How to choose a texting platform for university advancement: a buyer’s guide

Choose a texting platform for university advancement by testing six things with every vendor: whether it sends every kind of message you need, whether alumni can reply to a person, whether calls and texts share one number, how the pricing works at your volume, whether several schools and units can share one account, and how much texting expertise and human support you get.

Most advancement teams buy texting once and live with the choice for years. The person who signed the first contract has often moved on, and the next owner inherits a tool they did not pick. This guide is written for that next owner. It covers what to ask, how to compare quotes, and where Hustle is a strong fit for colleges and universities and where it is not.

A university should look for a platform that fits how its advancement office works today and how it will work in three years. Six areas decide that fit.

1. Message types. Can you send conversations, announcements, automated messages and programmatic messages from one platform?
2. Conversations. When alumni reply, can staff or students reply to them? Is that experience smooth?
3. Calling. Can the same team place calls and texts from the same number?
4. Pricing. Is the price tied to messages, contacts or seats, and what happens to unused volume?
5. Shared use. Can annual giving, alumni relations, athletics and individual schools work in one account?
6. Support. Who helps you navigate registration and compliance, and who helps when something goes wrong?

The sections below take each one in turn.

Most schools need both, and the platform should do both well. An announcement goes to a whole list at a set time, such as a giving day launch or a homecoming reminder. Hustle calls this Broadcast Texting. A conversation is a message from a named person who reads the reply and writes back. Hustle calls this P2P Texting, which is short for peer-to-peer.

Ask each vendor to show you what happens after an alum replies. Alumni expect a person. When you ask for a gift, some will ask about their giving history, a class total or a matching gift, and an automated reply probably can’t handle that. Ask where replies land, how several staff share them, and what happens to a reply when the person who sent the text is out of the office.

Ask about students too. If student workers will send texts, find out whether each student needs a paid seat.

They should, if your team still calls. Many schools have shrunk or ended their phonathon and now text first. Calls still matter for leadership prospects, recently lapsed donors and alumni whose numbers cannot receive texts.

Ask whether calls and texts come from the same number and sit in one conversation history. An alum who gets a text from one number and a call from another has no reason to connect the two, and a call from an unfamiliar number is easy to ignore. With the Hustle Dialer, calls and texts come from the same local number in an area code you choose, so the alum sees one number from your school and your team sees one conversation history. Our guide to what replaces the phonathon covers how a text-first shift works.

Vendors charge by message, by segment, by contact, by seat or in credits, and the quotes are hard to compare until you put them on one unit. Ask every vendor what one SMS segment costs and what one message with an image costs. If a quote is in credits, convert the credits to dollars.

Then check four things.

• Images cost more. A message with a photo or video is often priced higher than a standard text message. Test plain texts against texts with images before you buy a large image allowance. Some teams find that plain texts perform as well and cost less.
• Unused volume. Ask what happens to messages you bought and did not send. Schools often overestimate their first year.
• Replies and seats. Ask whether inbound replies are charged and whether each user costs extra.
• Add-ons. Ask what sits outside the message price, such as single sign-on and short codes.

Hustle offers flexible pay-as-you-go pricing, with a $250 annual platform fee plus $0.04 per SMS segment, $0.12 per MMS message and $0.08 per phone call. Annual plans lower your rate as your volume grows. Replies and inbound calls are free, and there are no per-user fees. The pricing page lists the add-ons.

They can on the right platform, and you should ask how. Central advancement teams often run dozens of campaigns a year for individual schools, units and athletics. A shared account saves money and keeps opt-outs consistent across the whole institution. It also creates two risks. One team can spend another team’s messages, and one team can text another team’s alumni.

Ask each vendor how units are separated, who can see which contacts, and whether an opt-out given to one unit applies to all of them. Ask if tools exist to manage the budget across departments.

Ask how the vendor keeps your messages from being blocked, and be clear about what stays your decision. Carriers require registration before a school can text from a local number, and they limit how fast messages can go out. A good vendor handles registration with you, respects each alum’s time zone and paces sends so carriers do not reject them.

Consent is different. Each school should come to its own determination about who is suitable to text, and your own counsel is the right person to advise you. Some vendors make these decisions for you, which can limit who you reach. Everything is easier with opt-ins, so ask each vendor how they help you grow a subscriber list. Hustle does this with Keywords, Automations and guidance on compliance when you add a mobile opt-in to the web forms you already use.

Hustle is a strong fit for advancement teams that want real conversations, calling and texting in one place, and human help. It is a weaker fit for teams that want one suite for everything. Here is the fuller picture.

Where Hustle is strong

Here is how Hustle answers each of the six areas.

1. Message types. Every kind of message can be sent from within Hustle. That covers conversations with P2P Texting, alerts with Broadcast Texting, automated replies and text message journeys with Automations, and programmatic messages through the public API.
2. Conversations. Hustle is built for people texting people, and a reply reaches a person. Team members can share one phone number and manage the replies together, so an alum’s answer does not wait on one person. Student texters and alumni volunteers can send messages as agents, with staff overseeing the conversations.
3. Calling. The Dialer and texting share a local number and a conversation history.
4. Pricing. You pay for what you send. There are no per-user fees, so every student and staff member can have a login, and replies are free.
5. Shared use. Schools, units and athletics can each work in their own part of one account under one plan. Balance caps let you manage the budget across departments.
6. Support. We have run texting programs since 2014 for thousands of organizations. That expertise shows up in carrier registration, compliance and the performance of your campaigns. Hustle sends each message within the hours you set, in the recipient’s own time zone, which matters because your alumni live across the country and some states set quiet hours for text messages. Our team can review your scripts before a big send like giving day. You get experienced human support and a free live training every week, and plans over $10,000 a year come with a Client Success Manager.

The tradeoffs to weigh

• You pay for what you send. A flat quote for unlimited messages can look cheaper if you text a small list very often. Usage pricing suits schools whose volume rises and falls with giving day and year end. Either way, forecast your year before you sign.
• The Dialer is not a legacy call center tool. The Hustle Dialer does not support every feature universities may be accustomed to from legacy calling tools, such as live listening, voicemail drops and storing credit card information. If your calling program depends on those, weigh that before you switch. In place of a voicemail drop, callers can follow an unanswered call with a text from the same number. Hustle does not store or process credit card information, so callers send the donor a giving link by text instead.
• Hustle is not your CRM or your email tool. It does texting, calling and video. Your giving pages, event registration and email stay where they are. Procurement can be a pain, so we understand that texting built into your CRM might be easier to buy, but customers often find those tools lacking because texting is an afterthought. If you only need one-way reminders, your CRM may be enough. As you grow into messaging more audiences and more often, you’ll want to evaluate dedicated texting platforms where team members can easily engage in conversation with alumni, calling is integrated with texting, and you have a team to help you get the most out of your texting program.
• Flexibility takes training. Hustle gives you several ways to send a message. New owners sometimes inherit an account that was set up years ago in a way that no longer fits. Use the weekly training and ask for a setup review when a new person takes over.

Ask every vendor the same questions and compare the answers side by side.

1. What happens when an alum replies, and who sees it?
2. Can students send texts, and does each one need a paid seat?
3. Can we call and text from the same number?
4. What does one SMS segment cost, and one message with an image?
5. What happens to messages we buy and do not use?
6. Are replies charged?
7. How do several schools and units share one account safely?
8. How do you handle carrier registration, time zones and sending speed?
9. Who supports us during giving day week, and how fast do they answer?
10. Will someone look at our campaigns and give us feedback before we send?
11. Can we start with one campaign before we sign an annual contract?
12. Which universities like ours use you, and can we read their stories?

On the last question, you can read how Chicago Booth, Tufts University, Colby-Sawyer College and Jacksonville University use Hustle.

What is the best texting platform for colleges and universities?

The best texting platform for a college or university is the one that fits how its advancement team works. Look for two-way conversations, calling from the same number, pricing that matches your volume and human support. Hustle is built for those needs and is used by advancement teams for giving days, annual giving and alumni events.

How much does a higher ed texting platform cost?

Cost depends on the pricing model and your volume. Hustle’s pay-as-you-go pricing is a $250 annual platform fee plus $0.04 per SMS segment, $0.12 per MMS message and $0.08 per phone call, and annual plans lower those rates as volume grows. Replies and inbound calls are free, and there are no per-user fees.

Should we use the texting built into our CRM or a dedicated platform?

If you only need one-way reminders, the texting built into your CRM may be enough, and it might be easier to buy. As you message more audiences more often, evaluate a dedicated texting platform where team members can easily hold conversations with alumni, calling is integrated with texting, and a team helps you get the most out of your program.

Can a university start small before signing an annual contract?

Yes. Hustle’s pay-as-you-go plan lets a team run one campaign, such as a giving day or a textathon, with no annual contract. The $250 platform fee renews each year until you cancel.

How long does it take to switch texting platforms?

Plan for carrier registration, list preparation and training before your first send. Ask each vendor for a timeline in writing, and start well before giving day so that registration is approved in time. At Hustle, we work with you on registration alongside your contracting process, because we understand that procurement should not hold up setting up your account. We do advise customers to leave two to four weeks for registration, especially if you’re new to texting, as websites often need to be updated with new language on forms and privacy policies.

Bring this list of questions to a call with us. We will answer each one for your school, show you the product with your use cases, and tell you plainly if another kind of tool would suit you better. Schedule a demo to start.

Jesse Hassinger

CEO, Hustle

Jesse leads Hustle, the conversational texting platform used by nonprofits, schools and campaigns.