BOULDER, Colo., August 15, 2023 – Gloo, the leading technology platform dedicated to connecting the faith ecosystem and releasing its collective might, announced that it is offering free texting to churches and faith-based organizations. Ministry leaders can sign up on Gloo to begin communicating with their congregations and communities.

“The Church should have all the capabilities that Fortune 500 companies have at their fingertips to communicate and engage with their people,” said Scott Beck, CEO of Gloo. “When tens of thousands of churches leverage a common platform, texting costs go down, and some donors even step in to help cover the costs. That’s collective might at work.”  

Texting is one of the most prevalent forms of communication today. Texting is not only widespread, but it is one of the most effective forms of at-scale communication. According to Gartner, text messages have a 98% open rate and 45% response rate, compared to emails, which have only a 20% open rate and a 6% response rate.

“In today’s digital-first world, ministry leaders need easy ways to meet people where they are,” said Dillon Wilson, director of the Gloo Communications Platform. “Our goal at Gloo is to support the growth that happens in the context of relationships. Communication is the foundation of that, and texting makes that easier.” 

In addition to texting capabilities, the Gloo Communications Platform equips ministries with ready-made workflows like series templates that can be used to follow up with new visitors, ready-made responses to phrases like “prayer request” and “new here,” and broadcast presets that help pastors stay engaged with members throughout the week. The growing platform environment of more than 40,000 churches has attracted a variety of partnering organizations looking to serve churches with their content and expertise, including Cru, American Bible Society, The Chosen, Outreach Magazine, and He Gets Us, to name a few. 

In serving tens of thousands of churches and processing more than 16 million text messages, Gloo has observed that ministries using free texting see increased participation in prayer, deeper engagement with members throughout the week, and more reliable follow-up with first-time visitors.

“Having texting at no cost is a huge benefit to us,” said Dillon Kimmel, pastor of Salt Community Church in Maiden, North Carolina, who is an enthusiastic early adopter of the Gloo free text messaging platform. “It almost pays us because we have an opportunity to save money we would normally be spending on texting. Not everybody checks their email—it gets pushed into the junk folder or shoved to the side. But everybody has the time to quickly check their phone. This level of engagement really helps us reach and connect with our people.”

Ministry leaders can sign up for free texting on Gloo at https://app.gloo.us/engage/overview.

Originally published on Religion News August 15, 2023