Text (SMS) Messaging

If you wish to be able to send text messages (“SMS”) to people in your organization or enterprise, you can contact us at Better Impact and we’ll enable that feature for you:

• Australia and New Zealand: email Andy
• United Kingdom: email Kate
• Ireland: email Tony
• North America: email Tony

(Currently texting is only available in those regions.)

Once that has been done, you’ll be able to send text messages to volunteers that have set that up in their profile. You’ll also have the following options available to you:

• Communications Filters (i.e. search) will enable you to filter for volunteers with/without text messaging enabled
• Send a text message to one or more people
• View a history of text messages sent
• Configure which limited administrators can send text messages and/or view the text message history
• This will be an optional upgrade and fees based on usage will apply

[alert heading=”” type=”alert-info” block=”false” close=”false”]All text messages sent through Volunteer Impact are sent from shared numbers. To identify your organization, you must set up a “prefix” that is sent along with your text messages.[/alert]

To specify a name prefix for your text messages to identify the sender:

1. Go to: Configuration >> Organization Settings >> Contact Information
2. Scroll down to the “Other” section
3. In the “Text Message Prefix” field, enter a short prefix to identify to your volunteers who the message is coming from. The prefix needs to be at least 1 character in length.
4. Click the [Save] button

[alert heading=”IMPORTANT:” type=”alert-danger” block=”false” close=”false”]Only a volunteer can set or edit their text messaging settings. If they have enabled text messaging, you will be able to send them text messages.[/alert]

If a volunteer wants to let you send them text messages, here’s how they can configure it:

1. Log on to your volunteer profile in MyVolunteerPage.com.
2. Go to: MY PROFILE >> Contact Information.
3. In the “Contact Information” area, scroll to the “Text Messaging” section.
4. Check the box “I want to receive text messages on my cell phone.”.
5. In the “Cell Phone Number” field, select the country from the drop list and enter your mobile telephone number. (The country will typically auto select based on the number you enter.)
6. Click the [Save] button.

[alert heading=”TIP:” type=”alert-info” block=”false” close=”false”]If you want to know whether or not a volunteer has enabled text messaging, you can select the “TextMessagingEnabled” column in the Personal Profile Export.[/alert]

1. Start to type the volunteer’s name in the Quick Search bar on the right near the top of page.
2. Click on the volunteer from the list that appears.
3. Click on the “Communications” tab
4. Click on the “Send Text Message” tab
5. Compose the message:
   • Enter the text of the message.
     • There is a maximum 157 characters permitted in a text message and a prefix of at least 1 character in length must be defined (Configuration >> Organization Settings >> Contact Information). If your prefix is 5 characters in length, then the maximum length for your text message is 153 characters.
   • Optional: Check “Send me a copy of this message” to have a copy of the text message sent to the address associated with your profile.
   • Select the desired Modules associated with this message. Only administrators of the selected modules will be able to see this email in the history. For example: If you select only Volunteer, only administrators of the Volunteer module will be able to see this email. For more information on Modules, click here.
6. Click the [Send Text Message] button

1. Go to: Communicate >> Send Text Message
2. Search for the desired profiles to send your text message to (See: Search).
3. Compose the message:
   • Enter the text of the message.
     • There is a maximum 157 characters permitted in a text message and a prefix of at least 1 character in length must be defined (Configuration >> Organization Settings >> Contact Information). If your prefix is 5 characters in length, then the maximum length for your text message is 153 characters.
   • Optional: Check “Send me a copy of this message” to have a copy of the text message sent to the address associated with your profile.
   • Select the desired Modules associated with this message. Only administrators of the selected modules will be able to see this email in the history. For example: If you select only Volunteer, only administrators of the Volunteer module will be able to see this email. For more information on Modules, click here.
4. Click the [Send Text Message] button. (If the text message is going to more than one person, a confirmation dialog will appear asking you to acknowledge that you are sure you want to send the text message.)

To view text messages sent to one volunteer:

1. Start to type the volunteer’s name in the Quick Search bar on the right near the top of page.
2. Click on the volunteer from the list that appears.
3. Click on the “Communications” tab and then the Text Message History sub-tab (just under the main tabs).

To view all text messages sent:

1. Go to: Communicate >> Text Message History
2. If desired, select/enter filters and click the green [Filter] button
3. Run your mouse over the option icon to the left of the date the text message was sent and click “View” to see the contents of the message and who was on the recipient list.

When viewing the details of a text message that has been sent, you can see:

• Sender – name of the sender (lastname, firstname)
• Date Created – date the text message was sent
• CC Me – whether or not the sender requested a copy of the text message via email
• Message – text that was sent
• Recipients – number of recipients and their names
• Modules – module(s) associated with the text message (Administrator, Volunteer)

If you have created Limited Admin Roles, you can restrict which text messaging options are available to those administrators. When you go to Configuration >> Limited Admin Roles, the following permissions are listed in the “Communications” section:

• Send Emails and Mobile Emails to Users
• Send Text Messages to Users
• View Email History
• View Text Message History

Please note that you will need to agree to terms of usage that include the points below as a part of your confirmation to have the texting option turned on in your account:

• Volunteers must opt in to receive text messages. They can do so in the application and in their profile. They can also opt out at any time. An administrator cannot change this setting in a volunteer profile. (This is a legislated requirement in some regions and telecom company restrictions in others.)
• This is one-way texting only. Volunteers cannot text you back. In the cases where they try, the system must send them a message stating the text cannot go through and this will count as a text message sent by you. (Better Impact has no control over this and recommends that before you start sending texts you let your volunteers know that they should not reply .)
• You are not allowed to send messages that are unrelated to your management of volunteers within your organization.