Worried About New SMS Regulations?

Starting today, September 1, 2023, new federal regulations for mass text messaging will be effective and enforced. They state that campaigns related to fundraising must be registered and that new campaigns (or those not related to fundraising) must be registered before you begin sending text messages.

Background on the Regulations

We shared an overview of the regulations this past summer. They state that any organization engaged in A2P (Application to Person) messaging, including nonprofits, will need to register their campaigns.

Why? The regulations are intended to enhance message deliverability, improve the user experience, and cut down on spam texts.

While compliance isn’t optional, there are significant benefits:

• Your text campaigns will be recognized as legitimate and your deliverability will improve
• This same earned trust will let you bypass strict filtering algorithms
• Your donors will be getting messages they want to see
• Your nonprofit will be considered more credible
• Once you’ve registered your campaigns and phone numbers, you can scale up easily

I’m Panicked! What Does My Nonprofit Have to Do to Register?

If you’re a CharityEngine client, you don’t have to do a thing!

That’s right. We’ve registered all our clients for campaigns related to fundraising.

And this reminder might not be necessary, but we must offer two "to dos" for best practices and compliance!

When you launch your next text campaign, be sure to include:

• A clear disclosure that the contact is subscribing to text messages. This applies to forms where people are submitting their mobile numbers.
• Language about how users can opt out of text messages.

If you want step-by-step instructions on how to update your donation forms and automate emails to confirm text message opt-ins, take a look at this help center article.

What About Other Campaigns?

The bulk of our clients only launch SMS fundraising campaigns, so that’s what we’ve registered. If you have other campaigns, like a newsletter signup campaign, those will have to be registered as well.

If you are planning one of these outreach efforts, please submit it to us through a support ticket as soon as you can. We can register it for you, but it can be a lengthy process to get approval, so we’ll want to get started.

CharityEngine Gives You Peace of Mind

We say it all the time, but we’ll say it again. We partner with our clients and we always have your back. If you have any questions about these regulations, send us a support ticket, or just send an email. We’ll make sure you’re helped quickly and on your way, so you can get back to focusing on your mission.

If you are a CharityEngine customer who wants to talk about adding text messaging services, you can reach out to Alexis by email or success@charityengine.net.