CHALLENGE

Reliable infrastructure for organizations with mission-critical messaging 

Powered by Text serves organizations like nonprofits, ministries, and foundations whose work depends on reaching donors, volunteers, and the communities they serve. This specific sector is roughly a decade behind the commercial world in messaging maturity:

• Most clients are still working through basic SMS adoption 
• Many still rely heavily on direct mail 
• Technical resources are limited and staff are stretched 

That gap creates specific demands on the Powered by Text platform. Their clients depend on reliable, multi-channel delivery to retain and grow their donor base, and for support in emergency situations. The stakes of getting it wrong are high. As nonprofit organizations increasingly adopt messaging for critical use cases, a failed message could results in a missed donation, an absent volunteer, or a person in a crisis situation who doesn’t receive the help being offered. 

As these organizations move to adopt more channels, differing compliance requirements add another layer of complexity. Messaging regulations in the US tightened significantly in 2012, with strict requirements around opt-in consent, message categorization, and carrier registration. 

Powered by Text has built consent management into the core of its platform from day one. But as these organizations scale and grow, maintaining that standard across an evolving client base requires a trusted partner equally committed to compliance; one that can handle carrier requirements across channels, regions, and use cases. 

From SMS adoption to a full multi-channel messaging stack

Powered by Text began working with Infobip after they acquired their old messaging partner. The transition turned into an upgrade for the platform thanks to Infobip’s global infrastructure, best practices from markets outside North America, and a roadmap that provided Powered by Text with the right knowledge to expand beyond domestic SMS.

The two teams have synced technologies working in parallel, with equal responsibility on both sides. The team works with Infobip experts in messaging and compliance, enabling the open and transparent dialogue that compliance edge cases require. 

SMS and MMS on short codes 

The foundation of Powered by Text’s platform is short code messaging because of the reliability and throughput that are non-negotiable for mission-critical campaigns.  As MMS adoption has grown, Powered by Text offers video compression directly into its platform, allowing organizations to send short video clips without managing file size manually.  

WhatsApp for global reach 

For clients serving audiences outside North America, Powered by Text has rolled out messaging via WhatsApp Business Platform through Infobip. Where SMS and MMS remain the standard for domestic outreach, WhatsApp opens richer engagement for international donors and communities and gives content-heavy faith-based organizations a channel better suited to the video series and multimedia content their audiences want. 

Built for speed to market 

Powered by Text’s platform is built on microservices architecture, designed to integrate external capabilities rather than rebuild them. For Infobip’s channel and infrastructure APIs, that means moving quickly as messaging evolves.

 A reliable infrastructure for 98% successful delivery rates even on peak volume days

Delivery rate is the KPI Powered by Text tracks above all others, with a firm target of 98% or above and under 1% opt out rate. That standard holds even on the highest-volume days on the nonprofit calendar. 

Giving Tuesday, the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the most critical fundraising day for many organizations, drives message volume approximately 20x higher than a typical Tuesday. Combined with year-end giving campaigns, it represents a compressed window where delivery reliability directly shapes donation outcomes.  

Organizations that follow the Powered by Text playbook for those periods, building momentum with impact content in the weeks before, then extending a clear call to give, have seen what Cantrell describes as “an overwhelming explosion of participation”.

2x click-through rates with MMS 

When organizations run side-by-side tests (sending 20% of a campaign as MMS with an embedded video and 80% as standard SMS), the MMS segment consistently delivers at least double the click-through rate. The pattern is predictable enough that few clients need more than one test cycle to change their strategy. The message mix across Powered by Text’s platform now sits at nearly 50/50 SMS to MMS, up from predominantly SMS just a few years ago. That shift is supported by Infobip’s infrastructure, which handles MMS delivery, carrier compliance, and throughput at scale, so organizations can expand into richer messaging without adding operational complexity. 

What comes next 

The next phase of Powered by Text’s channel strategy includes RCS, which Cantrell sees as the natural evolution for clients ready to move beyond SMS and MMS. Because most nonprofit organizations won’t be able to design RCS journeys independently, Powered by Text plans to offer a full design studio as part of its service model, extending the consultative approach that already defines how it brings clients onto new channels. 

Being a leader in RCS, Infobip is well equipped to support this expansion. With strong and wide carrier connections, reliable best practices, and a team of experts ready to support Powered by Text, the partnership will offer richer and more reliable messaging to NGOs and charities across the nation. 

AI-assisted two-way conversations are also in development. The aim is to help organizations detect sentiment and route the user to the appropriate content. This is especially helpful for organizations that deal with high-volume messaging and audiences that are looking for more meaningful interactions.