How to get your Text-to-Church number set up and activated

Step 1: Subscribe to Churchteams

You must be subscribed to Churchteams in order to get a Text-to-Church number, as there are fees that we incur with setting up a phone number and getting its campaign approved, so we reserve this right for our clients. In other words, we do not allow a phone number to be set up during a free trial due to these costs.

Step 2: Click “Find a Phone Number”

In the bottom middle of your Homescreen Dashboard, select “Find a Phone Number.” You can also access this page by going to the Navigation Menu on the left side and clicking Communicate > Text > Text-to-Church Info.

Step 3: Select a Phone Number

You can either:

Use your church office phone number if this number still has a texting line available that is not currently in use. Don’t worry, the calling function will still work as normal.
Search for a phone number. You are able to select the area code that you are looking for, and you will be given some different texting number options to select from.

Step 4: Sign and submit a Letter of Authorization (LOA)

After you have selected a phone number on that “Find a Phone Number” page, you will be able to click to download a Letter of Authorization, which you will need to print off, sign, and upload a PDF back into Churchteams.

The Letter of Authorization simply states that the Church/Organization is the phone number’s owner and is granting Churchteams and our Telecom Provider the right to take over the texting line of this phone number.

Step 5: Add a Privacy Policy to your website or main online presence (ex: Facebook page).

Website Instructions:

To add a Privacy Policy to your website, you will need to create a new page (ex: https://www.yourchurchdomain.com/privacy-policy) with the required wording below. This exact wording is needed in order for the campaign to be approved:

[INSERT CHURCH NAME] values you and we want to protect the information you give us, which allows us to communicate with you. To that end, we do not share data (including mobile opt-in data) with third parties for marketing or promotion purposes.

You can add any additional wording if you'd like, but these are the two required sentences. Once this page is created, you will need to have this linked in either the header or footer of the homepage of your website. In other words, when someone goes to your website, they will need to be able to click “Privacy Policy” somewhere in your header or footer menu to get to the newly created Privacy Policy page.

Facebook Instructions:

You will need to be the administrator of your Facebook group to access this, but the steps are as follows:

Go to your About Section.
Under the “Privacy and legal info” area, locate the field titled “Impressum.” Copy and paste the two required sentences for your Privacy Policy statement, which are:
[INSERT CHURCH NAME] values you and we want to protect the information you give us, which allows us to communicate with you. To that end, we do not share data (including mobile opt-in data) with third parties for marketing or promotion purposes.
Save this update.
On your Facebook page, click the “Privacy and legal info” section and copy this URL.

Step 6: Copy and paste your Privacy Policy page URL into the pop-up that appears when you log into Churchteams.

This pop-up screen for you to paste your Privacy Policy page URL will appear after your Letter of Authorization (LOA) is signed and reuploaded (step #4). By pasting your Privacy Policy page in the line provided and clicking “Save,” you are submitting your texting campaign to be reviewed by mobile carriers for approval.

Step 7: Wait for your Activation Email from Churchteams.

After you have submitted your privacy policy page URL, the actions needed from you are done unless we hear back from our telephone provider that something needs to be updated, and we will reach out to you directly. Otherwise, we will email you after your campaign has been approved and activated.

Step 8: Give it a try!

After you have received your activation email from us, feel free to try some different keywords (ex: ME) to see how it all works.