R U Ready? Donating via Cell Phone Emerges

November 4th, 2005

The epic, heart-wrenching tragedy of the tsunami that struck eleven Asian countries last December has brought forth an equally epic response, as unprecedented levels of support continue to surprise relief agencies throughout the world. Individuals have been compelled to give, and have done so in a variety of ways, donating their money over the Internet, volunteering their time at non-profits inundated with an influx of checks, and hosting fundraisers at bars, restaurants, and clubs all over the country. Alongside these traditional methods of giving, a new means has emerged: donating through cell phones.

At least three U.S. phone companies, Verizon Wireless, All Tel, and Cingular Wireless, have offered their customers the ability to send text message donations to relief agencies assisting with the tsunami disaster. Whether this remains as a one-time opportunity or emerges as a new trend in fundraising remains to be seen.

Text messaging, sometimes known as SMS (for short messaging service), is a way of communicating short written messages over a wireless phone. According to Michael Pousti, CEO of SMS.ac, a mobile data communications company, approximately 14 billion text messages were sent domestically in 2003, and that number is expected to explode to 45 billion in 2005. This exponential growth (there were only 30,000 text messages sent domestically in June 2001), indicates that this is fast becoming one of the major communication tools in our culture.

And as with other major communication tools - letters, television, phone calls, and emails - text messaging has the potential to become a major tool for fundraising, even beyond the tsunami relief efforts.

In early January, Cingular Wireless sent a text to its subscribers, providing them the option of donating either $.99 or $1.99 to several different tsunami relief agencies by sending a simple message back. The charge will appear on their next phone bill, 100% of which will be donated to specific relief agencies.

Verizon Wireless and ALL TEL have implemented a similar program; through February 10th, customers with text messaging capability can send a message to 4CARE (42273) with the word “gift” in the message. They will receive a message asking them to confirm a donation of $5 to CARE, a leading organization assisting with tsunami relief efforts. To confirm the gift, they will reply with “yes” or “y.” This can be done up to five times, for a total possible contribution of $25 per customer to CARE.

According to Cingular Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel, donating through your cell phone “is a way to use a technology that’s really starting to take hold in the U.S. and really do good with it.”

The response to the tsunami tragedy could just be the beginning of a new type of fundraising; as online donating has now become commonplace, perhaps too will donating via text message.
A new nonprofit, the Wireless Giving Association, seeks to do just that. They have introduced Mobile Giving™, a new fundraising technique they hope will make it easy for individuals to donate to their favorite charities. They see Mobile Giving™ having the potential to be both event-driven (as in the tsunami-relief efforts) as well as Campaign-driven, allowing nonprofits to craft campaign messages for their constituents and update them on the progress at regular intervals. These opportunities would be opt-in, so that potential donors would not be turned off by unsolicited messages on their cell phones.
There is enormous potential for nonprofit organizations to partner with wireless phone companies as a means to provide another avenue for their constituents to give. In fact, given the huge popularity of text messaging with teenagers, it could become a way to involve younger generations in charitable giving.

It should be noted that it is too early to report how popular and effective donating through text messages has been - no numbers are available for how much money has been raised through the tsunami relief programs, nor how many people have participated, and there are currently no firm plans to expand this concept beyond the current humanitarian response. As Verizon Wireless’s Debi Lewis points out, “the technology is there. It remains to be seen how it will be applied going forward.”

The main drawback to text message donations is the relatively small increments currently available. Any meaningful fundraising effort would necessarily need to be large in scale, and people would have to get used to the concept of giving via their cell phones. However, the popularity of text messaging and the convenience of donating through this medium may create the right condition for this new trend to take off.

As Cingular’s Siegel points out, “text messaging is going to grow as a phenomenon exponentially as people realize how easy it is. Even people with gray hair like me are using it...it’s not just for the young, and it’s immensely useful in a variety of contexts.”

One of those contexts just may be fundraising.