No. Only use text giving for donations that are completely optional. Don't use it to take payments for goods, services, competition entries, or entry to virtual or physical events.
Why
If a supporter gets something in return, it's a payment, not a donation. This affects things like whether Gift Aid can be claimed. HMRC's guidance says:
"3.4.5 Payments to a charity in return for services, rights or goods are not gifts to charity and so are not eligible for the Gift Aid Scheme. For example, the following cannot come within the Gift Aid Scheme:
- payment of school fees for a specific person
- payment to purchase books, jumble sale items, food
- payment for admission to events (jumble sales, concerts)
- payment for raffle or lottery tickets (including 100 clubs) - the payment to purchase a raffle ticket from a charity is not a gift but a payment for the right to enter the raffle - it does not matter that the chance or expectation of winning a prize is small or that the prize is of little value"
Read the full HMRC guidance on Gift Aid.
Taking compulsory payments by text giving also breaks our agreement with the UK mobile networks, which lets us offer the service for donations only.
Running a raffle?
Use text raffles instead. See how to create and run a text raffle.