Overview on Your Engagement Phone Number

Overview

When engagement features are enabled for your study, we provision a unique phone number for your team's recruitment outreach. Every text and call you send from Foundation comes from that number.

Why the number is registered to your organization

The number is registered to you, the customer, under your legal business name. Phone carriers require proof that a real, identifiable business is behind any number placing calls or sending texts at recruitment volume.

That's why we ask for your EIN (Employer Identification Number) during setup. We submit your EIN and legal business name to the carriers to establish that your number is legitimate. Without that verification, carriers may filter or block your messages and calls before they ever reach a lead. 

💡 Note: Phone registration can take up to two weeks to be approved. Use your exact legal business name as it appears on your IRS documentation — not an abbreviation or a "doing business as" name. Mismatches are the most common cause of registration delays.

What your number is registered for

• Toll-free verification — clears your toll-free number with carriers to send text messages, protecting it from spam filtering.
• SHAKEN/STIR — digitally signs your outbound calls so carriers can confirm the calls really come from you and aren't spoofed.
• Voice Integrity — monitors your number's reputation so legitimate recruitment calls aren't wrongly flagged as spam.
• CNAM (Caller ID Name) — registers your business name in the caller ID name databases so it can display alongside your number on calls you place.

💡 Note: CNAM display isn't guaranteed on every call. Your business name is stored in caller ID databases, but the recipient's carrier decides whether to look it up. Some leads will see only your phone number.

Identify your institution in every message

Because CNAM won't always display, your first line of text is doing the work your caller ID can't. We recommend opening every outreach message with your institution's name:

Hello, this is ABC University reaching out about a research study you expressed interest in.

Keep the name consistent across texts, calls, and emails so leads see the same sender identity everywhere. You can build this into your saved templates — see Foundation Study Settings - Text Templates.

Getting started

Your number is provisioned as part of engagement feature activation. If your study doesn't have engagement features yet, start with How do I get engagement features enabled in my study?. Once your number is live, see How to Text a Lead and How to Call a Lead.