Getting a campaign approved can feel like a guessing game. It does not have to be. Nearly everything reviewers look for comes back to two simple rules.
Rule 1: Consent must be clear and never forced
Your supporters need to know exactly what they are signing up for. Agreeing to receive texts has to be a genuine choice, not a requirement to donate, register for an event, or sign up to volunteer.
In practice this means three things. Your opt-in has to be clear, so there is no doubt the supporter is agreeing to texts. It has to be explicit, so the supporter takes a real action to agree, like ticking a box themselves. And it has to be voluntary, so someone can still give, register, or volunteer even if they decline the texts.
A few common ways this rule gets broken: pre-checked opt-in boxes, opt-in bundled into a required step on your donation form, or a single checkbox that mixes fundraising and transactional consent together. Any of these can cause a rejection.
Rule 2: What your supporter sees is what the carrier needs to see
There should be no gap between the experience you give your supporters and the information you provide in your registration. Every checkbox, every terms and conditions link, and every sample message you plan to send has to be shared exactly as it appears in the real world.
The simplest way to think about it: no surprises. If a reviewer cannot see your opt-in process, they cannot approve it. So your job is to make the process visible and easy to verify, whether that is a live donation page, a screenshot, a photo of a pledge card, or a phone-bank script.
The payoff
If you are transparent with your supporters, you are already halfway to an approval. The next articles show you exactly how to prove that transparency for each way you collect consent.
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