Send SMS to your Elvanto people
Connect your Elvanto account with an API key, pick a group, and text the people in it. 3¢ per SMS, hosted in Sydney, no contracts.
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Why add SMS to your Elvanto strategy?
Elvanto is the church management platform used by thousands of Australian and New Zealand churches to run people, groups, rosters, services and giving. It's brilliant for organising your church — but when you actually need to reach people, email gets ignored. SMS gets a 98% open rate, usually within minutes, which is exactly what you need for a cancelled service, a roster swap, a prayer request or a reminder the night before an event. Texto plugs straight into Elvanto with a read-only API key. There's no syncing, no duplicate database, no risk of stale data — every time you open the recipient picker on the Texto send screen, we pull a fresh copy of your people and groups directly from Elvanto. You pick who you want to text, write your message (with merge fields like first name and any custom Elvanto field you've set up), and send. At 3¢ per SMS with no monthly fees, a typical church spends less on a whole month of texts than one Sunday's coffee budget. All messages are processed in AWS Sydney and kept for 90 days only — no offshore routing, no data leaving Australia.
What can you do with Elvanto + Texto?
Real use cases for sending SMS from Elvanto.
Service & event reminders
Text everyone scheduled for Sunday, or the people booked into a midweek event, the night before. Fewer no-shows, fuller rooms.
Automated roster reminders
Switch on the Shift Reminder automation and Texto pulls your Elvanto roster and texts each rostered volunteer a set number of days before their service — set it once and forget it. Replies come back if someone needs to swap.
Prayer chain & pastoral care
Send urgent prayer requests or pastoral updates to a small care group instantly. People actually read texts — emails sit unopened for days.
Group-specific announcements
Youth night moved? Small group cancelled? Working bee on Saturday? Text just that Elvanto group — no spam to the whole church.
How to connect Elvanto to Texto
Follow these steps to start sending SMS from Elvanto.
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In Elvanto, go to Settings → Account Settings → Integrations → API Keys → Add API Key. Tick read access for People, Groups, Services and Custom Fields (if Elvanto only offers Manage for an area, that's fine — Manage is a superset of read), then copy the key.
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In Texto, open Integrations, click Connect on the Elvanto tile, paste your API key and save. Texto validates the key and pulls in your custom field list.
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On the Send screen, click Import contacts → Elvanto. Pick All people or any group — Texto shows a clear count, e.g. '1,248 in Elvanto → 912 with a mobile number will be added'.
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Write your message. Elvanto custom fields appear in the merge-field dropdown alongside {first_name}, {preferred_name} and {email}. Hit send.
Elvanto automations via Texto
After connecting Elvanto, head to Automations in Texto (you'll see Automations on the left menu). You'll unlock the following automation under the Elvanto section.
Shift Reminder
Texto looks at your Elvanto volunteer rosters every day and automatically texts volunteers a set number of days before their scheduled service. For example, you can configure it to automatically send an SMS reminder 3 days prior to a service to all volunteers rostered for that week.
To set it up
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Open Automations
In Texto, head to the Automations section from the left menu.
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Enable Shift Reminder
Under the Elvanto section, switch on the Shift Reminder automation.
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Pick your sending number
Choose which sending number to use — you can select your Sender ID if you have one set up.
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Choose a send time
Select what time of day the reminder is sent (in your local timezone).
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Set the lead time
Set how many days before the service the reminder should go out. You can pick multiple (e.g. 3 days and 7 days before).
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Customise the message
Use the default or write your own. Merge fields like {first_name}, {service_name}, {service_date}, {service_time}, {position} and {department} are available.
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Limit by Service Type (optional)
If you only want to remind volunteers for certain service types, restrict it by selecting Service Types.
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Filter by Volunteer Status
Decide who receives the reminder based on their roster status — e.g. confirmed only, confirmed + unconfirmed, or anyone who hasn't declined.
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Preview recipients
Before turning it on, preview exactly which volunteers would be texted and when, based on your current Elvanto rosters.
Runs on schedule against live Elvanto data — no CSVs, no manual sends. Volunteers without a mobile number are skipped automatically.
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Join thousands of Australian businesses sending SMS for 3¢. No contracts, no monthly fees.
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