Scholarship communication with applicants via text
Many students do not check their emails or voicemails on a regular basis. Some do not even set up their voicemail boxes. Texting is their primary mode of communication. Having the capability of texting messages to the applicant might speed up their response to our requests.
-
Carol Reynolds commented
Our feeling is that it is more than 500 and would be more if it were easier. The times you mentioned and also need some sort of information, such as a new address or a change of schools. We set up a Google account to get an "anonymous" phone number for sending and receiving texts. Then set up a rule to forward any incoming texts to our Education Officer's email.
-
Davette Swiney commented
I could see us sending in excess of 1,000 messages per year.
* 1-2 texts to students about opps they may be eligible for
* 1-2 texts to students reminding them of the deadline
* 1-2 texts to awarded students for follow-up information
* texts to reviewers@ 400+ applicants annually, and 200 awardees, we would probably approach 2,000 texts
Hope this helps!
-
Sally Weldon commented
"I would say we probably send anywhere between 1000-2000 messages to students. 2000 seems high but because we represent such a large service area, a lot of my messages are reminders of deadlines and to let students know they need to check their emails. "- Lezette Parks, Scholarship Officer CFWNC - uses Smarter Select to process Scholarship apps - because of the texting capability.
-
Stephanie Herman commented
Our volume would be much lower than 1,000 messages per year. We mainly need to be able to communicate with students for reminders for follow ups. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get students to respond to emails. I often find that they don't even open them. A text option would be so much easier!
-
Davette Swiney commented
We've texted our student for the past 3 years through a third-party integration our scholarship software developer found. It wasn't difficult or expensive to add it to our program. Even though we are switching to SLM this year, the absence of texting feels like we are going backwards and I am concerned about losing students.
We text students to: remind about deadlines, notify if we add a scholarship after they have submiited, reminders for follow-ups and to generally create interest.
-
Mary Kuykendall commented
Our website developer mentioned Twillio to me yesterday. He said it is free and very easy to use. Please look into whether it could be used for texting. Texting is often the only way I can get a response from some of the student applicants and award recipients. It is definitely their preferred method of communication. Emails go unanswered!
-
Vonda Carr commented
Sammie, my scholarship manager agrees with the items you outlined. She would like the option to do these from Foundant!
-
Celeste C commented
Sammie, I have recently started using "ClickSend" as a text service. I didn't have it before the last scholarship round, but I am hopeful to use it for reminding students of follow-up deadlines.
-
Anonymous commented
I agree, I use a whole separate platform and organization to send out texts to my scholarship students. It would be so nice if I can do it all from Foundant!