Phone and Text Banking

Watch and listen to a recording with slides, or read the full text below. NOTE: Some pieces of the video content may be outdated. Rely on the text below for the most up-to-date content.

One disadvantage to social media and email is that only a fraction of your audience might see your posts on their feeds or open your messages in their inboxes. Meanwhile, folks are generally more likely to answer their phones (or at least check their voicemail) and check their text messages – and potentially give to your campaign.

With that in mind, you can consider organizing one or more phone and/or text bank sessions, which could be virtual, with your staff and volunteers. Consider these steps:

1. Recruit volunteers for training and the actual phone banking, which you can combine into the same session or separate ones. Consider sending an email to your board of directors, other volunteers, and other supporters to invite them to take part. You can also make a social media post about it, and/or an event on Facebook.
   
   
2. Build outreach lists of phone numbers for volunteers to call and/or text. Start with previous donors, who are among the most likely to give again, and then prioritize your lists in order of likelihood of making a donation.
   
   
3. Host the training session where you share more about your organization’s work, express your gratitude, and explain how your volunteers can participate in the phone and/or text banking session. Provide them their own outreach list and script, such as the one in the template that follows. Be sure to make the session fun and engaging!
   
   
4. In the actual phone and/or text banking, volunteers can offer to text the link to your primary fundraising page after their call. This follow-up text serves as a reminder and makes it simple to complete the donation. Typing out the full link to your fundraising page is a lot more difficult!
   
   
5. Use the session as an opportunity to invite your staff and volunteers to call and text folks in their own networks as well. They can invite their networks to visit your primary fundraising page or their own peer-to-peer fundraiser. Certainly, calls and texts from friends are likely to be better received than those from unrecognized phone numbers. (Your volunteers should be prepared to respond to objections and leave voicemails!)
   
   
6. Thank your volunteers for participating and make sure they know how much you value them.