Affordable entry point for small nonprofits
July 31, 2023
Affordable entry point for small nonprofits

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Programmable SMS
Overall Satisfaction with Twilio
During the pandemic, we needed to engage the many new hikers and other outdoor recreation folks coming to our parks. However, we had limited staff, budget, and capacity (it was 2020 after all). We found Twillio and with its grants program, got up and running in a couple of weeks with a text auto-responder to provide customer service and fundraising follow-up to a wider audience. Since then we have expanded our auto-responder to encompass many "questions" our visitors have in the field, allowing us to provide prompt maps, resources, and other problem-solving tools (paper free too!)
Pros
- Customizable, infinitely so
- Grants program allows nonprofits to try it out
- Reliable, wherever an sms or mms goes, so does twillio
- Communication about regulatory changes
- Customer support, even when it's user error, team is supportive and encouraging
Cons
- complex - user interface is good but you need significant programming logic and testing
- alerts from errors - while we get alerts, we could use more descriptive/helpful alerts
- New donors - Twilio is consistently our 4th or 5th most successful donor acquisition tool
- ROI - Whether you count the actual cash or with the startup grant, we've net somewhere between 27-700 times what we put in.
- Engagement - we can more easily track and respond to questions visitors have in the field, and folks appreciate the prompt help
We use 1 channel, and while we have explored more, don't have the manpower to invest at the moment.
While using the same basic setup, we have programmed different paths through our auto-responder to accommodate new programs and respond to varying visitor needs. Once you get a basic flow going, it's very simple to duplicate the patterns and implement new uses. After setup, the tending is also very simple, allowing more users to monitor and upkeep the system day-to-day.
We evaluated many fundraising-based text-to-give programs and found the subscriptions prohibitively expensive for our small scale and uncertain first few years of development. While we may be willing to invest that kind of money after discovering how things work, we're happy with Twilio now and have no desire to start over.
Do you think Twilio delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Twilio's feature set?
Yes
Did Twilio live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Twilio go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Twilio again?
Yes
Comments
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