with the Neon One team to prevent slowdowns for all clients! 

The system is saying my text is "queued." What does that mean?

Text messages sent from Neon One may be queued to send along with other Neon One client text messages. The queue can last up to 4 hours. We do not anticipate that it will take 4 hours to send your SMS or MMS messages; however, based on the volume across our client base, it can take up to this log for messages to arrive. 

If you have an upcoming campaign or event that would benefit from identifying your messages as urgent, we can prioritize your messages in the queue for a time to ensure they are sent timely if sent at least one business day prior to the need. Submit a ticket to crmsupport@neonone.com. 

Are S.H.A.F.T restrictions a legal requirement?

S.H.A.F.T. is an acronym that stands for Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco. It outlines the categories of text messages specifically regulated due to moral and legal issues and is monitored and enforced by the CTIA and the mobile carriers.

Although not technically a law, the S.H.A.F.T. guidelines should be taken seriously by anyone using SMS to communicate with consumers to comply with the CTIA best practices and carriers’ requirements. Not aligning with these guidelines is a violation of our Terms of Service and clients who violate the guidelines will no longer be allowed to send text messages through Neon One. Learn more here. 

Can I start a group message with multiple constituents?

No, group messaging isn't supported for toll-free numbers.

Will my number use any automated actions, like if the constituent sends STOP or HELP?

Yes, three auto-responses are supported:

STOP will opt the constituent out of SMS/MMS Messages.

START or UNSTOP will opt the constituent in to receive SMS/MMS messages. Please note: If the constituent has previously sent a STOP message, the only way for them to opt back in is by sending a START or UNSTOP message. It is not possible to opt them back in as a user inside Neon CRM.

HELP will send a short response including the contact address or email for your organization and opt-out details. This message is not editable.

The Text Messages page shows a status for each message. What do each of the statuses mean?

Status for Messages Sent by You	Description
RECEIVED	Neon CRM has received your request to send a message. This is the initial status when sending a message to indicate the message has been accepted for sending.
QUEUED	Neon RM has successfully received the message and queued it prior to being sent.
SENDING	Neon CRM is in the process of sending your message to the downstream carrier.
SENT	Neon CRM has sent the message and the carrier has accepted the message.  This can be a final delivery status for messages when no delivery receipt was received from the carrier.
FAILED	The message could not be sent. The error code associated with this message will provide more information about the specific reason for this final failure delivery status.
DELIVERED	We have received a delivery receipt from the downstream carrier confirming successful delivery. This represents a final successful delivery status.
UNDELIVERED	The delivery receipt received from the carrier indicated the message was not deliverable. The error code associated with this message will provide more information about the specific reason for this final failure delivery status.

I want to include a hyperlink in my message and have a shorter link to reduce character usage. Is there any reason I shouldn't use another solution?

When you are drafting new text messages in Neon CRM, use the hyperlink tool to quickly add a link to a Neon CRM form, external URL, or file attachment. Neon CRM will automatically shorten your URL as it is added, to reduce the number of characters used by the link in your message. We recommend taking advantage of Neon CRM's URL shortening service, since it retains your organization's name in the URL. However, you are welcome to use other URL shortening services if preferred. If you use other services, there are a few things to be aware of:

1. Using an external URL shortening service will remove Neon CRM's ability to track clicks/taps on the links included in your text messages. This data will not be possible for your Neon CRM system to collect if the URL has been altered, so you will not see click-through data on the Text Statistics page.

2. Many well-known URL shortening services are disallowed by mobile carriers due to their common association with spam messages.

Commonly disallowed URLs shorteners include:

• bc.vc
• bit.ly
• budurl.com
• clicky.me
• goo.gl (Google Drive links are also disallowed)
• Is.gd
• Ic.chat
• s2r.co
• soo.gd
• tiny.cc
• tinyurl.com

Best practice to avoid spam reports and blocking is to use the URL provided by Neon CRM, but if you prefer another option we recommend using a branded shortened URL (for example, some major brands have done this - ESPN (es.pn), Nike (swoo.sh), and the New York Times (nyti.ms)) or a shortening service that will allow you to use your organization's domain name for the URLs (a .com, .org, or .gov URL).

How can I send foreign characters and emojis?

Emojis and foreign characters (i.e. Korean, Japanese, Arabic, or Cyrillic alphabet languages) are supported in text messages. However, due to the way that these characters are encoded to create the text message, they impact the number of characters that can be included in text message segment. If your message is encoded to be able to include an emoji or foreign character, the length of a SMS Message Segment is apx. 70 characters.

How can I send or receive media files?

Up to 10 media files can be included for each MMS message, with an overall file size limit of 525KB. This means that only very small video or audio files will be possible to send via text, but you can typically include one or more images. 

Supported file types are: .wav, .ac3, .amr, .png, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .mp4, .avi, and .txt.

What happens if I send a long message?

If you are drafting a message and exceed 1,000 characters of text, you will see a warning from Neon CRM that your message will be converted into an attachment. When you send a message with this status, a preview 160 characters of the message will be visible to the recipient, and the full message will be viewable via an attached .txt file. To avoid this formatting, we recommend reducing the size of your message or sending multiple messages. Although MMS can support up to 1,600 characters, many phone carriers will automatically convert text over 1,000 characters into an attachment. Neon CRM will make this change automatically for you in order to preserve formatting, rather than allowing this adjustment to be made by the receiving phone.