Qtego is celebrating its 15th Anniversary in 2024 by looking back. This story is part of a series highlighting pioneering Qtego innovations and how they have changed the event fundraising industry.
2009
TEXT COMMUNICATION
Helping organizations reach supporters long before texting was universal.
Today in 2024, most of us rely on text notifications from our doctors’ offices, financial institutions and favorite brands. However, in the not-too-distant past, businesses didn’t use text communication at all.
As an early adopter of SMS to facilitate bidding, Qtego was the first provider in our industry to recognize how powerful texting technology could be for fundraising professionals. That’s why we unveiled Text Communication in 2009.
Mackenzie Lenahan
VP of Customer Success
“Using text helped clients immediately reach a wider audience and ease communication with their supporters,” says Mackenzie Lenahan, Qtego’s Vice President of Customer Success. “It didn’t matter if guests were attending in person. Organizations could reach them anywhere. Qtego’s texting innovation has continued to evolve as clients have adopted new and more personalized ways to use it.”
To promote silent auction participation, hosts send out “hot item” or “no-bid item” alerts, announce when a live auction or fund-a-need is about to begin or notify guests (who might be preoccupied) that the silent auction is almost over.
If hosts need to reach guests with last-minute notifications related to unforeseen issues such as parking or weather, Text Communication is at their fingertips.
One of the most profitable and creative uses of this Qtego innovation that we have seen happened after our client’s event was over. The nonprofit sent a post-event thank-you message to supporters that included an audio recording of a young girl who had been directly impacted by the nonprofit’s good work. Another organization gamified a fundraising contest asking guests to vote for their favorite dog among a gaggle of precious pooches. Both were huge successes!
“With Text Communication, our clients do things like promote event registration weeks in advance and send welcome messages 30 minutes before an event begins to notify guests that they’re preregistered,” says Lenahan, who has been at Qtego since 2015.
She adds that most supporters aren’t glued to their phones or computers monitoring an auction, especially on weekdays. Qtego clients with weeklong silent auctions reach their busy audience members via Qtego Text Communication to consistently remind them that bidding is open.
When COVID-19 shut down live events, Qtego Text Communication became even more important. In response to the in-person hiatus, Qtego developed a way to use the chat feature so organizations could interact with guests via two-way communication. At every turn, Qtego has let customer needs and goals drive innovation.
What did fundraising professionals do before they could harness the power of SMS? Lenahan says they had to rely primarily on their event emcee, program handouts, or email blasts to share when important parts of the program would be happening. There is no doubt: Text Communication changed everything.
