Carrier registration for churches

A local number or a toll-free number

A church texts from one of two kinds of number, and each kind has its own registration. Twilio blocks texts from a local number that is not on an approved campaign, and since January 31, 2024 it has blocked texts from a toll-free number that is not verified.

The carriers call the local-number system A2P 10DLC. A2P stands for application to person, which is any text that software sends to a person, and 10DLC stands for ten-digit long code, the carriers' term for an ordinary local number.

A church in a hurry can file both. Toll-free verification usually finishes first, so the church texts from the toll-free number while its local campaign is in review, and it can give the toll-free number up later.

What to have ready

• The church's legal name and its EIN, the federal tax number, exactly as the IRS has them. Copy both from the IRS letter that assigned the EIN, letter for letter, because Twilio compares them with the IRS's records.
• The church's street address.
• A church website that opens without a login, with a privacy policy and texting terms on it. The reviewers open both pages, and the wording to copy covers both.
• An email address at the church's own domain, such as office@yourchurch.org. Twilio looks harder at a filing that uses a free address such as Gmail.
• One staff member to file it, with a job title, a mobile phone and a government photo ID. Twilio's profile form asks for a picture of the ID and a selfie.
• A card on the church's Twilio account, because Twilio does not let a free trial account register.
• The way people will join your list: a signup page, a word they text to your number, or a paper card.
• A sentence or two about what your church will text, and two to five sample texts.

Twilio checks the legal name and the EIN against the IRS's list of tax-exempt organizations, among other records. The IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search shows whether your church is on that list and the name the IRS holds for it, and the answer decides which campaign your church files below.

Local number: three filings

1. 1

   Customer profile

   In the Twilio Console, the website where a church manages its Twilio account, open Trust Hub and create a business profile. Enter the legal name, the EIN and the address, choose Non-profit Corporation as the business type and Not for profit as the industry, and add the staff member who is filing.

   Twilio says approval can take 72 hours or more, and the church can go on to the brand while it waits.

2. 2

   Brand

   The brand tells the carriers who is texting. A church that is a 501(c)(3) organization can register as a nonprofit, so choose Non-profit as the company type.

   For the brand type, Low Volume Standard costs $4.50 and carries up to 6,000 text segments a day, with no more than 2,000 of them to T-Mobile customers. Standard costs $46 and carries more, and Twilio's guide for nonprofits says a nonprofit should choose it so the carriers' nonprofit prices apply. Choose Standard if the IRS search lists your church, and Low Volume Standard if it does not.

   Twilio sends the brand to The Campaign Registry, the company the carriers use to check senders. It usually answers within minutes, and it takes seven business days or more when a person has to review the brand.

   A church that the check does not recognize as a nonprofit still gets its brand approved. If that church holds an IRS determination letter, it can send the letter to Twilio through the Console, and Twilio's guide lists a fee of $10 to $40 for that second review.

3. 3

   Campaign

   The campaign tells the carriers what your church texts and how people agreed to get it. The Console lists the campaign types your brand can use. A church that the check recognized as a 501(c)(3) sees Charity, which costs $3 a month and carries no AT&T or T-Mobile fee on each text. Any other church chooses Low Volume Mixed, which costs $1.50 a month and covers announcements, reminders and replies in one campaign.

   The form asks for a description of the texts, the way people opt in, sample texts, the replies to STOP and HELP, and links to your privacy policy and texting terms. The Console can buy your number during this step and put it in a Messaging Service, Twilio's name for the group of numbers a campaign covers.

   Twilio charges $15 to vet each campaign and keeps the fee if it turns the campaign down. It says campaign reviews take 10 to 15 days at present, and its guide allows two to three weeks.

Toll-free number: one filing

A toll-free number needs the customer profile from the first step above and then one more filing, called toll-free verification. Buy a toll-free number in the Console, open it and fill in the verification form, which asks for these things.

• The church's legal name, its EIN, which Twilio requires, its address, its website and a contact person.
• The use case, where Twilio's list has one for charities and nonprofits.
• A summary of the texts, and how many texts your church expects to send in a month.
• How people opt in, with a link to your signup page or a picture of your paper card.
• Sample texts, the text a person gets on joining, and the reply to HELP.
• Links to your privacy policy and your texting terms, which Twilio has required on every new filing since September 15, 2026.

Twilio verifies a toll-free number for free and says to allow about 3 to 5 business days. If it turns a request down, the church has seven days to fix the request and send it again for a faster review.

Wording to copy

Put your church's own details in place of the words in square brackets. The carriers look for the church's name in the signup wording and in each sample text, a signup box that starts empty, and texting consent kept apart from email consent.

On your signup page

Put these words beside an empty checkbox, on the page where a person types a mobile number, and let each person check the box.

On a paper card

Print a box for the person to check and a line for the mobile number.

For a word people text

The first text after someone joins

The replies to HELP and STOP

On a toll-free number the carrier sends its own reply to STOP, and a person texts START or UNSTOP to sign up again.

The campaign description

How people opt in

Sample texts

In your privacy policy

Twilio asks for both statements in the privacy policy of every sender, on a page titled Privacy policy that names your church and says what the church collects and how it uses it.

On your texting terms page

Twilio's campaign guide asks that a church's texting terms do each of these things.

• Name the program and describe it.
• Give the message frequency.
• Say that message and data rates may apply.
• Show the HELP and STOP instructions in bold.
• Give a support contact.
• Link the privacy policy.
• State that carriers are not liable for any delayed or undelivered messages.

The first part of our texting terms follows that list, and a church can use it as a model for its own page.

Reasons Twilio turns a filing down

Twilio gives a code with each rejection, and these codes from its list show what its reviewers check.

• The legal name, the EIN or the address differs from the IRS's records, and the brand fails.
• The website does not open, sits behind a login, or has no privacy policy or texting terms (codes 30891, 30908 and 30882).
• The signup box comes already checked, or a person has to agree to texts to use something else (30925 and 30923).
• Texting consent is bundled with email consent (30556).
• The only opt-in is a box that staff check for a person (30552).
• The signup wording leaves out how to stop (30547), or the reply to HELP leaves out the church's name and a phone number or email address (30890).
• The description leaves out who sends the texts, who gets them and why (30886), or the sample texts do not fit the kind of campaign (30893).
• A sample text uses a public link shortener (30892).

Twilio's reason comes with the rejection. Fix that part and submit the same filing again, and expect that Twilio may charge the $15 vetting fee a second time.

The wait

Free Church Texting opens on Tuesday, December 1, 2026. A church that wants to text from a local number that day should file its profile and brand in the first week of November, so the campaign has its three weeks. Sign up and we will help by email with any part of the filing.

Sources

Each page was read on October 13, 2026.

• Twilio Docs, “Programmable Messaging and A2P 10DLC”, for who has to register and the daily limits of each brand type.
• Twilio Docs, “Direct Standard and Low-Volume Standard Registration Guide”, for the three filings and their review times.
• Twilio Docs, “A2P 10DLC, Registration for Government and Nonprofit Agencies”, for the values a nonprofit enters.
• Twilio Help Center, “Nonprofit and Government Guide to A2P 10DLC Text Messaging”, and “Special Use Cases for A2P 10DLC”, for the brand type, the check against the IRS's list and the Charity campaign, which both say a church registered as a 501(c)(3) can use.
• Twilio Docs, “A2P 10DLC, Gather the Required Business Information”, for the line that the Charity campaign does not include religious organizations.
• Twilio Docs, “Profiles”, for what the business profile asks, and the “A2P 10DLC registration quickstart”, for the rule on trial accounts.
• Twilio Docs, “Error 30034”, for the block on unregistered local numbers.
• Twilio Help Center, “Toll-Free Verification Onboarding Guide”, “Toll-Free Message Verification for US/Canada” and “Best Practices for Using Toll-Free SMS and MMS in the US and Canada”, for toll-free verification.
• Twilio Docs, “Toll-free verification console onboarding guide”, for the profile a toll-free number needs and the seven days to resubmit.
• Twilio Help Center, “A2P 10DLC Campaign Onboarding Guide”, for what the privacy policy and the terms have to say.
• Twilio Help Center, “A2P 10DLC Campaign Registration Rejected”, for the rejection codes.
• Twilio Docs, “Advanced Opt-Out”, for STOP and START on a toll-free number.

This guide is information for churches and no substitute for a lawyer's advice, and we last updated it on October 13, 2026.