Mobile Giving, Fundraising, and Donations with SMS/Text Messaging

Sometimes it takes the worst to bring out the best.  The charitable response to Haiti relief efforts has shown the best of our generosity and our ability to come together for those in need.  The effort has been at all levels.  To those that gave $5 or $10 via your mobile phones, or via 800 numbers, or on websites, or even through the mail… thank you.  Not to be forgotten, kudos to the telecommunications companies that have expedited text donations passing through to the organizations on the ground, and even eliminated charges to subscribers and the nonprofits.

According to the article written by Alan Pascoe at Mobile Marketer:

The American Red Cross alone had collected more than $25 million through $10 text donations.

During National Football League games on Jan. 16-17, the Red Cross said text-message donations reached $500,000 an hour.

Also, the Mobile Giving Foundation processed up to 10,000 text messages per second at peak giving times in the earthquake’s aftermath.

So far, more than $35 million have been collected through SMS donations.

This is extraordinary, and we certainly agree with Alan when he says “Text donations here to stay.”

Mobile giving is here to stay for many reasons, including:

• Routine. Mobile giving has reached a level of maturity, and will become mainstream as more organizations begin to integrate the technology into their existing strategy.
• Speed. It takes only 30 seconds for a donor to give; impulse giving is less likely to fade out.
• Availability. Not everyone has access to the internet at any given time, whereas the cell phone has become a part of everyday life.  In fact, MTV has even seen that 88% of their watchers have a cell phone nearby vs only 40% having a laptop. http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/media/4805.html
• Simple. Most people are comfortable with text messaging.  Our country sends over 1 trillion text messages a year.
• Affordable. With Causecast’s pricing, organizations can break even with just over 1 donation a day.
• Sharable. Individuals can easily share a text-to-give keyword and shortcode. In fact, many donors received text messages from friends asking them to text HAITI to 90999.