Receiving and Maintaining Consent - SMS

Updated 6 months ago by Charlotte Klein

It's important to maintain regular communication with your alumni, and sending texts through Gradforce can help you accomplish that. However, you must receive and maintain proper consent from your alumni when using Gradforce to send SMS messages. Consent is just one piece of texting requirements; please see this article for more compliance information.

We have partnered with Mogli to send and receive SMS messages through Gradforce.

When graduates give you their mobile numbers, whether it be through a contact form or through email, there is an understanding that you, on behalf of your Cristo Rey school, may reach out to them using that mobile number. As a best practice, we have established a process to confirm consent to being texted.

  1. Navigate to SMS Templates and create a Compliance template called "[School Name] Welcome Text". If you are not familiar with SMS Templates, see this article.
  2. Craft the message to include: who you are, which organization (school) you are representing, what the phone number will be used for, and how to opt out of receiving texts. We recommend a message like this:
Hi {{FirstName}} - this is the alumni team from Cristo Rey. We will use this # to send/receive texts. To stop receiving texts from us, reply STOP at any time.
The above sample message contains a merge field - see this article to understand how to use merge fields.
  1. Click Save.

Now that you have your welcome SMS template, you should use it when first making contact with students through Gradforce. See this article on how to send a message to a single contact and this article on how to send a message to many contacts.

We recommend maintaining consent by sending a text once a semester to all opted-in students that reminds them how they can opt out. Consider, at the end of a short bulk text, a line that reads:

Btw - don't forget you can opt out of messages by replying STOP at any time.

What happens when a student opts out?

If a student replies STOP, STOPALL, CANCEL, END, QUIT, or UNSUBSCRIBE, the opt-out box on their record page will automatically be marked. In addition, the carrier will flag the phone number as having opted out of texts from your school's number.

If a student verbally tells you they would like to opt out, or if they send you a message that does not match one of the above words but clearly indicates a desire to opt out, you can manually check the Mogli Opt Out box on their record page:

  1. Navigate to the student's Contact Information section and click the pencil icon next to the Mogli Opt Out field.
  1. Check the box under Mogli Opt Out.
  2. Click Save.

By opting out of texts, students will be automatically removed from all recipient lists for bulk texts. Additionally, you will not be able to send a 1:1 text from their record page.

How can a student opt back in after opting out?

To opt back into texting, a student must send an incoming text with either START or SUBSCRIBE.

Because the carrier also flags a number as "opted-out", simply unchecking the Mogli Opt Out box will not be enough to reopen texting with the student. They MUST text one of the two "opt-in" words to receive texts from you.

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